ESL One Cologne 2020 Preview

The ESL One Cologne 2020: Europe will kick off on August 18th and continue till the 30th. The tournament brings back tier-one Counter-Strike with the best teams in the competition. ESL One Cologne is often referred to as the Cathedral of Counter-Strike, allowing teams to play top tier Counter-Strike in the tournament.

The ESL One Cologne 2020: Europe has sixteen teams competing for a $325,000 prize pool. The teams play in a double-elimination GSL Format group stage. The top four teams from each group advance to the playoffs where they play in a single-elimination knockout format.

Group A

Group A has tough competition with some of the best teams in the group. Let’s take a look at some of the best teams in this group and their journey to reach ESL One Cologne 2020.

BIG

Rank: 1st

Roster:

● Nils "k1to" Gruhne.

● Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz.

● Tizian "tiziaN" Feldbusch.

● İsmailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş.

● Florian "syrsoN" Rische.

BIG is the world’s best CS:GO team and has reached Cologne after multiple tournament victories against top tier teams. BIG’s performance relies on the individual performance of its players. TiziaN and tabseN have not disappointed fans. TabseN has a 1.18 rating which is an indication of the player’s skill ceiling.

BIG’s map pool allows it a huge advantage in the map veto as it can counter the opponent based on their strengths. However, BIG does have a few favorite maps that include Overpass, Nuke and Inferno.The team’s aggression on the CT side allows it to catch opponents off-guard. The team has a 100% win-rate on Overpass in the past few months as its quick rotations on the CT side allow its players to have the peekers advantage.

BIG is one of the favorites to win ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe. The team has the momentum coming into this match after a dominating victory at cs_summit 6.

Natus Vincere

Rank: 3rd

Roster:

● Egor "flamie" Vasilev.

● Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev.

● Denis "electronic" Sharipov.

● Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov.

● Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy.

Natus Vincere is the strongest CIS team in this tournament. The team includes two of the best CS:GO players in electronic and s1mple. The duo has helped Na’VI put up stellar performances over the past few months.

Na’Vi is one of the best teams on Overpass. The team’s strength on this map is partly due to the strategy-heavy gameplay by the players. They are able to have an excellent read on the enemy playstyle which comes from hours of homework studying their opponents.

Na’Vi’s play style has evolved drastically over the course of the past few years. While a few years ago, Na’VI would have been notorious for delayed pushes on to the bombsite, the current iteration of the squad has excellent synergy amongst its players. They are an aggressive bunch and s1mple is often at the top of the scoreboard. With a 1.27 rating on HLTV, s1mple has some of the best statistics in the game. Na’Vi also has a six-match win-streak and looks set to continue this performance into ESL One Cologne 2020.

Complexity

When Jason Lake announced that he will make a juggernaut CS:GO team, not many expected a bunch of relatively inexperienced players on the Complexity roster. When Complexity announced its Cs:go roster in October last year, the team did not look promising. Most of its players were relatively young players and lacked the experience or results of other popular names.

Over the past six months, Complexity has climbed nearly 70 ranks and continues to put forth strong results. The team has already upset some of the best CS:GO teams in North America and continues to put forth impressive statistics against European teams as well.

Complexity is very strong on Nuke and Vertigo. The team is always working on improving its strategy. In fact, despite being the ingame leader, blameF is responsible for most of Complexity’s frags. The youngster has been able to top the scoreboard regularly for Complexity. blameF spent a considerable time of the player break trying to improve the Complexity map pool. At present, Complexity has a decent map pool but falters when it comes to the map veto. The lack of a decent map pool is single-handedly responsible for obstructing the team’s rise to the top.

In an interview with HLTV, blameF said he studied nearly 39 maps during the player break. The time spent on this homework was often more than enough as blameF is often in the right position at the right time.

Group B

Group B includes two of the best teams in the world - Vitality and Astralis. While Vitality has a stable roster that has been working on improving its gameplay for quite some time, Astralis will debut its new CS:GO roster at ESL One Cologne.

Vitality

Rank: 3rd

Roster:

● Kévin "misutaaa" Rabier.

