ESL One Cologne: “Major” Feel Without “Major” Stakes

The Cathedral ofCounter-Strike…there’s a history behind that alliteration. Last weekend marked the fourth consecutive year of sell-out crowds forESL One Cologne . Not only is it the company’s largest esports arena tournament, but ESL also confirmed to The Esports Observer that it is one of its biggest in terms of consumer-based revenues (i.e. ticket sales, shop sales). 

Despite its reputation, ESL One Cologne has a modest prize pool compared to the Valve-sanctioned Majors, and is connected to other tournaments only by unofficial team rankings, and through the relatively-recently introduced Intel Grand Slam. To outsiders, how do you explain the importance of ESL One Cologne?

No city has hosted a single Counter-Strike: Global Offensive  (CS:GO) event for so long, or indeed in the entirety of the game franchise’s history. Nevertheless, Neichel emphasizes that all ESL events are part of a larger narrative and full ecosystem for their respective games.

Although ESL’s headquarters are also located in Cologne, the city doesn’t support the event, as was the case with the recentESL Pro League  finals in Montpellier, France, and of course the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice. “There are a lot of better examples where we get better support from cities and venues,” said Neichel. While Cologne has run for five years in the same spot, several ESL events have gone through location changes; IEM Oakland made the jump to Chicago last year, and the ESL One HamburgDota 2event used to be held in Frankfurt.  

This year’s tournament lasted three days in the Lanxess Arena, with a crowd 15,000 strong watchingTeam Liquid overcomeTeam Vitality in the finals. Impressively, the two last standing teams both had to compete in qualifiers just to attend the tournament, with 11 of the 16 total squads having been directly invited. In a time where an increasingly crowdedCS:GOcalendar is forcing teams to be selective, it’s unthinkable that a team would pass up the chance of hoisting the Cologne trophy. 

Related Article: The 10 Highest-Earning Esports Organizations of H1 2019 by Total Winnings

Much like the Olympics or a World Cup, the majority of esports’ most-attended events rotate locations, includingDota 2’sThe International and theLeague of Legends World Championship. But ESL One Cologne is more akin to the U.S. Open or Wimbledon in tennis, and if it runs even half as long as those competitions, could gather even bigger crowds. “You want to put your name against the person that won this 30 years ago, as much as you want to have your name against the person that’s going to win it 30 years from now,” said Anderson. “This event signals that it wants to be here as long as it can.”

CS:GOalso borrows some terminology from tennis when it comes to ranking and connecting its tournaments. Team Liquid secured an additional $1M USD prize last weekend viathe Intel Grand Slam—with Cologne being their fourth consecutive victory at a marquee ESL and/orDreamHack event.CS:GO’spublisher,Valve Corporation , also picks two tournament organizers per year to hold “Majors,” awarding extra prize money, a long-form qualification process, and in-game item packs and viewership options. For a full explanation of the Major system,click here.

ESL One Cologne has won this status before, and even though ESL hosted its own Major in Katowice last March, there is a general feeling that last weekend’s tournament was a Major in every unofficial capacity. This raises the question: should ESL One Cologne be made a Major permanently? 

“No, but it’s only because then you would give ESL so much market power relative to the other tournament organizers (TOs),” said Tomi Kovanen, VP of finance forImmortals Gaming Club . “I wouldn’t mind some of the TOs just getting knocked out, because that would be better for the ecosystem, but I don’t think Valve is ever going to do that because they’d effectively be killing businesses.”

Editor’s Note: Stickers are player autographed decals that can be applied to weapons in CS:GO. 50% of the proceeds from the sales support the included players and organizations. 

In terms of financial stakes, ESL One Cologne 2019 held a $300K prize pool, a minor increase from previous years, and less than half of the $1M minimum awarded at Majors. When asked if it should be made a Major in perpetuity,Northchief commercial officer Jonas Gunderson said he’d prefer it to stay separate from that system. “Sure you could bump the prize money, but it might ruin it. It’s all about prestige, which is awesome.”

Valve remains one of the most hands-off publishers of its esports titles. While the company recently broke tradition by settingthe dates for the 2020 and 2021 Majors, the locations and tournament organizers will remain in flux. “The challenge is still the whole fragmentation of the tournament calendar,” said Mika Kuusisto, CEO ofENCE , whose team reached the finals of the lastCS:GOMajor. “Would it help to bring this even faster to the mainstream, if you had one fixed slot?”

Esports is still at a stage where new TOs can come in and build a brand from scratch, even outside ofCS:GO. However, the reliable thousands that attend top events likeLeague of Legends’Worlds or The International do so in part out of tradition. AlthoughCounter-Strikehas no equivalent event of that size or competitive scale, ESL One has a history no Major can award.

Source: Esportsobserver.com

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