Cologne, Germany. One of the most beautiful cities, in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Counter-Strike fans, however, will know it as The Cathedral. Once a year, Cologne plays host to one of the biggest, most anticipated, and most viewed tournaments in all of Global Offensive—an event where names can be made and legacies can be solidified. As we say goodbye to CS:GO and usher in a new era of Counter-Strike, let's take a look at the grand 9-year legacy that ESL One and IEM Cologne have made for themselves.
ESL One Cologne 2014 – An Unforgettable Debut
The first CS:GO event to be held in Cologne and a major to boot. This was the 3rd major for Global Offensive and it would be for a prize pool of $250,000 and a trophy that has not changed even to this day.
The major would be attended by the winners of the last two majors; Fnatic who won the first-ever CS:GO major and Virtus.pro who won the last major, both teams looking to cement themselves as a dynasty. Titan, Team Dignitas, Team LDLC, and Natus Vincere were all looking to lock in their first major as well. But there is one team who wanted this major championship more than anyone else. Ninjas in Pyjamas, a team who still holds the record for most consecutive map wins at 87-0 had fallen to 2nd place at both previous majors. For GeT_RiGhT, f0rest, Xizt, Fifflaren, and friberg, this could be the one to solidify their legacy as one of the greatest teams in CS:GO history. With competition like olofmeister, pashaBiceps, kennyS, GuardiaN, and device, that win would not come easy.
Even for someone who was not able to watch the event for themselves, there were many moments throughout ESL One Cologne 2014 that have etched themselves into the annals of CS:GO history. KQLY's USP jump shot on Dust II and Hiko's Inhuman Reactions flick are a just few of the most unforgettable moments from this major. When all was said and done, the dust settled and NiP had finally claimed their first and unfortunately only, major victory.
It was an unbelievable event and we are only at the beginning of a tremendous legacy.
ESL One Cologne 2015 – Welcome Home to the Lanxess
ESL One Cologne would be the 6th major tournament to happen in Cologne but this would mark the first event in the home of ESL One Cologne, the Lanxess Arena.
Again the event would be attended by the best teams in the world, headlined by NiP who had once again come 2nd in the previous two majors. Virtus.pro who had cemented themselves by this point as the Virtus Plow. And Fnatic who had just won the Katowice major and are looking to establish their dynasty. They were not the only teams gunning to take home the major either, with dupreeh, device and TSM, kennyS, NBK and Team Envyus, and an up-and-coming Fallen, coldzera, and Team Luminosity.
Once again, Cologne 2015 would be chock full of iconic plays and moments like Fnatic's quad-awp peek on Dust II or pashaBiceps' 4 kill spray down on Inferno. Fnatic did eventually take home the Cologne Cup, solidifying their spot as the greatest Counter-Strike team of all time. While this would be the last major for this Fnatic roster, it would also mark the first time a team would win both Katowice and Cologne in the same year.
ESL One Cologne 2016 – NA's Come to Play
ESL One Cologne 2016 marked the third and last time that Cologne was a major tournament for CS:GO, it was also the second major to have a prize pool of $1,000,000.
This event also had the star power from many of the legendary players we've come to love. 2016 in particular was the first Cologne to feauture a young NAF-FLY, NiKo and s1mple.
S1mple being on the American Team Liquid roster alongside EliGE and Hiko did play amazingly well, becoming first North American team to make to the grand final of a Cologne. S1mple's most iconic moment from this major has to be his falling awp clutch against Fnatic on cache. Just the mention of it brings many Counter-Strike fans warm memories.
In the end however, Cologne once again served to cement another dynasty as another team from the Americas, SK Gaming took their 2nd major trophy in convincing fashion. Sadly this would be their last major victory buf not the last you'll see of this SK team at Cologne.
ESL One Cologne 2017 – Brazilian Dominance
The very next year, SK would once again take home a Cologne trophy, in a dominating fashion to boot. Unfortunately for them, this would also be the first time that ESL One Cologne would not be a major championship. In fact, SK would not win a single major this year despite an overall dominant year winning 8 trophies out of 9 finals appearances.
This Cologne would also feature incredible performances from a rebuilt FaZe Clan with NiKo and karrigan at the helm. As well as an upgraded Natus Vincere that now include both GuardiaN and s1mple. At the grand final though, the team facing SK would be Cloud 9, making them the second North American team to make a grand final of Cologne. This team headlined by shroud, Stewie2k, and Skadoodle put on an incredible performance throughout the event but no one could stop the juggernaut that was SK eventually falling 3-0.
ESL One Cologne 2018 – Hometown Heroes
ESL One Cologne 2018, another non-major tournament was still notable for a whole host of things.
Cologne 2018 would be the first S-Tier tournament that the new MiBR roster, which now featured Stewie2k along with Fallen and the old SK roster would be attending. Cologne also served as a potential bookend to the new super team FaZe Clan that is looking to become the first team to win the $1,000,000 Intel Grand Slam. Cologne would also be attended by the fully formed Astralis roster, the one we all know now to be the greatest team to ever play competitive Counter-Strike.
Despite all this, the two names to reach the finals of Cologne would be Natus Vincere and hometown heroes, BIG. The German roster had shocked everyone with their Cinderella run besting teams like MiBR, G2 and FaZe Clan to meet NaVi in the grand final. Of course, every story must come to an end as s1mple sent gob b, tabsen and BIG Clan to an early grave. This would be s1mple's first Cologne win, but definitely not his last.
ESL One Cologne 2019 – The North American Grand Slam
Another year, another unbelievable Cologne. This time around though, North America finally came out on top. Team Liquid comprised of Stewie2k, Twistzz, NAF-FLY, nitr0, EliGE became the second-ever team to win the prestigious Intel Grand Slam. In fact, starting on the fifth of May 2019 with wins at IEM Sydney, DreamHack Masters Dallas, ESL Pro League Season 9, and ending at ESL One Cologne 2019 on July the 7th, Liquid won their Slam in just 63 days becoming the fastest Grand Slam win to this day.
