MLG ''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship: Columbus, also referred to as MLG Columbus 2016, was the eighth ''
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' (''CS:GO'')
Major Championship held by
Major League Gaming
Major League Gaming Corp. (MLG) was a professional esports organization based in New York City. Founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso, MLG held official video game tournaments throughout the United States and Canada. The ''Boos ...
(MLG) throughout March 29 to April 3, 2016, in the
Nationwide Arena
Nationwide Arena is a multi-purpose arena in the Arena District of Columbus, Ohio, United States. Since completion in 2000, the arena has served as the home of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL). It is one of two faci ...
in
Columbus,
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
, United States. It was the first ''CS:GO'' Major in North America as well as the first run by Major League Gaming, who previously ran an exhibition ''CS:GO'' tournament at
X Games Aspen 2015. It was also the very first ''CS:GO'' major in which ESL or DreamHack was not the organizer. It was announced on February 23, 2016, that MLG Columbus 2016 would be the first ''Counter-Strike'' tournament with a $1,000,000 prize pool.
The playoffs had eight teams.
Astralis
Astralis is a Danish esports organization. Best known for their ''Counter-Strike 2'' team, they also have teams representing other games, such as ''FIFA'' and ''Rainbow Six Siege.'' The parent group of Astralis is the Astralis Group, who prev ...
,
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' ...
,
Luminosity Gaming,
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 ...
,
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Ninjas in Pyjamas (often abbreviated to NIP and NiP) is a professional esports organisation based in Sweden that is best known for its '' Counter-Strike'' teams. In 2012, the team reformed with a '' Counter Strike: Global Offensive'' lineup upo ...
, and
Virtus.pro
Virtus.pro (VP) is an international esports organization founded in 2003 in Russia and acquired by Armenian investors in 2022. The organization has players competing in such games as ''Counter-Strike 2'', ''Dota 2'', ''Rainbow Six Siege'', ''War ...
were returning Legends.
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
Team Liquid
Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. They signed their first professional players with the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty''.
In 2012, Team Liquid acq ...
were new Legends as
FaZe Clan
FaZe Clan, or simply FaZe, is a professional esports and entertainment brand. Founded on May 30, 2010, as FaZe Sniping, the organization has professional players and content creators from around the world, across multiple games.
In October 20 ...
and
Team EnVyUs
Team Envy is an American esports franchise based in Dallas, Texas, owned by Envy Gaming. Founded in 2007 as a professional ''Call of Duty'' team under the moniker Team EnVyUs, they fielded rosters in '' Counter-Strike, FIFA, Fortnite, Gears o ...
had their Legends status taken away after failing to make the top eight. In the grand finals, Luminosity Gaming, which defeated Virtus.pro and Team Liquid, faced off against Natus Vincere, which defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas and Astralis. Luminosity Gaming won 2–0 as the underdog for its first major title and fifty percent of the $1,000,000 prize pool; in addition, it became the first non-European team to win a major title.
Format
The top eight finishers at
DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015
DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 was the seventh '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship that was held from October 28 – November 1, 2015 at the Sala Polivalentă in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It was organized by DreamHack with help ...
("Legends") received direct invitations to Columbus. In addition, eight other teams ("Challengers") emerged from the MLG Columbus 2016 Main Qualifier.
Teams were split up into four groups, and all group matches were best-of-ones with the exception of the final decider match, deciding the last playoff spot. 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 a
best-of-three
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...
elimination match for the second playoff spot. This format is known as the GSL format, named for the
Global StarCraft II League
Global StarCraft II League (GSL) is a ''StarCraft II'' tournament held in South Korea from 2010 to the present. It has been hosted by afreecaTV since 2016; GOMeXp (formerly GOMTV) hosted it from 2010–2015. Blizzard Entertainment was involve ...
.
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 Cluj-Napoca 2015. Before each best-of-one match in the group stage, teams alternated banning maps until five maps had been banned. One of the two remaining maps was randomly selected, and the team that that did not get a third ban then selected which side it wanted to start on. In all best-of-three series, each team first banned a map, leaving a five-map pool. Each team then chose a map, with the opposing team selecting which side they wanted to start on for their opponent's map choice. The two map picks 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
Regional qualifiers
There were four regional qualifiers and two last chance qualifiers. The top four teams from each qualifier are shown.
The top team from the Americas, Europe, and CIS qualifiers advanced to the main qualifier and the second to fourth place teams played in their respective Last Chance Qualifiers. The top two Asian teams, which played and Intel Extreme Masters Season X Taipei, advanced to the main qualifier. One team from the Americas Last Chance and two teams from the Europe Last Chance will move on to the main qualifier. There was no Last Chance Qualifier for the Asia region.
