ESL One in Cologne was a huge success with excellent games, record breaking numbers and huge audiences. Now the tournament is back, and this time it will move in to one of the biggest indoor stadiums in all of Germany.
However, ESL does not have support from Valve – yet.
– We will definitely be talking to Valve and are intent on making this a Major, says Ulrich Schulze, Managing Director of Pro Gaming at ESL, to Aftonbladet Esport.

With just a few weeks to go before ESL One in Katowice, the tournament organizer announce they will be coming back to Cologne in August. This time they will put up 250 000 dollars of their own money for the prize pool, rather than going the crowd funding route.

Wouldn’t it be a bigger prize pool if you both have the money you put in, and the crowd funding?
– At this point, we are committed to making it a 250,000 USD prize pool, which is why we decided to put that up regardless of a potential community fund. That does not mean there will be no community funded aspect, just that we are not progressed far enough in talks about this at the moment, Ulrich Schulze, Managing Director of Pro Gaming at ESL, tells Aftonbladet Esport.

Offline qualifiers

In a press release sent out by ESL they state that the tournament will be held in one of Germanys biggest indoor stadiums, the Lanxess Arena with 15 000 seats. To Aftonbladet Esport ESL confirm that Valve, at the moment, is not a part of the tournament.
– We will definitely be talking to Valve and are intent on making this a Major. However, we have a Major coming up at ESL One Katowice in March first, so any other decisions regarding future events will only be made after that.

With the growth of CS:GO and esports you move to a bigger venue. Will the ticket prize go up as well?
–  The ticket prices are pretty similar to what ESL One Frankfurt, our Dota 2 stadium event in Germany, cost for tickets. Compared to ESL One at gamescom last year, it will actually be cheaper for people to attend the tournament.

Will you guys invite the teams in the same fashion as Dreamhack and Valve did prior to Dreamhack Winter, so that the teams from all across the world can practice in more or less the same place?
– The bootcamp for Dreamhack Winter was an experiment that we replaced with a LAN qualifier this time. While we are checking all options for the event, I can say at this point we were happy with the LAN qualifier, and the community seemed to appreciate it as well.