CS:GO
It was a tournament to remember for Sweden as they saw both teams, 
Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas reach the final. Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer proved why many are asking is he the best player in the world?
The event got underway with the group of death or Group B playing first; the two French powerhouses
EnVyUs vs. Titan on Cobblestone. It proved to be a very tight affair, with EnVyUs coming out victorious 16-14.
LGB vs. 
PENTA followed shortly with the Norwegian team dominating 16-3 on Dust2. The German team did however restore their pride beating Titan eSports 16-4 on Cache, and then they got a revenge victory on LGB on Dust2 to go into the knockout stages.
Group A then got their action underway with Fnatic vs. 
Vox Eminor. The Australians surprised many in the offline qualifiers but they were unable to reproduce the magic against the Swedes who ran out 16-3 winners.
Natus Vincere then beat Flipside Tactics 16-2 on Mirage. It was never going to be easy for F3 without Alexander 's1mple' Kostylev and 
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács was on form for Na’Vi which looked strong going into their game against Fnatic.
Vox Eminor did not disappoint, providing a little upset by beating Flipside Tactics 16:2 on Cache with Azad 'topguN' Orami getting the player of the match. The Aussies were then later knocked out by Natus Vincere which lost to Fnatic 16-7 on Cobblestone.
The teams who progressed from the first two groups were:
Group C started with
Counter Logic Gaming facing HellRaisers . The Americans came out victorious on Nuke winning 16:14 with Tarik 'tarik' Celik playing exceptionally well. Ninjas in Pyjamas then started their tournament by beating 
Keyd Stars convincingly on Inferno 16:9. The Brazilians started a late comeback on the Terrorist side but never really looked like catching up.
Keyd then played Inferno again to knock out HellRaisers 16:12. Lucas 'steel' Lopes despite not being top of his team kept up an impressive 60% headshot ratio at the end of the game. Keyd went on to surprisingly knock out CLG on Dust 2 16:8 to claim their place in the quarter-finals.
Group D opened with the home team
Virtus.pro against 
3DMAX . The Polish side took the win in a convincing fashion with a 16:5 on Overpass, and this was also the first time that map was played in the tournament.
With one North American team already knocked out, the pride of NA CS:GO rested on Cloud 9 . They were playing a strong 
Team SoloMid line-up on Nuke. Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' Khan and Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen both went huge for their teams, but it was C9 who came out on top. Nuke proved once again to be a strong map for the NA teams. TSM went on to beat 3DMAX and then C9 who lost to Virtus.Pro to complete the group stages.
The teams who progressed from the last two groups were:
So what did the fans make of the groups at ESL One Katowice?
Dean 'Billaz' Bilbrough former Team UK CoD2 player said:
The quarter finals of ESL One Katowice saw Fnatic take on PENTA in a best of three. Fnatic took both maps convincingly, 16-8 on Inferno and then 16-7 on Cache, with Jesper 'jw' Wecksell proving to be a real handful with the AWP.
Fan favorites Virtus.pro took on Keyd Stars and won the first map Mirage comfortably with a 16-4 score but a shock overtime victory on Overpass saw the Brazilian team take it to a third map. Virtus were prepared for Nuke however and ran out 16-1 winners to progress to the semi-finals. Filip 'NEO' Kubski pulled off 75 kills over the three maps.
Team EnVy took on Natus Vincere in a close game in which the French team won Cache 16-12 but the Ukrainian team hit back with a 16:14 win on Dust2. The final map was Cobblestone and nobody really knew what to expect. EnVyUs were quick out the blocks winning 13:2 on CT side and grabbed the remaining rounds quickly on T winning the map 16-3.
The last quarter-final saw Ninjas in Pyjamas against Team SoloMid . NiP got off to the best start winning Dust2 16:8. Inferno was extremely one-sided to TSM who ran out 16-4 winners. The final map was Nuke and the ever consistent Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund dropped a 32 bomb to help the Swedes progress 16-12.
