| 2018 | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
| Location | Cologne, Germany |
| Dates | July 3, 2018–July 8, 2018 |
| Administrator | Electronic Sports League (ESL) |
Tournament format(s) | 16 team swiss group stage Six team single-elimination playoff |
| Venue | Lanxess Arena |
| Teams | 16 teams |
| Purse | US$300,000 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Natus Vincere |
| 1st runners-up | BIG |
| 2nd runners-up | Astralis FaZe Clan |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Attendance | 15,000[1] |
| MVP | Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev |
ESL One Cologne 2018 was a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. In July 2018, sixteen teams from around the globe competed in an offline (LAN) tournament that featured a group stage and playoffs with a US$300,000 prize pool.[2][3] It would be the second consecutive year since Cologne 2016 in which Valve decided to pass up on the historic tournament series as a Major host in favor of the FACEIT Major: London 2018.
This tournament was also the eleventh tournament of the first season of the Intel Grand Slam, which a list of international premier tournaments run by ESL and DreamHack. Each team gets ten tournaments that it participates in to have a chance at winning four of them. The first team to win four titles earns an extra $1,000,000. FaZe Clan (ESL One New York 2017, Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII - Sydney, and ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018) leads the way with three wins. SK Gaming (ESL One Cologne 2017 and ESL Pro League Season 6) and Astralis (DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 and ESL Pro League Season 7) are tied for second; however, SK Gaming's players contracts expired with the team and the players opted to sign with the Immortals-owned mibr brand. G2 Esports (DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017), Ninjas in Pyjamas (Intel Extreme Masters Season XII – Oakland), and Fnatic (Intel Extreme Masters Season XII – World Championship) have one title each. ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018 precedes the Cologne 2018 event.[4]
The finals featured Natus Vincere – which defeated Fnatic and the favorites to win the tournament Astralis – and the dark horse and hometown favorites BIG – which defeated G2 Esports and upset FaZe Clan. Natus Vincere would end up winning the tournament over BIG 3-1 for its first Intel Grand Slam win.