We are adapting the qualification system for ESL One Cologne due to competitions leading up to ESL One Cologne moving from LAN to regionalized online competitions. Further changes to the ESL Pro Tour may apply based on future developments to the world health situation.

As the Cologne tournament is a Masters Championship, we planned to invite the top 8 of the ESL Pro Tour ranking to the ESL One Cologne Final 16 with a further 8 invited to the ESL One Cologne Playin (along with 8 other selected invitees).  The Road to Cologne points giving competitions until ESL One Cologne will be ESL Pro League, ESL One: Road to Rio and DreamHack Masters Spring.

With teams separated into regions and divisions of unequal strength as opposed to competing in global competitions, the performance of teams from different regions can no longer be compared reliably.  Therefore, we will be giving the Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania regions slots in the Final 16 and Play-in and teams will be competing for those spots in regional rankings (while retaining their previously won ESL Pro Tour ranking points).