Major (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
As a Major tournament is in the e-sports - discipline Counter-Strike: Global Offensive one of the Valve Corporation referred to using the proceeds of purchasable game content sponsored major tournament. The prize pool was 2015 constant at 250,000 US dollars . With the MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016 , the prize money was increased to 1,000,000 US dollars. At all major tournaments, special souvenir packages are given out to randomly selected spectators. The record winner of the major tournaments with winning the StarLadder Major 2019 in Berlin is Team Astralis with four titles, ahead of Team fnatic with a total of three major tournaments won.
mode
Since the Eleague Major: Boston 2018 , 24 teams have taken part in a major tournament. Since then the tournaments have consisted of the three phases Challengers Stage (first tournament phase), Legends Stage (second tournament phase) and Champions Stage (decisive third tournament phase). Challengers Stage and Legends Stage are played in five rounds in the Swiss system . It is played there in the best-of-1. In the Challengers Stage, eight teams, which as a rule qualified for the tournament through four regional minor tournaments, meet eight teams that were eliminated from the previous major in the Legends Stage . Eight teams qualify for the Legends Stage , where the remaining eight teams, which reached the Champions Stage in the previous major , enter the tournament. In both the Challengers and the Legends Stage , teams reach the next round with three wins; Teams with three defeats are eliminated from the tournament. The eight remaining teams on the Champions Stage will play the quarter-finals, the two semi-finals and the final in the knockout system . In the Champions Stage , two ticket wins are required to reach the next round or to win the title in the final. A game for 3rd place will not be played.
Before 2018, 16 teams participated in each major tournament . The Challengers Stage was held from 2015 to 2017 under the name Offline Qualifier before the regular tournament. The Swiss system in the first tournament phase was used for the first time at the Eleague Major: Atlanta 2017 and replaced the group phase. In the major tournaments before 2017, the teams were divided into 4 groups of 4 teams each according to seeding lists before the group stage. The group phase was played in the double elimination with the exception of the consolation final in the best-of-1. The winner of the winner brackets as group first and the winner of the lower bracket as second group reached the knockout phase following the group phase . At the ESL One Cologne 2015 , some teams were drawn to a new group in front of the lower bracket. The organizers wanted to avoid teams that had already played against each other in the winner bracket from playing against each other again in the lower bracket. There the teams then needed two match wins to advance. In the quarter-finals, each group leader met a group runner-up.
The games are played in the classic CS competition mode (best of 30 rounds) on maps of the game. If no winner is determined after the regular number of rounds, the game is extended by six rounds. If there is still no winner in sight at the end of an extension, another extension of 6 rounds will follow. The map pool of the major events consists of the seven bomb disposal maps de_inferno , de_nuke , de_mirage , de_train , de_dust2 , de_overpass and de_vertigo .
history
With the introduction of weapon skins and weapon boxes in August 2013, Valve started the so-called “CS: GO crowd-funding initiative” to recruit new players. The proceeds from the keys required to open the weapon boxes, which can be purchased, have since been partly used to finance the major events. Furthermore, Valve introduced the so-called GOTV in October 2013, which among other things enables viewers to watch live games with a ninety-second delay via the CS: GO client. Since then, the games of the major events can be viewed in-game. This was also the basis for the introduction of souvenir packages. Look the audience play internally a major tournament or with a with Steam connected Twitch account via Twitch, so he has to have the opportunity such a souvenir package gedropt by accident. The souvenir packages always include collection weapon skins with special stickers.
DreamHack Winter 2013
On September 16, 2013 Valve announced the hosting of the first major tournament in CS: GO as part of the DreamHack Winter 2013. In Jönköping from November 28 to 30, 2013, prize money of 250,000 US dollars was played. It was the first CS: GO tournament with a six-figure prize pool. The souvenir weapons at DreamHack 2013 included stickers with a winter motif and the DreamHack logo. Most of the participants were invited as winners or finalists of previous events or qualified through qualifiers. A German roster could not qualify.
