ESL One Katowice 2015, also known as Katowice 2015, was the fifth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship, held from March 12 to March 15, 2015, at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland. It was the first CS:GO Major of 2015. It was organized by Electronic Sports League with sponsorship from Valve. The tournament had a total prize pool of US$250,000. The defending champion was Team EnVyUs, whose roster had won the previous Major as Team LDLC.com.

Eight teams advanced from the group stage to a playoff bracket, earning "Legends" status and automatic qualification to the following Major. Fnatic, Team EnVyUs, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, PENTA Sports, and Team SoloMid were returning Legends from the previous Major. Keyd Stars was the only new Legends and became the first South American team to play in a Major and qualify to the playoff bracket. HellRaisers lost its Legends status after losing to Counter Logic Gaming and Keyd Stars in the group stage. The grand finals featured two Swedish teams. Fnatic defeated PENTA Sports and Virtus.pro in the bracket while Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Team SoloMid and Team EnVyUs on their way to the grand finals. Fnatic then beat Ninjas in Pyjamas 2–1 in the finals. Fnatic became the first team to win a second Major, and remained the only team to do so until MIBR (attending Katowice 2015 as Keyd Stars) won MLG Columbus 2016 and ESL One Cologne 2016.

Format The top eight teams from DreamHack Winter 2014 ("Legends") received direct invitations to Katowice. In addition, eight other teams (the "Challengers") emerged from offline qualifiers.

Teams were split up into four groups, and all group matches were best-of-ones. The highest seed would play the lowest seed in each group and the second and third seeds would play against each other. The winner of those two matches would play each other to determine which team moved on to the playoff stage, while the losers of the first round of matches also played. The loser of the lower match was then eliminated from the tournament. With one team advanced and one eliminated, the two remaining teams would play an elimination match for the second playoff spot. This format is known as the GSL format, named for the Global StarCraft II League.

The playoffs bracket consisted of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches were best-of-three, single elimination. Teams advanced in the bracket until a winner was decided.

Map Pool The seven-map pool did not change from DreamHack Winter 2014. Before each match in the group stage, both teams banned two maps. The map for the match was then randomly selected from the remaining three maps. In the playoffs, each team first banned one map, then chose one map. The two chosen maps were the first two maps in the best-of-three. If the series were to require a third map, the map was randomly selected from the three remaining maps.

Maps

Cache Cobblestone Dust II Inferno Mirage Nuke Overpass

Main qualifier The 16 teams at the main qualifier were separated into two groups of 8. The teams played in a double-elimination, best of one bracket. Four teams from each group, two from the winner's bracket and two from the loser's bracket, advanced to the Major.

Invited

Cloud9 Gamers2 KaBuM.TD Team Dignitas Team Liquid Titan Vox Eminor Regional Qualifiers

Copenhagen Wolves (Europe Qualifier 1) mousesports (Europe Qualifier 1) Flipsid3 Tactics (Europe Qualifier 2) 3DMAX2 (Europe Qualifier 2) LGB eSports (Europe Qualifier 1) PiTER (CIS Qualifier) INSHOCK (Poland Qualifier) Counter Logic Gaming (NA Qualifier) ESC Gaming (EU Last Chance)

Group A

Group B

Broadcast Talent Hosts Sean Charles Alex "Machine" Richardson

Analysts Casper "cadiaN" Møller Spencer "Hiko" Martin

Commentators Leigh "Deman" Smith Anders Blume Lauren "Pansy" Scott Stuart "TosspoT" Saw

Observers Joshua "steel" Nissan Yanko "YNk" Paunović

Teams Legends

Team SoloMid Fnatic Hellraisers Ninjas in Pyjamas Team EnVyUs PENTA Sports Virtus.pro Natus VincereMain qualifier teams

Counter Logic Gaming LBG eSports Cloud9 Vox Eminor Flipsid3 Tactics Keyd Stars 3DMAX Titan

Group stage Group A PosTeamWLRFRARDPts 1 Fnatic 2 0 32 10 +22 6 2 Natus Vincere 2 1 39 21 +18 6 3 Vox Eminor 1 2 22 34 −12 3 4 FlipSid3 Tactics 0 2 4 32 −28 0

Group A matches Natus Vincere 16 Mirage 2 FlipSid3 Tactics Fnatic 16 Inferno 3 Vox Eminor FlipSid3 Tactics 2 Cache 16 Vox Eminor Natus Vincere 7 Cobblestone 16 Fnatic Natus Vincere 16 Inferno 3 Vox Eminor

Group B PosTeamWLRFRARDPts 1 Team EnVyUs 2 0 32 22 +10 6 2 PENTA Sports 2 1 35 32 +3 6 3 LGB eSports 1 2 36 35 +1 3 4 Titan 0 2 18 32 −14 0

