ESL One Cologne Online: Europe - 18.08.2020 - 30.08.2020

ESL One Cologne is one of the yearly highlights in CS:GO, and even if it can't be played in the classic LANXESS Arena this time around, the tournament is one of the biggest tournaments we will see this year. The European side of the tournament consists of an amazing field of teams, as six of the teams find themselves in the top10 of the rankings. CS:GO has had a break stretching for more than one month and it’s finally time for world class play to get back on the table. ESL One Cologne will feature 16 teams that battle for $325,000, but most of all the glory a title at the legendary tournament means. If you are interested in betting on the tournament we will feature a small preview of the selected odds further down on this page.

Teams attending ESL One Cologne

• Astralis
• Fnatic
• Natus Vincere
• G2 Esports
• Mousesports
• FaZe Clan
• Team Vitality
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• BIG
• Complexity Gaming
• OG
• Heroic
• MAD Lions
• MIBR
• Team Heretics
• Sprout

Prize pool

• $325,000 total prizes + 2195 ESL Pro Tour points.

Format

Group Stage

• 16 teams divided into 2 groups
• Groups are played with GSL format
• All matches are played best of three
• Four best teams advance to playoffs

Playoffs

• Single elimination bracket
• All games are played best of three, besides the Grand Final
• Grand final is played best of five

Where can I watch ESL One Cologne?

ESL One Cologne is available in English on ESL’s official channel on Twitch. 

Betting on ESL One Cologne

ESL One Cologne is one of the yearly highlights of CS:GO and as such betting on it is offered by every operator who has esports on the menu. To check out our recommended operators you can head over to our reviews. For long term bets we will have a look at the current odds offered by Bet365. 

• Natus Vincere - 5.50
• Team Vitality - 5.50
• BIG - 5.50
• G2 Esports - 6.50
• Fnatic - 8.0
• Astralis - 9.0
• FaZe Clan - 11.0
• Ninjas in Pyjamas - 15.0
• mousesports - 18.0
• Complexity - 21.0
• OG - 26.0
• Heroic - 34.0
• MAD Lions - 34.0
• MIBR - TBD
• Team Heretics - 101.0
• Sprout 151.0

Favourites

From a betting perspective it is extra tough to speculate right now since CS:GO hasn’t seen much competitive play for well over a month. That makes us believe the odds on the top dogs is a tough call. Natus Vincere has been too up and down to gain our trust, but Team Vitality honestly could. The team played incredibly consistently in June and July, with Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut looking to be back in superstar form. If we had to pick one of the favourites as a potential betting tip it would be Team Vitality for 5.50 at Bet365. 

Challengers

From the teams that could be considered as outsiders to win it all, both FaZe Clan and mousesports sticks out. FaZe has made a roster change, but it honestly looks like one that might not affect them too much as Aurimas "Bymas" Pipiras has made space for Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye. Bymas never really found his place in the team, but FaZe still produced decent results and fluctuated around the top5 placings on the world ranking. The addition of Kjaerbye could turn out to be a great one and one thing is always for sure - when the superstars of FaZe have a good day, the team is deadly. 11 times the money is honestly hard to pass up on, when we consider the state of the teams and the long break we have had before ESL One Cologne gets going. 

Mousesports is truly an interesting story, where the team started off lukewarm with the teams creation in early 2019, just to find themselves at the absolute pinnacle of the rankings at the end of the year. 2020 has however been a tough one for the squad, but some signs of light still showed up towards the end of the spring. Mousesports have now picked up the mentioned Bymas as they expanded to a 6-man roster and honestly that could work out great to relieve the struggling Chris “chrisJ” de Jong from his duties momentarily. Mousesports have proven themselves to be able to play world class level CS and if they can get it together here, while others are finding themselves after the break, it’s not impossible to see a massive upset happen. 18 times the money at Bet365 is something that makes our fingers itch at least, even if it definitely is a long shot.