In addition to the French teams Recursive.fr and Team VeryGames , the Danish Copenhagen Wolves , the Kazakh team Astana Dragons , the American lineup from compLexity together with the three Swedish teams fnatic , Ninjas in Pajamas and LGB eSports made it to the quarter-finals. There the three group leaders fnatic, Ninjas in Pajamas and compLexity, as well as Team VeryGames as group runner-up in group C were able to prevail against their competitors. In the semifinals, NiP met Team VeryGames and fnatic met compLexity. The two Swedish roster prevailed, which resulted in the Swedish final in front of the home crowd. Fnatic sat there after a 16:14 win on de_dust2 and a 6:16 defeat on de_inferno on the map de_train, which was still available at the time, after a one-sided CT half with a half-time score of 13: 2 and a Pistol round won the T-side with 16: 2. The game was followed by around 144,000 spectators at its peak.
EMS One Katowice 2014
Information about the second major tournament, EMS One Katowice 2014 , was published as early as December 19, 2013 . After all participants had been determined as a result of the qualification , Valve published stickers of the participating teams on March 6, 2014, which could be purchased in-game via sticker capsules. Such stickers have also been part of the souvenir weapons since EMS One Katowice 2014. In addition to a special tournament sticker, the souvenir weapons have since included two stickers of the teams who meet during the drop.
After winning the Swedish fnatic lineup at DreamHack Winter 2013, a domestic lineup was able to win the event again. The Polish roster from Virtus.pro won the final 2-0 after Maps against the ninjas in pajamas , who had to admit defeat again in the final. Over 600 thousand viewers viewed the tournament streams over 23 million times. The final game reached a maximum quota of over 240,000 viewers.
ESL One Cologne 2014
The second major event of 2014 took place as part of gamescom in August 2014. Two innovations have been introduced for fans and spectators. Since then, GOTV viewers have had the opportunity to take over the settings of the English main cast (e.g. camera work) for the major games, including the transmission of comments. The Pick'Em Challenge was also introduced with the tournament. Since then, every CS: GO player has been able to tap the games within the game using the team stickers by placing the appropriate sticker on the respective team. He receives points for correct tips. If a certain number of points is exceeded, the successful participants receive a medal after the event, which they can issue in-game. The contents of the souvenir packages were limited to the collection weapons of the map that was played at the drop.
The winners of ESL One Cologne 2014 were the ninjas in pajamas , who beat fnatic 2: 1 in the final according to Maps. At times the final was watched by over 400,000 people at the same time.
DreamHack Winter 2014
On October 3, 2014, the second $ 250,000 DreamHack tournament was announced. The elite in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gathered again in Jönköping from November 27th to 29th, 2014 . For the first time, fans were able to buy stickers from their team in-game and no longer had to hope for the chance of the sticker capsules.
The tournament made headlines even before the start. With the South African team Bravado Gaming , an African lineup took part in a major tournament for the first time. Furthermore, a cheat scandal with the affected Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian and Gordon "Sf" Giry, whose teams Titan eSports and Epsilon eSports were then disqualified, had an impact on the list of participants. Stricter precautions were taken to prevent the upload of external software during the event. A surprise of the tournament was the German team Penta Sports , taking part in a major event for the first time , which after a furious comeback against iBUYPOWER reached the quarter-finals of the tournament and was eliminated there against Virtus.pro . Another highlight of the quarter-finals was the third map de_overpass between the Swedish lineup fnatic and the French team LDLC . The Swedes, facing defeat, boosted Olof “olofm” Kajbjer with the help of the figures of three players to a previously undiscovered position, from which he could see large parts of the map. In retrospect, this boost was considered illegal, so the map should first be repeated. However, fnatic let the French win. In retrospect, the map de_overpass was derisively called "olofpass" in the style of Olof "olofm" Kajbjer . After victories against Natus Vincere in the semifinals and against the ninjas in pajamas in the finals, Team LDLC finally won the tournament.
