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
Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
. It was the first ''CS:GO'' Major of 2015. It was organized by
Electronic Sports League
ESL Gaming GmbH (formerly known as Electronic Sports League) is a German-French esports organizer and production company that produces video game competitions worldwide. ESL was the world's largest esports company in 2015, and the oldest that ...
with sponsorship from
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...
. 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
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylised as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organisation headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded on 23 July 2004, it has players from around the world competing in several games.
Fnatic' ...
,
Team EnVyUs,
Ninjas in Pyjamas,
Virtus.pro,
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere (Latin for "born to win"), commonly referred as abbreviated name NAVI (formerly Na`Vi), is a Ukrainian esports organization based in Kyiv. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as ...
, PENTA Sports, and
Team SoloMid
TSM (initialism derived from the previous name Team SoloMid) is a professional esports organization based in the United States. It was founded in September 2009 by Andy Dinh, Andy "Reginald" Dinh. TSM currently fields players in ''Apex Legends' ...
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
Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) was an American esports organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in April 2010 by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel as a ''League of Legends'' team, and branche ...
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.
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.
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
Group stage
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
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''
Virtus.pro vs. Keyd Stars
''Casters: TosspoT & seang@res''
Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere
''Casters: Pansy & natu''
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team SoloMid
''Casters: Anders Blume & natu''
Semifinals
Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro
''Casters: Anders Blume & SEMPHIS''
Team EnVyUs vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
''Casters: Deman & seang@res''
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''
Final standings
References
External links
Official webpage
{{ESLevents
2015 in Polish sport
2015 in esports
Sports competitions in Katowice
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Majors
ESL One Counter-Strike competitions
March 2015 sports events in Europe
21st century in Katowice
Esports competitions in Poland