Into the semi-finals it was Fnatic vs. Virtus.Pro The first map was Cobblestone and it was insanely close, the deadlock was finally broken in overtime when Fnatic took it 19:17. Mirage was the second map and it was close once again - at half-time it was 8:7 to Fnatic with them heading onto the T side. Freddy 'KRiMZ' Johansson played exceptionally well and some perfectly executed Terrorist strats payed off in 16:8.
The other semi-final was a highly anticipated clash between EnVyUs and NiP. NiP won two straight maps to progress into the final, Cache was 16-9 and Dust2 was 16-10. Richard 'Xizt' Landström was the the player to watch in both these matches, top fragging both.
The final match saw Fnatic vs. NiP. Dust2, Cache and Inferno were the three maps that were chosen, the last one being a weird decision considering Fnatic are meant to be the best team in the world on it.
Dust2 finished 16-14 to Fnatic, Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer and Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist playing well for them to win this map. Cache was a 16-10 win for NiP, Aleski 'allu' Jalli coming into his own alongside Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund to take it to a third map.
On Inferno Fnatic looked strong on CT side. At half-time it was 11:4 - a respectable score for NiP, giving them a fighting chance to win. Once again Aleski 'allu' Jalli was showing why NiP picked him up making some incredible shots with the AWP but it was the in-form Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer who eventually dragged Fnatic over the line to win 16:13.
Dean 'Billaz' Billbrough said after the tournament:
ESL One Katowice was watched by over one-million concurrent viewers which goes to show just how far eSports has come in the past few years, in particular CS:GO. With plenty more tournaments to come this year, stay tuned to SK Gaming for more information.
Source(s): HLTV.org & ESL-One.com
Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas reach the final. Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer proved why many are asking is he the best player in the world?The event got underway with the group of death or Group B playing first; the two French powerhouses
EnVyUs vs. Titan on Cobblestone. It proved to be a very tight affair, with EnVyUs coming out victorious 16-14. LGB vs. PENTA followed shortly with the Norwegian team dominating 16-3 on Dust2. The German team did however restore their pride beating Titan eSports 16-4 on Cache, and then they got a revenge victory on LGB on Dust2 to go into the knockout stages.Group A then got their action underway with
Fnatic vs. Vox Eminor. The Australians surprised many in the offline qualifiers but they were unable to reproduce the magic against the Swedes who ran out 16-3 winners. Natus Vincere then beat Flipside Tactics 16-2 on Mirage. It was never going to be easy for F3 without Alexander 's1mple' Kostylev and Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács was on form for Na’Vi which looked strong going into their game against Fnatic. Vox Eminor did not disappoint, providing a little upset by beating Flipside Tactics 16:2 on Cache with Azad 'topguN' Orami getting the player of the match. The Aussies were then later knocked out by Natus Vincere which lost to Fnatic 16-7 on Cobblestone.The teams who progressed from the first two groups were:
Group C started with
Counter Logic Gaming facing HellRaisers . The Americans came out victorious on Nuke winning 16:14 with Tarik 'tarik' Celik playing exceptionally well. Ninjas in Pyjamas then started their tournament by beating Keyd Stars convincingly on Inferno 16:9. The Brazilians started a late comeback on the Terrorist side but never really looked like catching up.Keyd then played Inferno again to knock out HellRaisers 16:12.
Lucas 'steel' Lopes despite not being top of his team kept up an impressive 60% headshot ratio at the end of the game. Keyd went on to surprisingly knock out CLG on Dust 2 16:8 to claim their place in the quarter-finals.Group D opened with the home team
Virtus.pro against 3DMAX . The Polish side took the win in a convincing fashion with a 16:5 on Overpass, and this was also the first time that map was played in the tournament.With one North American team already knocked out, the pride of NA CS:GO rested on
Cloud 9 . They were playing a strong Team SoloMid line-up on Nuke. Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' Khan and Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen both went huge for their teams, but it was C9 who came out on top. Nuke proved once again to be a strong map for the NA teams. TSM went on to beat 3DMAX and then C9 who lost to Virtus.Pro to complete the group stages.The teams who progressed from the last two groups were:
So what did the fans make of the groups at ESL One Katowice?