Group B matches Team EnVyUs 16 Cobblestone 14 Titan PENTA Sports 3 Dust II 16 LGB eSports Team EnVyUs 16 Cache 8 LGB eSports PENTA Sports 16 Cache 4 Titan LGB eSports 12 Dust II 16 PENTA Sports

Group C PosTeamWLRFRARDPts 1 Ninjas in Pyjamas 2 0 32 16 +16 6 2 Keyd Stars 2 1 41 36 +5 6 3 Counter Logic Gaming 1 2 31 46 −15 3 4 HellRaisers 0 2 26 32 −6 0

Group C matches Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Inferno 9 Keyd Stars HellRaisers 14 Nuke 16 Counter Logic Gaming Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Mirage 7 Counter Logic Gaming HellRaisers 12 Inferno 16 Keyd Stars Counter Logic Gaming 8 Dust II 16 Keyd Stars

Group D PosTeamWLRFRARDPts 1 Virtus.pro 2 0 32 16 +16 6 2 Team SoloMid 2 1 46 34 +12 6 3 Cloud9 1 2 35 46 −11 3 4 3DMAX 0 2 15 32 −17 0

Group D matches Virtus.pro 16 Overpass 5 3DMAX Team SoloMid 14 Nuke 16 Cloud9 Virtus.pro 16 Inferno 11 Cloud9 Team SoloMid 16 Nuke 10 3DMAX Cloud9 8 Overpass 16 Team SoloMid

Playoffs The winner of each group played the runner-up of a different group for each quarterfinals match.

Bracket

Quarterfinals Fnatic vs. PENTA Sports Casters: Deman & SPUNJ

Fnatic vs. PENTA Sports Scores Team Score Map Score Team Fnatic 16 Inferno 8 PENTA Sports Fnatic 16 Cache 7 PENTA Sports Fnatic Overpass PENTA Sports

Virtus.pro vs. Keyd Stars Casters: TosspoT & seang@res

Virtus.pro vs. Keyd Stars Scores Team Score Map Score Team Virtus.pro 16 Mirage 4 Keyd Stars Virtus.pro 17 Overpass 19 Keyd Stars Virtus.pro 16 Nuke 1 Keyd Stars

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere Casters: Pansy & natu

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere Scores Team Score Map Score Team Team EnVyUs 16 Cache 12 Natus Vincere Team EnVyUs 14 Dust II 16 Natus Vincere Team EnVyUs 16 Mirage 3 Natus Vincere

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team SoloMid Casters: Anders Blume & natu

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team SoloMid Scores Team Score Map Score Team Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Dust II 8 Team SoloMid Ninjas in Pyjamas 4 Inferno 16 Team SoloMid Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Nuke 12 Team SoloMid

Semifinals Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro Casters: Anders Blume & SEMPHIS

Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro Scores Team Score Map Score Team Fnatic 19 Cobblestone 17 Virtus.pro Fnatic 16 Mirage 8 Virtus.pro Fnatic Overpass Virtus.pro

Team EnVyUs vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas Casters: Deman & seang@res

Team EnVyUs vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas Scores Team Score Map Score Team Team EnVyUs 9 Cache 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas Team EnVyUs 10 Dust II 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas Team EnVyUs Mirage Ninjas in Pyjamas

Finals Both teams in the final had at one point been considered the best team in the world, and the head-to-head was split right down the middle, with Fnatic having a 16–15 lead.

Casters: Anders Blume, TossopT, & seang@res

Fnatic vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas Scores Team Score Map Score Team Fnatic 16 Dust II 14 Ninjas in Pyjamas Fnatic 10 Cache 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas Fnatic 16 Inferno 13 Ninjas in Pyjamas

Final standings Place Team Prize Money Seed for ESL One Cologne 2015 Roster Coach 1st Fnatic 100,000 Legends status JW, flusha, , olofmeister, KRiMZ Devilwalk 2nd Ninjas in Pyjamas 50,000 f0rest, GeT RiGhT, Xizt, friberg, allu pita 3rd–4th Team EnVyUs 22,000 kioShiMa, Happy, SmithZz, NBK, – Virtus.pro TaZ, NEO, , , Snax 5–8th Keyd Stars 10,000 FalleN, , , , – Natus Vincere Edward, Zeus, , , GuardiaN Ugin Team SoloMid karrigan, , , dupreeh, Xyp9x 3k2 PENTA Sports nex, Spidii, , , Troubley 9–12th Vox Eminor 2,000 SPUNJ, Havoc, , AZR, – LGB eSports RUBINO, rain, , zEVES, Polly – Cloud9 ShahZam, sgares, , shroud, Semphis – Counter Logic Gaming hazed, , , , FNS – 13–16th Titan 2,000 kennyS, Rpk, , Maniac, Ex6TenZ – FlipSid3 Tactics B1ad3, , , WorldEdit, DavCost – HellRaisers ANGE1, , , Dosia, AdreN – 3DMAX , , KHRN, , –

References

External links Official webpage