ESL One Cologne Might be the First CS:GO LAN Tournament to Take Place Since IEM Katowice

Cover Image Courtesy: ESL Gaming - Carlton Beener | Thumbnail Image Courtesy: ESL Gaming - Bart Oerbekke

• ESL is trying to turn ESL One Cologne 2020 into a LAN tournament as per reports.
  
  
• If it happens, it will be the first CS:GO LAN tournament to take place since IEM Katowice 2020.
  
  
• ESL is reportedly moving ahead with two possible options in case they fail to host the event in a studio environment. 

After hosting multiple online tournaments in the past couple of months ESL is now actively exploring the possibility of hosting ESL One Cologne as the first CS:GO LAN tournament since IEM Katowice 2020, according to a report by HLTV. 

Since IEM Katowice which was played without any crowd in an empty Spodek arena back in February, all the CS:GO events have been taking place online following a format where the whole tournament was being divided into multiple regional tournaments.

ESL is planning to do the same with the tournament in question, if it is unable to host the entire event including the Play-In phase at a studio in Cologne from 21^st - 30^th August.

In a statement provided to HLTV, someone from ESL stated that “If it’s possible to run a LAN event, it will be a LAN event.” At the moment the organizers are still evaluating the whole situation as slowly some of the restrictions are being lifted by a few countries when it comes to international travel.

[Also Read: ESL One Cologne 2020 to take Place Without a Live Audience]

The organizers are keeping everything in mind including the availability of all teams that will be playing in the tournament, most of which have not been confirmed till now. Earlier the organizers had also announced that ESL Pro League Season 12 will be played offline, though this particular event will be taking place in September.

The possibility of ESL One Cologne 2020 taking place on LAN is dependant on multiple factors like, international travel restrictions employed by different countries up until that point, along with which teams qualify for the tournament and the countries these teams belong to. So it seems to be a really difficult task for this event to take place on LAN but it is certainly not something that is completely off the charts yet.

[Also Read: Fan Reaction to cancelled IEM Katowice event for audience goes viral]