European Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams are looking dominant at the ESL One Cologne qualifiers, with mousesports and FaZe Clan the first to secure their place.
Sixteen teams are taking part in the best-of-one qualifiers this weekend, held in Katowice, Poland, for a chance to secure one of just eight spots in the upcoming Major. The teams that qualify will then join eight invited teams to compete for $1 million from July 8 to 10 in Cologne, Germany.
Mousesports was the first team to qualify, taking out G2 Esports 16-1. The team was led by powerful play from Denis Howell, with Johannes “nex” Maget, and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač also putting on a strong performance. While the team took out their qualifying matches 3-0, their game against FLuffy Gangsters was quite competitive and they started off strong against Cloud9, but let the opposing team gain some ground in the second half.
FaZe qualified just one hour later, securing their match against Gambit Gaming at 16-11. They beat out both Team Dignitas and FlipSid3 Tactics in convincing fashion to make the final game. Gambit actually started off the match strong, taking the first half 8-7. But FaZe battled their way back, partially due to some clutch play from Ricardo “fox” Pacheco, to take the qualifying spot.
Mousesports and FaZe will join the invited teams—who, according to ESL, have attained “legend status”—next month. This list includes: Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Liquid, Astralis, Natus Vincere, Luminosity Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming, Virtus.pro, and Fnatic.
The qualifiers concludes tomorrow, with the remaining teams—including OpTic, Immortals (formerly Tempo Storm), and Renegades among others—fighting for the remaining spots.
