ESL Gaming and Intel, a leading brand in esports, celebrate the successful conclusion of the Intel® Extreme Masters Cologne 2021. With a peak of more than 840,000 people watching the 3-0 grand final between Natus Vincere and G2 at the same time, except China. This made IEM Cologne 2021 the second highest viewed non-Major CS:GO tournament of all time, after IEM Katowice 2020.

For the first time in 504 days, the world’s best CS:GO teams were brought together in the German city of Cologne, where $1 million US dollars of prize money were on the line. There were over 200 players and other members of team & ESL staff collected together in Cologne, and over 1000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests conducted during the event, with 0 positive results.

After two weeks of competitive and exciting matchups, Natus Vincere beat G2 Esports in a 3-0 sweep in the grand final that took place on July 18th, making them one of the greatest CS:GO teams and leaving the team only one win away from winning Intel Grand Slam Season 3, which immediately would award NAVI with $1 million dollars. On top of that, Natus Vincere’s player Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, was nominated as the ESL Pro Tour: DHL MVP of the tournament by fans and experts. With four aces, which in itself is a new record for aces by a single player in a large event, a KPR of 0.96 and an ADR of 93.1 across the whole tournament, he is currently widely considered to be the best CS:GO player of all time by the wider community.

"It was a great tournament," said Natus Vincere player Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. "For like one and a half years - I think 500 days, I was in my city and now everything is perfect and I hope that ESL and all the people who are involved are going to keep doing this great job."

Up next in the ESL Pro Tour for CS:GO is ESL Pro League Season 14 which is set to take place on August 16 - September 12, followed by IEM Fall which will be held on September 28  - October 10.