ESL One Katowice is part of IEM Expo 2015.Check out
event.eslgaming.com/iem-expo-2015/
for more information.
After days of investigation and discussion, we can confirm the disqualification of three teams from the offline qualifier for ESL One Katowice 2015.
Epsilon eSports, former ESC Gaming as well as WinneR all have players on their teams who were found to be involved in match fixing, and are therefore not allowed to take part in next week’s qualifier in Katowice.
In order to fill the spots previously reserved for Epsilon and ex-ESC Gaming, a last chance tournament has been scheduled for this Sunday, with the top two teams from this tournament to replace the now disqualified teams. The teams that didn’t make it through the second European qualifier's round of sixteen and quarterfinals will be invited to take part in the single elimination last chance tournament. Those who had previously made it through to the quarterfinals will be given a default win in the first round to reflect their achievement.
This system was decided upon in an attempt to take into consideration team's current performance. Further details will be given at a later point.
The last chance qualifier participants are as follows:
Wizards, Property, Orbit, VOLGARE, BZSX, webSPELL, 34united e-Sports Club, fm-eSports TOXiC, nEophyte, Publiclir.se, Team Alternate and se mi puta
WinneR’s spot has been handed to LGB eSports and 3DMAX. Both teams would have still needed to play out the third place decider match in the second European qualifier in order to progress. However, this match is now no longer needed as both teams will advance to the offline qualifier.
The teams for the offline qualifier are:
- Invited: Cloud 9, Team Dignitas, Team Liquid, Titan and VOX Eminor
- Qualified: Copenhagen Wolves, INSHOCK, mousesports, PiTER-ONLiNE, Flipsid3 Tactics, 3DMAX, LGB eSports and Counter Logic Gaming
Valve said the following regarding the bans:
After gathering information from players and reviewing historical activity of accounts, we will be directing our CS:GO event partners to not allow the following individuals to participate in any capacity in Valve-sponsored events:
- Kevin “Uzzziii” Vernel
- Joey “fxy0” Schlosser
- Robin “GMX” Stahmer
- Morgan “B1GGY” Madour
- Damian “DiAMon” Zarski
- Michal “bCK” Lis
- Jakub “kub” Pamula
- Mateusz “matty” Kolodziejczyk
- Michal “michi” Majkowski
- Karol “rallen” Rodowicz
- Mikolaj “mouz” Karolewski
- Grzegorz “SZPERO” Dziamalek
- Pawel “innocent” Mocek
- Jacek “minise” Jeziak
The restrictions are indefinite, and will not be re-evaluated before 2016.
Additionally, the following players are not eligible to participate in ESL One Katowice as we continue our investigation:
- Robin “r0bs3n” Stephan
- Tahsin “tahsiN” Sarikaya
- Koray “xall” Yaman
- Ammar “am0” Cakmak
- Antonin “TONI” Bernhardt
Professional players, teams, and anyone involved in the production of CS:GO events, should under no circumstances gamble on CS:GO matches, associate with high volume CS:GO gamblers, or deliver information to others that might influence their CS:GO bets. For more information, visit blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/unnecessary_risks/.
At ESL, we want to underline the fact that unsportsmanlike behavior, such as match fixing, will not be tolerated, and therefore the banned players will not be allowed to take part in any ESL CS:GO tournaments until these cases are reviewed by Valve.
Follow ESL Counter-Strike on Twitter and Facebook for constant updates on ESL One Katowice 2015 as well as the next steps of the qualification as they unfold.