eSports
Intel® Extreme Masters Cologne 2023: Local heroes G2 Esports crowned the final Cologne CS:GO Champion at the Cathedral of Counter-Strike
Intel® Extreme Masters (IEM) Cologne 2023 has come to a thrilling conclusion, with G2 Esports emerging victorious after an intense battle between 24 of the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) teams from around the world. The competition was held from July 26th to August 6th, and the final three days took place in front of more than 37,000 passionate fans at the iconic LANXESS arena in Cologne, Germany.
ESL’s flagship event in LANXESS arena saw many record-breaking moments, with the tournament selling out faster than any other ESL event in Cologne previously, filling the most seats ever as well as capturing the highest average viewership for any other esports event hosted in the German city.
The Play-in Stage began on the 26th July, with 16 teams battling it out for one of the top eight spots. From the 29th July, the Group Stage saw the top eight teams from the Play-in Stage and eight squads that directly qualified, be split into two groups of eight and go head-to-head. The six best teams – Astralis, Cloud9, ENCE, G2 Esports, HEROIC, and Team Vitality – then proceeded to the live Playoffs on August 4-6, during which they faced off against each other in front of the sold-out LANXESS arena.
The Playoffs had a sensational start with Team Vitality dominating the first Quarter-Final, beating Cloud9 2-0. The second Quarter-Final saw Danish squads HEROIC and Astralis face each other, with the latter emerging victorious in another 2-0 win. The Semi-Finals first saw Finnish and French esports organizations, ENCE and Team Vitality, battle it out for three intense rounds, with ENCE becoming the first team to secure a spot in the Grand Final following a 2-1 win. The second Semi-Final saw G2 Esports dominate, defeating Astralis 2-0 and advancing to the final game of the competition.
The electrifying best-of-5 Grand Final saw G2 Esports control the first two rounds against ENCE, going 2-0 up. ENCE started off strong in map 3, and despite catching up, G2 Esports were unable to secure the win, leading the Grand Final to go into the fourth map.
After a hard-fought and exciting match, G2 Esports beat ENCE by a score of 3-1 winning the coveted and renowned IEM Cologne trophy, taking home $400,000 of the $1,000,000 total prize pool, and joining Team Vitality and ENCE in the race to securing Intel® Grand Slam V. Moreover, the squad is the first team to secure a spot in the Group Stage of the first ESL Pro Tour (EPT) Championship event in 2024.
G2 Esports Rifler Nikola “NiKo” Kovač also secured his very first EPT DHL MVP award which is judged on a combination of player performance, fan voting, and broadcast talent voting.
Following the win, Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač commented: “This is the biggest trophy of my career – I’m super happy right now! It’s been a long journey to finally get this trophy but it wouldn’t be possible without this team and I’m so happy to have them by my side. I’m really proud of everyone, we kept it cool and calm throughout the whole series and it doesn’t feel real that we managed to win both [EPT Championship] tournaments in the same year. The experience and playing in the LANXESS arena was amazing!”
By winning the IEM Cologne 2023 title, the German organization claims two EPT Championship competitions back-to-back in the same year, having secured the IEM Katowice trophy earlier this year as well. Furthermore, G2 Esports’ Justin “jks” Savage once more showed he is a force to be reckoned with, winning his third EPT Championship title in two years’ time.
IEM Cologne 2023 saw a peak viewership of more than 727,000.* Moreover, the live part of the event attracted more than 37,000 fans from 70 different countries over three days.
Next up in the ESL Pro Tour is the ESL Pro Tour Season 18, kicking off on August 31 – October 1. For more information and the latest updates about ESL’s Counter-Strike esports ecosystem, head to the official ESL Pro Tour website, and follow ESL CS on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) is pleased to announce Kambi and Abios, its esports data subsidiary, as new ESIC Anti-Corruption Supporters. This partnership signals the alignment of Kambi’s longstanding commitment to corporate probity and sports integrity with ESIC’s ongoing battle against match-fixing and corruption in esports.
Kambi and Abios join a distinguished class of other Anti-Corruption Supporter stakeholders who have historically worked with ESIC to ensure that attacks against the competitive integrity of esports competition are appropriately reported and dealt with. Anti-Corruption Supporters assist ESIC in investigating suspicious betting activity, supporting ESIC’s broader mission to combat cheating and betting fraud in the esports industry. Kambi and Abios’ entrance into the Anti-Corruption Supporter class will see the entities actively work with ESIC to assist in ESIC’s mission to disrupt, prevent, investigate and prosecute all attempts to compromise competitive integrity in esport competition.
Abios’ Managing Director and Founder, Anton Janér commented:
“Our mission at Abios has always been to enable the sustainable growth of esports. As such, we’re incredibly excited to join ESIC in their mission to future-proof esports through combatting match-fixing and other integrity-related malpractices. Fair play is a crucial component in ensuring the viability of esports as a long-term community and investment and we hope to be able to support the industry together with ESIC going forward.”
Stephen Hanna, ESIC’s CEO commented:
“We are delighted to announce this membership. Kambi and Abios are well trusted and recognised operators in their respective industries, and their entrance into the Anti-Corruption Supporter class of ESIC membership emphasises their shared commitment to upholding the highest standards of integrity and fair play within the esports industry.”
The post Kambi / Abios Joins ESIC as an Anti-Corruption Supporter appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Tundra Esports, The International 11 Champions and a leading competitive esports team playing in Dota 2, proudly announces a game-changing collaboration with Gladiator PC, a pioneer in high-performance gaming technology as their Official Supplier.
The post Tundra Esports Announces New Official Supplier Partnership with Gladiator PC appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Global esports organization Gen.G announced their acquisition of YOUR.GG, a data analysis and networking platform for League of Legends players. This partnership comes as a new method for Gen.G to enhance the Gen.G Global Academy experience for students in the program. Gen.G is the first global esports academy equipped with such advanced analytical tools to help expand their offering to players looking to improve their game to a professional level.
“Over the last few years, we’ve been hard at work pioneering what is now the world’s largest esports academy. With over 10,000 students having gone through our curriculum, we see the clear need to develop better tools that gamers, coaches, and parents need to create the best gamers possible. YOUR.GG’s best-in-class data, technology and analytics combined with millions of hours of our professional and academy student coaching will be able to unlock the next generations of esports tools that can help realize the true potential of every student and pro in our program,” Arnold Hur, CEO of Gen.G, said.
This acquisition underscores the importance of data and analytics in developing and refining esports talent, a core principle at Gen.G. YOUR.GG will power both its pro team players and its academy students with data-driven tools and reports to foster growth and provide better insight into scouting for new talent.
“We plan to pioneer a shift in how talent is developed and measured in esports. By developing a tool that will bring a level of analysis and precision to esports that mirrors the most sophisticated training environments in traditional sports. We want to take a holistic approach to measure not just the data within the game, but how a student responds to coaching and feedback,” Min Chang Cha, Founder of YOUR.GG and current VP of Technology at Gen.G, said.
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