For the last time, “The Cathedral of Counter Strike” opened its doors for CS:GO at the weekend. In Cologne, G2 secured the IEM double and rounded off a successful event for German eSports.
“An absolute dream” was how Jan ‘Swani’ Müller summed up what G2 had experienced at the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) in Cologne via Twitter on Sunday evening. The German team not only secured the coveted trophy in front of their home crowd, but also took home their second major title of the year after the IEM Katowice in February. The final triumph over ENCE brought the Berlin organisation 400,000 US dollars and a place at the IEM 2024 in Katowice.
For Müller in particular, the victory in the LANXESS arena was a special one. The G2 coach became the first and last German CS:GO champion. After nine years, the chapter of CS:GO ends in Cologne, the successor Counter-Strike 2 is waiting in the wings.
37,000 fans fill the venue
But it wasn’t just for the recent champions that the event was a complete success. In terms of spectators, Europe’s biggest Counter-Strike event once again underlined its importance. According to the LANXESS arena, the event attracted “over 37,000 fans from 70 countries” over the weekend.
There were even more spectators on the net. The “Esport Charts” database recorded a peak of 727,000 people watching the final between G2 and ENCE. This made the duel the most-watched CS:GO match of the year outside the majors. Over 29.5 million hours of watchtime were also accumulated during the Masters in Cologne.