● Dan "apEX" Madesclaire.

● Cédric "RpK" Guipouy.

● Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut.

● Richard "shox" Papillon.

Zyw0o was the best player in 2019 and the youngster has continued to deliver top-notch results in 2020. Vitality’s playstyle allows Zyw0o the space to move throughout the map and choose his battles. This gives him the advantage in most of his encounters on the server. Coupled with the obviously excellent aim, Zyw0o is able to open up new win opportunities for Vitality.

Vitality reached the grand finals of the cs_summit 6 where the team lost to BIG. The Grand finals saw Vitality take an early lead, but the team was unable to secure the map and close out the series.

BesidesZywoo, Vitality also added misutaaa to the roster to further improve the team’s firepower. Misutaa is also another source of firepower for the squad. The youngster has stepped up with Zyw0o has an average game, and the duo has been able to help Vitality secure victories in unlikely situations.

Vitality has a 100% win-rate on Vertigo. This map allows its players to move around the map and the team has a heavy focus on the mid area of the map. After controlling the mid area, Vitaliy can often transition to backstab the opponents on the B bombsite. They can also separate their opponents on the two bomb sites, allowing them a huge advantage in the map.

Despite Zyw0o being the obvious focus of the team’s playstyle, Vitality still relies on its synergy and the strategic component of the team. The team has been working on improving its map pool for quite some time. Whether it has improved its map pool by ESL One Cologne or not is still up for debate.

Vitality has had deep runes in its last few tournaments and came very close to winning cs_sumit 6. The team has already qualified for the ESL One Rio Major in November. As one of the most consistent teams in the past few months, Vitality is one of the favorites to win this tournament,

Fnatic

Rank: 6th

Roster:

● Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson.

● Jesper "JW" Wecksell.

● Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin.

● Robin "flusha" Rönnquist.

● Maikil "Golden" Kunda Selim.

Before the pandemic, Fnatic was the best team in the world. The team won ESL Pro League Season 11 after strong individual performances by its star players. Despite their age and experience, JW, Flusha and Krimz still form the core of the Fnatic roster.

The trio has been able to put forth strong results on an individual level regularly. Fnatic’s map pool includes Mirage, Inferno and Dust2 as their strongest maps. The team has set strategies, but is also not afraid to go off-meta and push through smoke or even pasm through smokes. In fact, Flusha is well known for getting multiple kills through smokes. His positioning and understanding of sound cues gives him an advantage over his opponents even if he cannot see the enemy

Fnatic is ranked 6th in the world and not long ago was also the best team in the world. The team is a dark horse in this tournament and can pose a threat to the favorites. Fnatic’s players have a high skill ceiling that coupled with years of experience makes this team a potent threat.

Astralis

Rank: 11th

Roster:

● Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz.

● Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen.

● Emil "Magisk" Reif.

● Patrick "es3tag" Hansen.

● Lucas "Bubzkji" Andersen.

Astralis is playing this tournament with a new roster. The team added Bubzkji and es3tag to the roster. The new additions definitely impair Astralis’ playstyle and how the players can adapt to the Astralis map pool. The Danish squad has dominated most of the last few years, but that was because of excellent synergy between its players. The players have an understanding of their playstyle.

Astralis is no longer the dominant team as it was in 2019. However, the team still includes device and dupreeh, two of the strongest individual players in the game. These players might not be at the top in terms of skill but the overall package, which includes their understanding of the game and their movement across the map makes them extremely viable in their games. Astralis is ranked 11th in the world and ESL One Cologne will see the debut of the new roster.

The old Astralis had a very deep map pool that included Dust2, Overpass and Nuke as the strongest maps. However, with the new Astralis, it might seem that Train and Nuke are the best options for Bubzkji and es3tag to adjust quickly to the Astralis playstyle.

Not many expect Astralis to win ESL One Cologne. The team is relatively new and the new additions to the roster don’t have a lot of experience. However, Astralis has surprised its haters before and it can do so once again at ESL One Cologne.

CS:GO fans can watch ESL One Cologne on Twitch.