Liquid invited to GG.BET Cologne Invitational; Chicago qualifier details announced
Maincast have announced that the final spot at ESL One Cologne 2019 will be awarded to the winner of the GG.BET Cologne Invitational. Two of the eight teams have already been decided, with Liquid and G2 receiving invites.
There will be five other invites, with the final team being filled through an open qualifier. The online event will use two GSL groups and a four team single elimination playoff to determine the team which will play in Cologne at the beginning of July.
After the announcement, Liquid manager Steve "jokasteve" Perino issued a statement regarding the team's schedule for the next few months. He spoke about the team's desire to limit their attendances in order to give time to rest and prepare strategies, and how the team was already set to play cs_summit 4, DreamHack Dallas, ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals, and BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles, with ECS Season 7 Finals a possibility as well.
ESL also announced details for the North American qualifier for Chicago, which will contain an eight team closed qualifier, with half the teams being invited and the other half being filled through two open qualifiers:
In addition to the Cologne Invitational, they also announced that Maincast would be hosting a GG.BET Chicago Invitational which would serve as the Europe Qualifier. The tournament will use the same format as the Cologne event, but no teams have been announced yet.
