ESL has confirmed that ESL Cologne 2021 will be a LAN event. ESL One Cologne, which is scheduled to take place between the 6th and the 18th of July, will be the first CS:GO LAN event of scale after Covid-19 struck the world in March 2020.
The last LAN event to be held offline was another ESL event, IEM Katowice, which had to continue its playoffs without a crowd after the local government prohibited live crowds due to Covid. Natus Vincere ended up hoisting the trophy in an empty arena after a 3-0 sweep over G2 Esports in the grand finals.
Like Katowice 2020, the upcoming IEM Cologne event will be hosted in a studio environment without a crowd but will still feature 24 teams from around the world competing for USD 1 million. Fans who purchased tickets for either last year or this year’s Cologne event can use those tickets for Cologne 2022. Fans can also request a refund until the end of 2021.
IEM Cologne will be a stop on the road to the PGL Stockholm Major in October, which is tentatively still planned, although the organisers are considering alternatives following the news that Valve might be moving Dota 2’s TI10 out of Stockholm.
