15,000 fans will be able to watch the matches

Feb 23, 2015 04:53 GMT  ·  By

The team at the Electronic Sports League and Valve are announcing that they are planning to host the biggest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event in the world on August 22 and 23 of this year in Cologne, presumably during the period when the city is also playing host to the Gamescom event.

One of the big draws for the competition will be the 250,000 dollars (205,000 Euro) prize pool, but the organizers are saying that what really makes the occasion special is the fact that it will take place in the LANXESS Arena, which means 15,000 fans will be able to watch the matches.

Ulrich Schulze, who manages pro gaming for the ESL, is quoted as saying that "Counter-Strike has been the heart of ESL for 15 years – it was there when we founded ESL, and it is one of the strongest games today. It has an enthusiastic crowd, a well developed professional scene and a developer which really cares about eSports."

He also says that there are plans to introduce more measures in order to make sure that match fixing is not a problem and to eliminate cheating, which means players will be unable to access the Internet during the event in Cologne and peripherals will be checked before matches.

At the moment, there are no plans to ask the community to fund an extension for the prize money, with ESL ready to foot the entire bill for the coming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event.

For now, there is no info on the way players will be selected for the big Cologne event or when tickets will be offered to fans who want to be part of the audience.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive continues to get updates and content

Valve might be currently working on a number of other, newer titles, but the company is also continuing to invest in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, delivering updates in order to tweak the balance and more content for gamers to explore.

The company has also sought to introduce new measures to make sure that professional players are not involved with betting and other shady activities.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has to compete for resources at Valve with DOTA 2, which has been attracting record numbers of players in recent months.