ESL One Cologne viewer's guide

14/8/2014 - 06:44

With Valve's third major coming up, we've put together the viewer's guide for the event running from August 14-17 in Cologne, Germany.

ESL One Cologne at Gamescom will gather sixteen of the best teams in the world in the battle for $250,000 after weeks of qualifiers from a number of different regions.

1. $100,000
2. $50,000
3-4. $22,000
5-8. $10,000
9-16. $2,000

We have learned the caster lineup, which features Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner as the host together with Scott "SirScoots" Smith, joined by the usual trio Anders Blume, Auguste "Semmler" Massonat and Stuart "TosspoT" Saw, as well as Lauren "Pansy" Scott and Richard Lewis.

HLTV.org has conducted interviews with members of all attending teams - though some are not yet posted - about expectations, preparations and more, check below in case you missed some:

Alexey "ub1que" Polivanov: "Let's just wait and see"

Kenny "kennyS" Schrub: "[G3] result still means something"

Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill: "Not just there to fill the numbers"

Richard "shox" Papillon: "I don't fear any team"

Denis "seized" Kostin: "We've been more effective"

Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund: "Time to win a major"

Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow: "I like the [new] maps a lot"

Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen: "Our A-game can beat anyone"

Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer: "Tired of quarter-final exits"

Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas: "We haven't reached our peak"

Pål "Polly" Kammen: "We are here to stay"

Henrik "FeTiSh" Christensen: "There is no I in team"

Jesper "JW" Wecksell: "We can surprise a lot of teams"

iBUYPOWER: "Too many mistakes"

Spencer "Hiko" Martin: "You are in for a treat"

The format of the tournament hasn't changed from the previous majors, although keep in mind that de_cache, de_overpass and de_cobblestone are in the maplist, while de_train isn't, and the veto system has been altered. Also, knife rounds will not be played, sides will be picked by the team vetoing first.

According to the official schedule, Thursday's matches will be played in the Pro Gaming area, while from Friday on everything will take place on the North Stage.

You can find the full schedule for the four-day event below:

Thursday, August 14th
09:00	NiP	vs. Wolf	A1
09:00	Epsilon	vs. HellRaisers	A2
10:00	A1 loser	vs. A2 loser	A3
12:00	LDLC	vs. London Conspiracy	B1
12:00	Copenhagen Wolves	vs. Natus Vincere	B2
13:00	B1 loser	vs. B2 loser	B3
15:00	Virtus.pro	vs. dAT	C1
15:00	iBUYPOWER	vs. fnatic	C2
16:00	C1 loser	vs. C2 loser	C3
18:00	dignitas	vs. Vox Eminor	D1
18:00	Titan	vs. Cloud9	D2
19:00	D1 loser	vs. D2 loser	D3

Friday, August 15th
09:30	A1 winner	vs. A2 winner	A4
10:50	A3 winner	vs. A4 loser
12:10	B1 winner	vs. B2 winner	B4
13:30	B3 winner	vs. B4 loser
14:50	C1 winner	vs. C2 winner	C4
16:10	C3 winner	vs. C4 loser
17:30	D1 winner	vs. D2 winner	D4
18:50	D3 winner	vs. D4 loser

Saturday, August 16th
09:00	Quarter-final #1
11:50	Quarter-final #2
14:40	Quarter-final #3
17:30	Quarter-final #4

Sunday, August 17th
09:00	Semi-final #1
12:00	Semi-final #2
15:00	Grand final

ESL One Cologne will be streamed on a number of partner streams and obviously ESL TV as the main one. Don't forget that Valve has shipped out an update, which allows you to listen to casters while connected to a GOTV.

HLTV.org will be live on-site, providing you with full coverage of the event taking place at gamescom, including hot matches, stats, galleries, articles and more.