The main regional qualifiers were played on LAN while the last chance qualifiers were played online.
Americas Minor
Two teams were invited while another six qualified in the North American qualifier. However,
compLexity Gaming could not get a full roster in time, so the team was forced to drop out and the event ran with seven teams. The winner of the Americas Minor would earn a spot in the major qualifier while the three teams that made the bracket stage earned spots in the Americas Last Chance qualifier.
Asia Minor
The Asia qualifier took place at Intel Extreme Masters Season X – Taipei in Taiwan. Two teams were invited and six other teams qualified from their respective regions. TyLoo was disqualified from the event just hours before the tournament was about to start as one of its players, Quanqing "qz" Wu, was found to have been banned for cheating three years prior, which induces an automatic and permanent ban from all Valve-sponsored events. Two teams would earn spots in the major qualifier.
CIS Minor
The CIS qualifier had three teams invited, four teams from a closed qualifier, and one team from a Last Chance qualifier. One team would earn a spot in the major qualifier while the other three teams that made the bracket stage would earn spots in the CIS and Europe Last Chance qualifier.
Europe Minor
The European qualifier eight teams. Four qualifiers to the European qualifier were held and two teams from each qualified for a chance at the major. One team would earn a spot in the major qualifier while the other three teams that made the bracket stage would earn spots in the CIS and Europe Last Chance qualifier.
Americas Last Chance Qualifier
In this Last Chance Qualifier, four teams were invited and the three runners-up from the American qualifier were invited. Only one team would earn a spot in the major qualifier.
Europe and CIS Last Chance Qualifier
Five teams were invited to the Europe and CIS Last Chance Qualifier and the three runners-up from both the Europe and CIS qualifiers were invited. Two teams would earn spots in the major qualifier.
Major qualifier
Like the previous majors, there will be a major qualifier and regional qualifiers. The bottom eight teams from
DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015
DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 was the seventh '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship that was held from October 28 – November 1, 2015 at the Sala Polivalentă in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It was organized by DreamHack with help ...
received automatic bids to the main qualifier. The other eight teams came from various qualifiers.
Teams were divided into four groups and the top two from each group made it to the major.
Qualifier results
''Group A''
''Group B''
''Group C''
''Group D''
Broadcast talent
Stage Hosts
*
Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner
Desk Host
* Scott "SirScoots" Smith
Interviewer
* Chris Puckett
Analysts
* Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson
* Richard Lewis
* Jason "moses" O'Toole
* Janko "YNk" Paunović
* Duncan "Thorin" Shields
Commentators
* James Bardolph
*
Anders Blume
* Henry "HenryG" Greer
* Daniel "ddk" Kapadia
* Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat
* Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett
* Björn "THREAT" Pers (Guest Commentator for Team Liquid vs Luminosity Gaming)
Observers
* Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
* Kevin "kVIN_S" Swift
Broadcasts
All streams were broadcast on
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...
in various languages.
Teams
Pre-Major ranking
The HLTV.org March 28, 2016 ranking, the final one released before MLG Columbus 2016, is displayed below.
†Change since March 21, 2016 ranking
Group stage
The four groups were announced through MLG's social media accounts on March 10–11, 2016. Each group was seeded to contain a team who placed 1st–4th at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015, a team who placed 5–8th at DreamHack Open Cluj–Napoca 2015, a team who went undefeated in the offline qualifiers, and a team who won one of the final decider matches in the offline qualifiers.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Playoffs
The playoffs bracket was announced on March 30, 2016. Each quarterfinals match was seeded to contain one top seed and one second seed from the group stage.
Bracket
Quarterfinals
Natus Vincere vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
''Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler''
Astralis vs Fnatic
''Casters: James Bardolph & ddk''
Team Liquid vs Counter Logic Gaming
''Casters: Sadokist & HenryG''
Luminosity Gaming vs Virtus.pro
''Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler''
Semifinals
Natus Vincere vs. Astralis
''Casters: Sadokist & HenryG''
Team Liquid vs Luminosity Gaming
''Casters: James Bardolph, ddk, & THREAT''
Finals

''Casters: Anders Blume, Semmler, & moses''
was named the MVP of MLG Columbus 2016.
Luminosity Gaming became the first team outside of Europe to win a Major title. Fnatic from Sweden still led all teams with three Majors at the time.
Final standings
The $1,000,000 prize pool was divided up as follows.
Post-Major Ranking
The HLTV.org April 5, 2016 rankings of teams in the major is displayed below. The ranking was the first one released after MLG Columbus 2016.
†Change since March 28, 2016 ranking
References
{{Professional Counter-Strike competition
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Majors
2016 in esports
2016 in American sports
Events in Columbus, Ohio
2016 in sports in Ohio
Major League Gaming competitions