ESL One Katowice 2015
The fifth major tournament in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive took place again from March 12th to 15th, 2015 in Katowice . Fnatic secured his second major title. For the first time, the last part of the qualifications was held offline. A few weeks before the tournament, the two maps de_cbble and de_overpass were changed, which is why the teams had to adjust to the changed B-Spot on Cobblestone, for example. In a new overlay, the country flags have been placed in the background of the clan logos. The audience numbers reached a new record for CS: GO on the first day with over 600,000 viewers. The finale between the ninjas in pajamas and fnatic was watched by over a million viewers at the same time.
ESL One Cologne 2015
Even before the start of ESL One Katowice 2015 , the Electronic Sports League announced the continuation of the Cologne CS: GO major tournament. In contrast to the previous year, the playoffs were held in the Lanxess Arena . At the beginning of June 2015, the Valve Corporation became a sponsor for the tournament. For the first time regional offline qualifiers for the regions Europe , America and Asia took place. In addition, doping controls in the form of saliva tests are being introduced in cooperation with the German anti-doping agency NADA . For the first time there are stickers with the signatures of the participating players and a corresponding Pick'Em challenge . After the winner bracket, some of the teams that have not yet qualified for the final round will be assigned to new groups in the lower bracket in order to avoid another clash between two teams. The tournament was watched on site by more than 12,000 spectators. The tournament was broadcast to more than 1.2 million computers via GOTV and the Twitch stream. Winner fnatic was the first team to defend a major title.
DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015
For the first time the Transylvanian capital Cluj-Napoca hosted a major tournament. In cooperation with the Professional Gamers League and DreamHack , the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 took place from October 28 to November 1, 2015 in the Sala Polivalentă , a multi-purpose hall with a capacity of up to 10,000 . In contrast to ESL One Cologne 2015 , no team was assigned to a new group in front of the lower bracket. For the first time the Consolation Final was held in the groups in best-of-3 mode. The winner was the French lineup of Team EnVyUs .
MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016
On November 20, 2015, details of the eighth major were published. It took place from March 29 to April 3, 2016 at the MLG Arena and Nationwide Arena in Columbus . It was the first major outside of Europe. The prize money of this major was for the first time one million US dollars. In the final, Luminosity Gaming beat Natus Vincere 2-0. LG was the first American team to celebrate a major win.
ESL One Cologne 2016
With the ESL One Cologne 2016 from July 5th to 10th, a major was held in Cologne for the third time . The prize money at this major tournament was US $ 1 million and 16 teams were invited to participate, eight of which were the top teams of the MLG Major Championships in Columbus 2016. The winner was the Brazilian lineup from SK Gaming , which had already won MLG Columbus 2016. They prevailed in the final against the US team from Team Liquid 2-0. This makes them the second lineup after fnatic to defend a major title.
Eleague Major: Atlanta 2017
Valve officially announced on September 27, 2016 that it would host the tenth major in Atlanta with the Eleague from January 22 - 29, 2017 . The Danish winning team Astralis initially stumbled in the group stage, which was held for the first time in the Swiss system , with two defeats against Godsent and SK Gaming . In the quarter-finals, the Danes defeated Natus Vincere, who dominated the group stage and had been unbeaten in the tournament . After Astralis shot fnatic out of the tournament after two maps in the semifinals , the subsequent winning quintet convinced with a lot of fighting spirit against the final opponent Virtus.pro . After a 12:16 defeat on the first map de_nuke, the Mappick of the Poles, Astralis won their own map de_overpass with 16:14. On the decisive map de_train, the Danes were initially 0: 7 behind. After a 6: 9 halftime score, Astralis turned the game around towards the end and finally won the decisive 30th round for the 16:14 final score. The best K / D rate for the Danes was achieved by Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz with 1.22.
