ESL One Cologne 2015 has finally come to an end, with Fnatic coming out on top following a relatively decisive win against Team EnVyUs. However, despite its amazing production quality and record-breaking breaking viewership, it’s pretty safe to say that this was the worst major tournament in CS:GO history. This article will go through the factors that led to such a disappointing event, many of which were completely out of the control of ESL/Valve.

Relatively uninteresting playoffs

Sure, there were a few close and interesting games, but the majority of the matches during the BO3 playoffs were 2–0s where one team just demolished the other. Even the grand finals turned out to be a 2–0 match, with de_cobblestone being especially one-sided.

In previous major playoffs, we saw lots of intense matches between top tier teams that were both under pressure, creating a near-perfect viewing experience. Those are the matches where we truly see amazing Counter-Strike, with both teams fully utilizing their arsenal of strats and playing to the best of their ability. And while we did see some of that in the grand finals on de_dust2, a lot of the other matches just felt boring and one-sided. You’re not going to see incredible new strats and players playing their hearts out when they’re already crushing the other team 13 to 6.

A terrible crowd

Even if you’re not a fan of Fnatic, there is absolutely no reason to be booing olofmeister after he won a match. Doing so is not only disrespectful, but it also hurts the legitimacy of eSports as a whole. Do you think potential eSport sponsors like seeing fans booing a team at the biggest Counter-Strike tournament to date?

Other than the booing, the crowd just seemed to have some sort of Fnatic hating vibe to them during this tournament. There clearly weren’t too many Fnatic fans in the stadium, which led to some pretty uncomfortable moments. It was especially awkward when Fnatic won the entire tournament and there was barely any audible cheering/clapping from the crowd. (Again, there obviously isn’t any way to fix this, but it did impact the viewing experience.)

Mediocre talent

The talent at ESL One Cologne 2015 was a mixed bag?—?while it featured some amazing commentators/analysts such as Anders, Fifflaren, and moses, other members of the broadcast team were only decent, such as Joe Miller, Deman, and Pansy. The most disappointing thing ESL did regarding their talent was the decision to have Anders, Deman, and HenryG cast the grand finals. Even though that’s a solid casting lineup, it could be better with the addition of either Fifflaren, moses, or Semmler. Why settle for a good casting lineup if you could have a great one?

Small viewership growth

The previous major, ESL One Katowice 2015, had an incredibly large growth in viewership. From only 686,000 peak viewers at DreamHack Winter 2014 to over a million peak viewers at ESL One Katowice 2015, that major became the example people gave to show the tremendous growth of CS:GO eSports. ESL One Cologne 2015 reached a peak viewership of about 1.25 million, and while that’s certainly no number to scoff at, it’s also heavily under what many analysts predicted. Could this be a sign of the CS:GO eSports scene plateauing?

A good tournament nonetheless

Don’t get me wrong, ESL One Cologne 2015 was still a great tournament filled with some very exciting matches, and I enjoyed it immensely. It just didn’t live up to the standards that other majors set before it.

Kevin is a freelance CS:GO journalist currently working for Fusion.  You can follow him for more content at @Fusion_Kevin.