ESL reveals final invites for Cologne tournaments
A total of $500,000 will be on the line in this tournament series, which will be held online because of the global health situation.
ESL has announced the final team list for the ESL One Cologne tournaments that will be held online in four regions after the German event was scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic. The biggest surprise comes in the form of an European invite handed to MIBR, who HLTV.org knows will be bootcamping in the Old Continent in August.
The online tournament will take place between August 18 and 30, with $500,000 on offer across four regions — Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania. The decision to change the prestigious tournament to an online setting was made last week following an "extensive research and understanding of global travel regulations and individual national guidelines due to ongoing COVID-19 measures."

MIBR, who ended the tournament season with a 7th-8th place finish in cs_summit 6, join a stacked team list that includes seven of the current top 10 sides in the world. The Brazilians' move to Europe freed up a North American spot for Chaos — a curious turn of events, given the tumultuous relationship between the two teams in recent weeks and the cheating accusations towards Nathan "leaf" Orf.
On the tournament's official website, ESL explained that MIBR "had made arrangements" to be able to compete in ESL One Cologne's Play-In stage, the offline qualifier that was scheduled to take place just before the German event. These arrangements included Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe travelling back to Brazil during the player break. With the United States having imposed travel restrictions on foreign nationals who have been to Brazil in the last 14 days, the two players are unable to reunite with the rest of the team in Los Angeles.
"With the adjustment to an online format and understanding that travelling back into the US is extremely difficult during these times, we've worked closely with MIBR to grant their request to continue with their original planning and have assigned them to the European Division as one of the originally invited top 24 teams," ESL said.
Below you can find the complete team list for the four tournaments:
Europe ($325,000 prize pool):
North America ($135,000 prize pool):
Asia ($20,000 prize pool):
Oceania ($20,000 prize pool):