PGL Major: Kraków 2017
With the PGL Major: Kraków 2017, the Romanian organizer Professional Gamers League held its first major tournament. For the third time after EMS One Katowice 2014 and ESL One Katowice 2015 , a major took place in Poland from July 16 to 23, 2017. The knockout phase was shown in the Tauron Arena Kraków . The Gambit Gaming team, made up of mostly Kazakh players, won the PGL Major against the Immortals , which took part in a major tournament for the first time. Gambit lost the first card Cobblestone, was able to turn the best-of-3 with victories on its own map selection Train and on the decision card Inferno.
Eleague Major: Boston 2018
The Eleague received on 5 October 2017, the commitment for the first major of the year 2018. It was held from 12 to 28 January of the year. With the Challengers Stage , the former offline qualifier will be integrated into the tournament for the first time. The round of the best 16 forms the second phase of the tournament under the name Legends Stage . While these two phases were held in Atlanta, the playoffs - called the “Champions Stage” by the organizers - were played in front of an audience on the last three days of the tournament in the Agganis Arena in Boston . With Cloud 9 , a team from the United States won a major tournament for the first time . The US-Americans prevailed in the final with 2: 1 against the FaZe Clan, which was occupied by European players .
Faceit Major: London 2018
FACEIT was awarded the contract to host the first major tournament in the United Kingdom in February 2018 . The Champions Stage took place from September 20 to 23, 2018 at London's Wembley Arena . Astralis and Natus Vincere played in the final of the tournament , with the first-named team winning the major title with 16: 6 on Nuke and 16: 9 on Overpass .
IEM Major: Katowice 2019
On July 12, 2018, the fourteenth major tournament was awarded to Katowice . The tournament took place as part of the ESL Intel Extreme Masters . After ESL One Katowice 2014 and ESL One Katowice 2015 , the city hosted a major for the third time. The Legends Stage took place from February 21 to 24, 2019 in the International Congress Center and the Champions Stage from February 28 to March 3, 2019 in the Spodek . In the final, the Astralis team beat ENCE eSports 2-0 .
ESL One Rio 2020
With Rio de Janeiro , South America will host a major tournament for the first time from November 9 to 22, 2020. The decisive champions stage will be held in the Jeunesse Arena .
Web links
- Overview of the major tournaments on liquipedia.net (English)
- Map overviews from 99damage
Individual evidence
- ↑ 8/13 - The Arms Deal Update. counter-strike.net, August 14, 2013, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ Update 10/10: Watch and Learn. counter-strike.net, October 10, 2013, accessed on February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ Dustin Martin: CS: GO PGL Major - Drops. PlayNation.de, accessed on July 17, 2017 .
- ↑ 2013 DreamHack SteelSeries CS: GO Championship. counter-strike.net, September 16, 2013, accessed on February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ What's in the box? counter-strike.net, November 15, 2013, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ DreamHack Winter 2013. 99damage, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ fnatic win DreamHack Winter 2013. hltv.org, December 1, 2013, accessed on February 1, 2015 (English).
- ^ EMS One Katowice Championship. counter-strike.net, January 2, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ Legends and Challengers. counter-strike.net, March 6, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ EMS One Katowice in numbers. Event: Statistics for the mega-event in Poland published. 99damage, March 26, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ ESL One Cologne 2014 Championship. counter-strike.net, June 19, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ Cologne 2014: Are you ready? counter-strike.net, August 11, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ The Cologne 2014 Pick'Em Challenge! counter-strike.net, August 4, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ ESL One Cologne 2014 brings record numbers. cs.ingame.de, August 18, 2014, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ^ DreamHack CS: GO Championship. counter-strike.net, October 3, 2014, accessed February 4, 2015 .
- ↑ LDLC vs Fnatic - Olofmeister Boost: Glitch or Ingenious? | Overpass | Dreamhack Winter 2014 | CSGO on youtube.com
- ↑ Announcement of the fnatic-forfeit on the Twitter page of DreamHack
- ↑ DreamHack Winter 2014. 99damage, accessed February 1, 2015 .