Even with all the star power on that Team Liquid roster, none of them got to walk away with the MVP award. That honor went to a young ZywOo. This may have not been the Chosen One's first S-tier MVP but Cologne 2019 is known as his coming out party of sorts. Especially on a roster that had not seen much success in S-tier tournaments that year, Team Vitality made a finals run that cemented ZywOo as the next hope for French Counter-Strike. On top of that, Cologne would also be the first LAN event that s1mple and Natus Vincere would play with boombl4 who was not even playing the IGL role just yet. Back then, few could predict the level of success that boombl4 and NaVi would gain in the years to come.
This tournament would also be the last time that this event would carry the ESL One name.
IEM Cologne 2021 – S1mple The Undertaker Dominates
Intel Extreme Masters 2021 was a first for a few things. First LAN tournament since the COVID-19 Pandemic, first time Cologne hasn't been held at the Lanxess since 2014, first time Cologne was played without a crowd, and the first time a single player has claimed 4 aces in one tournament.
Natus Vincere and s1mple had an absolutely indomitable performance at IEM Cologne 2021. Natus Vincere never lost a game, had a round win/loss ratio of 219:143, and s1mple had a k/d ratio of 1.77. The only performance better than this was in the 2021 PGL Stockholm Major where NaVi didn't lose a single map. Cologne also contributed to the third Intel Grand Slam as it was the 3rd NaVi victories where they would lock in their gold bars at the next eligible tournament.
IEM Cologne, being the first LAN tournament since the online era, became the culminating event for 4 teams in particular. Astralis and Team Liquid, two of the best teams in the world before the online era, had been disappointing all throughout the pandemic. Many fans attributed the shift to online formats as well as the departures of Twistzz, nitr0 and dev1ce from their respective teams as the reasons for their dip in performance. On the other side, Gambit and Heroic were teams who thrived during the online era. In that same way, many fans did not believe these teams could keep up their success in an offline environment. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight we can see how these storylines ended, but at the time Cologne served as the anvil that these teams would be tested on. To learn more about what happened here, you can view our summary of the IEM Cologne 2021 groups stage.
IEM Cologne 2022 – Welcome Back to the Lanxess
IEM Cologne 2022 was a return to form for a lot of aspects of the Cologne we know and love. The arena was back, the crowd was back, and the unbelievable plays were back.
The event would be attended by some of the best teams in the world; FaZe, Vitality, NaVi, Cloud9, G2, and ENCE to name a few but hearts would be stolen by the Spanish Cinderella story no one expected. The Spanish roster had not experienced much success in S-tier events pretty much the entire year. Yet it was at the Cathedral that they decided to make the run of their lives, reaching the semi-final stage before eventually going down to the eventual champions.
Speaking of those champions, FaZe Clan were looking to “complete CS:GO”, as ropz so eloquently put it, after winning IEM Katowice and the Antwerp Major. FaZe were on an absolutely dominant run, but a quarter-finals loss at IEM Dallas would put a damper on their momentum and a few doubts on how they would perform at Cologne. Ultimately, FaZe clan came through with incredible performances from nearly every member of the international roster winning out a tough 5 map grand final against NaVi. Cologne would once again serve as an essential win for FaZe to claim their Grand Slam which they would eventually get at the ESL Pro League Season 17 Grand Final, this would also be onl the second time a team would win both Katowice and Cologne in the same year.
Many of you may remember some of Twistzz greatest plays from that grand final like his 1v3 clutch on Overpass or his game clinching mini-drop on Nuke. In the end, though, s1mple still claimed the IEM Cologne 2022 MVP award which is still his latest MVP over a year later.
IEM Cologne 2023 – The Last Hurrah
So, here we are. The most recent and last IEM Cologne for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
With the release of Counter-Strike 2 on the horizon, IEM Cologne became an even bigger event that it already normally is. FaZe Clan, NaVi, Astralis, ENCE, Cloud9, Vitality, Heroic, and G2 all wanted to claim the final trophy of Global Offensive in Cologne. Especially coming off one of the biggest roster shuffles we have ever seen, it also became a proving ground for how the player changes would turn out for teams like NaVi, Vitality and Cloud9.
Vitality showed that the decision to drop dupreeh for flameZ may have been the right one and ENCE showed that they are still one of the best in the world after losing Spinx and valde. Meanwhile G2 showed that they do have potential to be the best team in the world. The ups and downs for this G2 roster may be enough to give any fan a heart attack but becoming the third team ever to win both Katowice and Cologne made it clear that when G2 is on form, no one can stop them. This was an especially important for NiKo, one of the greatest players in Counter-Strike history had never won a Cologne up until this point; and with an MVP to boot, NiKo has once again shown why he could stand amongst s1mple and ZywOo as maybe the best player currently active.
Conclusion
From ESL One to Intel Extreme Masters, Cologne has never failed to give us world-class Counter-Strike. Ask any fan or player and they will tell you that winning Cologne is as close as you can get to winning a major or a Slam. IEM Cologne has spent 9 years cementing its legacy as one of the most important tournaments each and every year, it has been 7 years since the last time Cologne was a major and it still holds the same prestige it always has. That should be evidence enough of the kind of legacy that one tournament has made for itself.
The Cathedral of Counter-Strike has given us 9 years of unbelievable moments and hopefully this walk down memory lane has jogged some fond memories. Of course, this is far from the last time we will have an IEM Cologne as we usher in CS2, it sure feels like the end of an era.
Thank you, Cologne, and we all look forward to the next one.
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