ESL One Cologne 2017 will take over LANXESS Arena on July 7-9 with the world's best teams competing for the coveted ESL One trophy and a share of the US$250,000 prize pool. 12 teams have already confirmed their participation after accepting their invites: SK Gaming, Virtus.pro, North, FNATIC, Natus Vincere, Immortals, Cloud9, G2 Esports, OpTic Gaming, mousesports, FaZe Clan and Ninjas in Pyjamas. Joining them will be four more teams which will be determined through qualifiers.
The European closed qualifier will take place on May 20-21 with 12 teams competing for two slots in the main event. One of the invited teams, Gambit Esports, have withdrawn their participation in the qualifier:
"We regret to inform that Gambit CS:GO is forced to decline an invitation to ESL One Cologne Closed Qualifier. For as much as we would like to be a part of this event, it is not possible for us to compete in the qualifier.
Given our intense tournament schedule in April - early May (StarSeries Season 3, cs_summit, DreamHack Austin and DreamHack Tours) we planned a prolonged vacation in May to recharge our batteries and begin an intensive preparation for an upcoming Kraków Major and other tournaments along the way, including DreamHack Summer.
We would like to issue an apology to fans who expected to see us competing in Cologne and ESL for an opportunity to qualify and being forced to find a last minute replacement for our team."
Gambit Esports will be therefore replaced by Tricked Esport with the seeding and bracket adjusted accordingly.
See the full EU closed qualifier bracket here
Qualifier schedule
The qualifier schedule will remain the same and will be as follows:
Europe
Saturday, May 20th at 15:00 CEST
Round of 12
Sunday, May 21st
- 12:00 CEST - quarterfinal one and two
- 15:00 CEST - quarterfinal three and four
- 18:00 CEST - semifinal one
- 21:00 CEST - semifinal two
North America
- 12:00 EDT - quarterfinal one and two
- 15:00 EDT: semifinal one
- 18:00 EDT: semifinal two
- 21:00 EDT: grand final
Don't miss any of the matches
All of the closed qualifier matches will be live-streamed over on our Twitch channel - be sure not to miss any action and see who will join us at ESL One Cologne.
Tickets to ESL One Cologne 2017 are available - be sure to join us as we once again make CS:GO history with unforgettable matches, world-class plays and outstanding crowd and atmosphere!
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