ESL One Cologne.
It’s been a thing for 5 years, taking place in the Lanxess Arena in front of a crowd of
about 15,000.
The city itself is beautiful.
On one side of the Rhine River is the arena, and on the other, hundreds of bars, clubs
and shops.
And, of course, the Cathedral: the tallest twin-spired church in the world.
Every time I’ve visited, there have been other celebrations on the same weekend, like
the PRIDE festival or some kind of football match.
This effectively turns the city into a massive party, even miles out from the centre.
It’s a really nice atmosphere wherever you go.
But the CS:GO community still plays its part and you’ll spot their team’s t-shirts
EVERYWHERE.
This being the middle of Summer, it’s hot all of the time, even late into the night.
Whatever you’re doing, it feels special.
I advise, if you go to Cologne 2019 or whenever it’ll next be, that you take some time simply
to walk about.
I honestly think you’d be missing out more if you stuck rigidly to the activities going
on in the arena.
Around the Lanxess Arena are all kinds of tents, stalls and activities to keep you busy
between matches.
You’ll get to test cutting edge computer equipment, VR, you can queue for signing sessions
with pro players and you just generally bump into all kinds of interesting and friendly
people as you travel around the event.
There’s a rodeo, there’s some weird remote-control game where you have to survive in an arena
whilst popping your opponents’ balloons.
And there’s the gladiator thing, at which I remain undefeated.
Moving on into the arena itself there are different sections.
With a normal ticket you can sit anywhere around the sides in the lower or higher areas.
With a premium ticket you can sit in the middle, close to the stage, the observers and where
the players walk out from.
Oh, and you have access to unlimited free drinks!
These rooms in the middle section are the VIP ones.
Most companies that are part of the event have one, but if you have lots of money then
you can be in one of these too.
You have your own room, your own seats at the front of it to watch the event from and
will have endless drink and INCREDIBLY TASTY free food for the whole event.
It was kind of a joke on the last day that we were all constantly getting up from our
seats to help ourselves to more of the mini burgers.
And the moment one person did, another person would.
We got through so many of those.
The stage itself is spectacular, full of lights, colours and information about the games being
played.
The bit around the players was the same as last year, but new for this year were hanging
panels that displayed each of the players and whether they were still alive or not.
As well as this there are numerous large screens displaying the match which you’ll spend
most of your time watching.
Not all seats are created equally, though.
From some points you have to strain your neck a bit to get a good view of it.
Though you might have a better view of the players themselves, or the desk at the back.
So you’ll just have to decide what’s most important to you.
The Spidercam has been around for a few years, providing really smooth fly-bys and being
a regular source of entertainment simply watching as it zips by.
New this year were wristbands that would light up.
The first day the organisers played it safe, lighting them up at the end of the round to
show who won, or whenever there was a bomb explosion.
But they got more confident for the weekend and would sync them to the music being played
and would test out all kinds of colourful displays that would spectacularly light the
arena up.
As for the matches, in previous years they crammed all 4 quarter finals into the Friday,
but this year there were just 2 being played.
Then 2 semi finals on Saturday, and a best of 5 finale on the Sunday.
This leaves comfortable time between the maps and matches being played for the crowd to
go and explore the rest of the event.
I don’t need to say much about the matches -they speak for themselves- any of you who
have watched a stream of a tournament will know what to expect from them.
But at an event like Cologne, the games being played are just a small part of the whole
experience.
And this is the moment this video goes from being educational, to about me gushing about
how amazing the event is.
I’ve said before that you can have as much fun looking at the crowd as you can from watching
the games, and it’s really true.
As the tournament goes on, the crowd finds ways of one-upping what they did the previous
day.
This year they strapped together a load of the inflatable balloons to make large signs
to show their love for the German team, BIG.
Another made an LED display to show the Astralis logo!
UK player SMOOYA got a lot of attention.
At one point the cameraman showed a coordinated display where they spelt out his name.
Kind of.
The bottom left corner of the arena was particularly entertaining, continually chanting his name
and giving him their energy.
The guys down there were the stars of the show.
And set trends that the rest of the arena followed.
It’s funny when you watch these things on stream, but it’s better when you’re in
the arena as it unfolds.
You know then that it’s live, spontaneous and it only adds to the respect that I had
for the audience.
Like, you’ll be watching the match, and then it will cut to an Australian crowd member
drinking out of his shoe before casually going back to the match again.
No trickery, just good live-editing and a crowd that’s happy to entertain.
And on top of this, every day at an event like this feels like 2 days.
You get your time in the arena, watching the games.
But then, once they finish, the nightlife starts.
You’ll come out of the arena and everywhere you look are CS:GO players.
Sat around, crossing roads, eating in restaurants.
At first I’d worry that I’d lose that community feeling by travelling 2 miles to
the Meltdown bar, but they’re there as well.
And in the place next door to it.
And so on.
I went to a gay bar.
During a PRIDE week.
Nope, CS:GO players there as well.
An after-party was hosted at the same venue as last year.
You hop on coaches filled with CS:GO players and arrive at the event which quickly fills
up with hundreds and hundreds of people, all forming their own groups and activities around
the place, with others free to come and go as they please.
It’s a chance to meet the crowd and to realise how much you have in common with everybody
else there.
Wherever you go, the weekend is one endless party and you feel you know these people because
you’ve both been part of the same crowd.
You’ve seen the same games.
You’ve shared the shoe-y.
You might say that I get preferential treatment because people know me from Youtube, but there
are a lot of people who don’t know me as well.
And they were also nice.
The community that attends these events is lovely and I feel like I could be friends
with anybody there.
I spent a lot of my time simply walking about and soaking up the atmosphere.
If you see me, don’t be shy, come up and say hi, I’ll sign your stuff and have pictures
taken if you want them.
It’s kind of a highlight for me.
My only regret is that I can’t remember everybody I talk to.
I remember where the meeting took place and any particularly novel gear that I’m asked
to sign, as well as any unusual questions I’m asked, but sadly I often forget names
and faces.
By the third day I recognise a lot of faces but I’m unsure about where from, and when
they remind me that I met them a previous day I feel bad for not remembering more.
For the Grand Final, before game began, there was a count-down.
Rather than dubstep or the usual gaming style, they had an orchestra.
And a slow-building and powerful piece.
And it took my breath away.
The arena was quiet as it was performed in front of us, live.
It was the sort of thing that people from outside the CS:GO scene could watch and appreciate.
It started to build.
The cathedral theme, the interstellar-y music and a full stadium.
It was a highlight for me- and many others who I talked to.
It made me proud to be there and part of it.
It seemed normal to get a bit emotional about it.
And then the dubstep kicked in.
Right now, I’m still buzzing from the tournament.
Something about it gives me the energy to power through 3 days crammed with stuff, with
just a few hours to recover every night.
I’ll remember talking to skin makers around the campfire.
Or walking along the river as the sun came up.
Or hearing car horns blaring after a great match.
Or bumping into the casters somewhere around Cologne.
It’s surreal- too much to process.
The trip becomes an unreal dream that I spend weeks revisiting and picking apart in my mind.
And then, somewhere in the year between Cologne events, I forget HOW much I enjoyed them.
And I’m then absolutely blown away the following year again.
It’s as though every year I get to relive my first time at Cologne.
And when I get back, it makes me want to play some CS:GO.