The system used in this offline qualifier is called "Swiss-system". The tournament consists of 5 rounds. Every team keeps playing until they are either qualified (after 3 wins) or eliminated (after 3 losses). All matches played in the qualifier will be best of one. The matches of the first round are:
G2 Esports vs. 
TyLoo
FaZe Clan vs. 
Team Dignitas
Gambit Esports vs. 
OpTic Gaming
Mousesports vs. Fluffy Gangsters- Team ENVYUS vs.
Immortals (former Tempo Storm) 
Cloud9 vs. Team Empire
FlipSid3 Tactics vs. 
Renegades- Splyce vs. HellRaisers
After that, every round each team is randomly matched against a team with the same number of wins that they have not played against before.
Initial Seeding
Teams are placed into four seeding pools based on how they qualified for the Offline Qualifier. The first round matches were drawn to match Pool 1 vs Pool 3 and Pool 2 vs Pool 4.
- Seeding Pool 1: Rank 9th-12th of the last Major (Columbus 2016)
- Seeding Pool 2: Rank 13th-16th of the last Major (Columbus 2016)
- Seeding Pool 3: Winners of Regional Minor Championships for Cologne 2016
- Seeding Pool 4: Runner-ups of Regional Minor Championships for Cologne 2016
Tie breakers
The following rules apply at the end of the tournament to decide the final ranking of the top 8 teams that qualify for ESL One Cologne:
- Win-Loss Ratio
- Buchholz Score System (the sum of wins of the team's opponents)
- Direct Encounter
- Initial Seeding of the Tournament
Schedule
Thursday, 9th of June
- 12:30 - Pre-Show
- 13:00 - Beginning of first match
- Round one is played out, a total of eight matches played one after another
- 22:00 - estimated end of day
Friday, 10th of June
- 12:30 - Pre-Show
- 13:00 - Beginning of first match
- Round two is played out, a total of eight matches played one after another
- 22:00 - estimated end of day
Saturday, 11th of June
- 12:30 - Pre-Show
- 13:00 - Beginning of first match
- Round three is played out, a total of eight matches played one after another
- 22:00 - estimated end of day
Sunday, 12th of June
- 12:30 - Pre-Show
- 13:00 - Beginning of first match
- Round four is played out, a total of six matches played one after another, followed immediately by round five with three matches
- 23:15 - estimated end of day
See you in Katowice!
We're looking forward to seeing all sixteen teams battling it out for the Challenger slots at ESL One Cologne 2016 in the Swiss system. If you want to see the action live on Saturday and Sunday, June 11th and 12th, be sure to secure yourself a ticket here.
If you want to join us in Cologne for the next Major, head over to our tickets page and purchase one of the remaining tickets.
Remember to follow ESL CS on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest updates.