Dean 'Billaz' Bilbrough former Team UK CoD2 player said: " I’m really surprised by Titan, I felt that they really should be getting to the quarters, granted they have had the hardest group, but I feel a little disappointed by their performance against Penta. In the groups I was expecting more from Allu; let’s hope he can step it up in the knockout stages. "
The quarter finals of ESL One Katowice saw
Fnatic take on PENTA in a best of three. Fnatic took both maps convincingly, 16-8 on Inferno and then 16-7 on Cache, with Jesper 'jw' Wecksell proving to be a real handful with the AWP.Fan favorites
Virtus.pro took on Keyd Stars and won the first map Mirage comfortably with a 16-4 score but a shock overtime victory on Overpass saw the Brazilian team take it to a third map. Virtus were prepared for Nuke however and ran out 16-1 winners to progress to the semi-finals. Filip 'NEO' Kubski pulled off 75 kills over the three maps. Team EnVy took on Natus Vincere in a close game in which the French team won Cache 16-12 but the Ukrainian team hit back with a 16:14 win on Dust2. The final map was Cobblestone and nobody really knew what to expect. EnVyUs were quick out the blocks winning 13:2 on CT side and grabbed the remaining rounds quickly on T winning the map 16-3.The last quarter-final saw
Ninjas in Pyjamas against Team SoloMid . NiP got off to the best start winning Dust2 16:8. Inferno was extremely one-sided to TSM who ran out 16-4 winners. The final map was Nuke and the ever consistent Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund dropped a 32 bomb to help the Swedes progress 16-12.Into the semi-finals it was
Fnatic vs. Virtus.Pro The first map was Cobblestone and it was insanely close, the deadlock was finally broken in overtime when Fnatic took it 19:17. Mirage was the second map and it was close once again - at half-time it was 8:7 to Fnatic with them heading onto the T side. Freddy 'KRiMZ' Johansson played exceptionally well and some perfectly executed Terrorist strats payed off in 16:8.The other semi-final was a highly anticipated clash between
EnVyUs and NiP. NiP won two straight maps to progress into the final, Cache was 16-9 and Dust2 was 16-10. Richard 'Xizt' Landström was the the player to watch in both these matches, top fragging both.The final match saw
Fnatic vs. NiP. Dust2, Cache and Inferno were the three maps that were chosen, the last one being a weird decision considering Fnatic are meant to be the best team in the world on it.Dust2 finished 16-14 to Fnatic,
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer and Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist playing well for them to win this map. Cache was a 16-10 win for NiP, Aleski 'allu' Jalli coming into his own alongside Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund to take it to a third map.On Inferno Fnatic looked strong on CT side. At half-time it was 11:4 - a respectable score for NiP, giving them a fighting chance to win. Once again
Aleski 'allu' Jalli was showing why NiP picked him up making some incredible shots with the AWP but it was the in-form Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer who eventually dragged Fnatic over the line to win 16:13. Dean 'Billaz' Billbrough said after the tournament: " In my opinion the future looks bright for NiP, I was unsure at first why they would get rid of Mikail 'Maikelele' Bill but Allu in these final matches showed me just what he was capable of. I was extremely surprised NiP let Inferno through and I'm pretty sure the fans would have loved to see Cobblestone for the cases instead."
Mikail 'Maikelele' Bill but Allu in these final matches showed me just what he was capable of. I was extremely surprised NiP let Inferno through and I'm pretty sure the fans would have loved to see Cobblestone for the cases instead."ESL One Katowice was watched by over one-million concurrent viewers which goes to show just how far eSports has come in the past few years, in particular CS:GO. With plenty more tournaments to come this year, stay tuned to SK Gaming for more information.
Source(s): HLTV.org & ESL-One.com
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