ESL One Cologne in jeopardy (again)

Oh how we rejoiced at the idea of a LAN tournament when we heard on the grapevines that ESL One Cologne would be a studio-event.

ESL had stated earlier last month that they would be looking into hosting a studio event for the 2020-edition, if the conditions would allow it. But with current travel restrictions and infection rates in certain big CS countries, things are starting to look grimmer and grimmer for the that prospect.

Germany currently only allows travellers from Australia, Georgia, Canada, Montenegro, New Zealand, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay, alongside EU member states. So that'd be the EU scene + no one else, yikes.

Although most teams have been decided for the event, let's just say that hosting the event on LAN with Germany's current restriction would probably take the list of teams down to less than ten. We can count them on our two hands at least. It doesn't surprise us then to see DBLTAP report that the tournament could very well be moved online after all.

There are still 6 spots to fill as well, which will be decided through the totally accurate ESL World Ranking. Four EU teams and two NA are still missing, with the last ranked tournament before Cologne being DreamHack Open Summer. You can find more on the  tournament timeline and the rankings on ESL's website.

Spirit, MAD Lions, Virtus Pro and ENCE are currently sitting on those last four spots, but depending on the results at DH Open, several teams can overtake them, including Complexity and OG.