ESL announce Cologne qualifiers; map pool changes
ESL have announced the open qualifier dates for the upcoming ESL One Cologne tournament, with the main event set to take place between July 2nd-7th.
Two open qualifiers will promote four teams to the Closed Qualifier, where they will be joined by four invited sides. From those eight teams, one will earn a spot in Cologne, Germany for the $300,000 event. The dates for the qualifiers are as follows:
- Open Qualifier #1: April 13th
- Open Qualifier #2: April 23rd
- Closed Qualifier: TBA
So far no North American-based teams have been announced as an invite for the German event, however there are still eight direct invite spots to be filled out. Currently Astralis, BIG, FaZe and last year's winners Natus Vincere have been announced.
This will be the first ESL One event of the year, but the fourth offline ESL finals event after IEM Katowice, IEM Sydney and the ESL Pro League Finals. IEM Sydney is the next event up, taking place between April 30th - May 5th.
ESL have also announced an update to their map pool after liasing with the CSPPA. From May 13th, Vertigo will come in to replace Cache in all of ESL's events.
While this means Vertigo won't be in play for either ESL One Cologne open qualifier, it will come in to play for ESL One Cologne itself. Likewise, the map pool will be changed for the second round of groups for the ESL Pro League.
