NA CS at the Majors: ESL One Katowice 2015

With the BLAST.tv Paris Major just over two weeks away, Dust2.us is building up to the last ever CS:GO Major Championship by taking a trip down memory lane at all the history of North American Counter-Strike in the top-tier competition. Yesterday we covered DreamHack Winter 2014 but today we will talk about the Major infamously known for the match-fixing prior to it.

ESL One Katowice 2015 was announced in January 2015 and it would be the second time a Major would be played in the Polish city. The top eight teams from DreamHack Winter 2014 would earn a direct invite, with the other eight slots earned through the LAN Qualifier just prior to the main event.

Thanks to the results from DreamHack Winter 2014, where neither Cloud9 nor iBUYPOWER managed to get out of the group stage, North America would have to fight through the LAN qualifier for a single spot at the Major. There was only one North American qualifier at this stage, with Europe having five spots up for grabs, the CIS region earning one spot, Poland earning their own qualifier, and a last chance European qualifier just for good measure. Helping to remedy this, Valve did invite two North American teams in Liquid and Cloud9, as well as South American start-up Keyd Stars. But the storylines for ESL One Katowice 2015 started before the Major was even announced.

Just a week after the ESL One Cologne 2014 Major, iBUYPOWER lost against NetcodeGuides.com in a very suspicious manner. One day after that loss, screenshots would arise showing that the match had been rigged. Those screenshots were not enough to prove anyone guilty, but a few months later, the case developed thanks to an article by Richard Lewis, and on January 26th, 2015 Valve declared that the following people were banned from Valve-sponsored events: Duc “cud” Pham, Derek “dboorn” Boorn, Casey "caseyfoster" Foster, Sam “DaZeD” Marine, Braxton “swag” Pierce, Keven “AZK” Larivière, and Joshua “steel” Nissan. The only team member not banned would be Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, because he did not accept skins that were used as payment for participating.

Match-fixing wasn't an NA-only problem, as WinneR from Europe would also be disqualified after the team was found guilty in a match-fixing case as well.

North America was represented by three teams in total at the ESL One Katowice 2015 LAN Qualifier with Liquid, Counter Logic Gaming, and Cloud9 earning spots. This would also be the first major to be attended by a Brazilian team, after Keyd Stars, then still KaBuM.TD, who managed to qualify to the Major after a lower-bracket run. Ultimately, only Cloud9 and CLG would make it through however, denying NA the chance of having three teams at the Major.

With NA CS in the midst of one of the game’s biggest scandals to date, the expectations were not as high for this Major as they were for the previous ones. Just like the previous Major, North America would have no representatives during playoffs, after both Cloud9 and CLG ended the group stage with 1-2 records.

CLG started the tournament against HellRaisers with a huge 16-14 win, after going into the half down 13-2 on Nuke. Then they would face one of the favorites to win the competition, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and once again the NA side found itself down 13-2 at the half, but this time they didn't manage to recover. With a playoff spot on the line, CLG faced Keyd Stars, but the Brazilians had the momentum on their side, coming from a win against HellRaisers, and CLG started another map down 13-2, but lightning didn't strike twice.

Cloud9's run started exactly the same as CLG's, with a 13-2 comeback on Nuke, against TSM's newly-acquired roster. Then, a loss against Virtus.pro would send C9 to the crucial 1-1 bracket with TSM, who beat 3DMAX. The rematch went the Danes way and Cloud9 were once again out of a major without reaching playoffs.

ESL One Katowice 2015 would crown fnatic as champions for the second time in the history of CS:GO's Majors. Ninjas in Pyjamas reached the grand finals once again but lost for the fourth time in five attempts to lift the trophy.

North American Counter-Strike was now in a position it never was before. The match-fixing scandal set the region back while regions such as Brazil were now coming for NA's seat at the big boys' table. Things were not looking good for NA and the future would not be bright for a while.

Tomorrow we continue NA's journey in Majors with ESL One Cologne 2015.