- ↑ ESL One Katowice 2015. counter-strike.net, January 24, 2015, accessed on February 4, 2015 (English).
- ↑ ESL One Katowice: record attendance on the first day. playnation.de, March 12, 2015, accessed on March 15, 2015 .
- ↑ Katowice viewer peak at ~ 1.1 million. hltv.org, March 20, 2015, accessed on March 23, 2015 .
- ↑ ESL hosts world's largest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event. LANXESS arena to host US $ 250,000 ESL One Cologne tournament from August 22-23. (No longer available online.) Esl-one.com, February 20, 2015, archived from the original on May 15, 2015 ; accessed on June 3, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Valve to support ESL One Cologne. (No longer available online.) Hltv.org, June 3, 2015, archived from the original on July 21, 2015 ; accessed on June 3, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ World's largest standalone Counter-Strike event confirmed as next Valve Major. ESL One Cologne 2015 has now officially been named a CS: GO Major Championship. (No longer available online.) Esl-one.com, June 3, 2015, archived from the original on July 11, 2015 ; accessed on June 3, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ ESL presents anti-doping strategy. Scene: First drug test at ESL One. 99damage, August 12, 2015, accessed August 14, 2015 .
- ↑ Cologne 2015 Pick'Em Challenge. counter-strike.net, August 14, 2015, accessed on August 18, 2015 .
- ↑ E-sports in Cologne: ESL One attracts 12,000 viewers. heise.de, August 22, 2015, accessed on August 23, 2015 .
- ↑ DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015 the next CS: GO major. dreamhack.se, August 31, 2015, accessed September 1, 2015 .
- ↑ Major League Gaming to Host Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship at Nationwide Arena. Major League Gaming, November 20, 2015, accessed December 1, 2015 .
- ↑ Major prize upped to $ 1,000,000 *. hltv.org, February 24, 2016, accessed on February 24, 2016 .
- ↑ ESL One Cologne 2016 confirmed as next US $ 1 million Valve Major! ESL One Cologne returns to the LANXESS Arena and will once again be a Valve Major. (No longer available online.) Electronic Sports League, April 8, 2016, archived from the original on April 8, 2016 ; accessed on April 8, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Freaks 4U Gaming GmbH, freaks4u.com: ESL One: SK Gaming secures second major victory | 99damage.de. In: 99Damage.de - CS: GO. Retrieved July 10, 2016 .
- ↑ counter-strike.net: The ELEAGUE Major - Atlanta, 2017. Retrieved September 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Statistics on ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017 at hltv.org, accessed on January 29, 2017
- ^ Luis Mira: PGL to host Major in Krakow. hltv.org, March 15, 2017, accessed on March 16, 2017 .
- ↑ Luis Mira: Gambit defeat Immortals to win PGL Major. hltv.org, July 23, 2017, accessed on July 23, 2017 .
- ^ Luis Mira: ELEAGUE to host next major, with playoffs in Boston. hltv.org, October 5, 2017, accessed October 5, 2017 .
- ↑ Luis Mira: Cloud9 beat FaZe to win ELEAGUE Major Boston. hltv.org, January 29, 2018, accessed on January 29, 2018 .
- ↑ Luis Mira: FACEIT to host next major in London. hltv.org, February 22, 2018, accessed March 8, 2018 .
- ↑ Luis Mira: ESL To Host Major At IEM Katowice. hltv.org, July 12, 2018, accessed on July 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Champions stage - standings. In: www.intelextrememasters.com. Retrieved March 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Luis Mira: ESL One Rio Major moved to November due to coronavirus with increased $ 2 million prize pool; second major of 2020 canceled. hltv.org, March 23, 2020, accessed on March 23, 2020 .
- ↑ Luis Mira: ESL confirms Rio de Janeiro Major. hltv.org, December 11, 2019, accessed March 5, 2020 .
