ESL One Cologne 2016 in photographs

The Lanxess Arena in Cologne played host to the second million dollar Major after MLG Columbus 2016. The arena had already been home to an ESL One last year, but would break records this year by taking in 14,000 fans during the tournament's playoff stage.

dignitas seen during the tournament's opening match which they played against local Danish rivals Astralis on Tuesday, July 5th, 2016. Astralis would go on to beat dignitas in this match and in the group's decider match, therefore eliminating them from the tournament.

Ricardo 'fox' Pacheco embraces Håvard 'rain' Nygaard and Philip 'aizy' Aistrup after upsetting fnatic in their opening day match. FaZe would go on to lose their best-of-three match against the Swedes in the group's decider match.

While Óscar 'mixwell' Cañellas's OpTic Gaming didn't make it out of groups after being knocked out by FlipSid3 Tactics in the elimination match, Cañellas will still go down in the books as having been the first Spanish player to have attended a Major.

Georgi 'WorldEdit' Yaskin taking a break from warming-up before FlipSid3 Tactics's match against OpTic Gaming, which ended with the Canadian team being eliminated from the tournament.

Richard 'shox' Papillon was once again denied the chance of playing on a big stadium stage for the first time in his career after G2 lost both of their matches in the group of death, first to SK and then to fnatic.

Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub watches Virtus.pro's Paweł 'byali' Bieliński during the Polish team's winners match against Team Liquid, which Virtus.pro would go on to win assuring them a spot in the play-offs. Schrub, however, would have to watch the rest of the tournament from the sidelines as EnVyUs would go on to lose their second group stage match to mousesports later in the day.

A who is who of CIS players watch Jan 'wayLander' Rahkonen during FlipSid3 Tactics's decider match against Ninjas in Pyjamas on the third day of play at the Lanxess Arena. The qualification of the Ukranian team meant three out of the three CIS teams in atttendance at the Major moved on to the play-offs on the main stage.

Yegor 'markeloff' Markelov cheers as he makes it past the group stages of a Major for the first time since DreamHack Winter 2014, when HellRaisers went through and lost in the quarter finals to Ninjas in Pyjamas for a 5-8th place finish.

Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund weeps after Ninjas in Pyjamas got knocked out of ESL One Cologne 2016 by the Ukranian side FlipSid3 Tactics. This was the first Major event in which the Swedish team was unable to make it out the group stages.

The trophy up to now had only been in posession of two Swedish teams, Ninjas in Pyjamas who won it in 2014 and fnatic who won it in Cologne and Katowice last year, as well as Virtus.pro who won it at EMS One Katowice 2014.

Luis 'peacemaker' Tadeu goes over Team Liquid's strategy after the first map of their quarterfinal match against Natus Vincere. Tadeu was brought to the USA less than a year ago as Wilton "zews" Prado's replacement in Games Academy/Tempo Storm. After a disagreement with TS players, Tadeu was picked up by Team Liquid, garnering a deep run all the way to the finals in his first Major.

Auguste 'Semmler' Massonnat watches SK face Virtus.pro in the semifinals on Day 5 of ESL One Cologne from the monitors at the analyst desk stageside. The match went to three maps, with SK finally taking it 16-12 on the decider, de_mirage.

Team Liquid and fnatic fans chant at each other on the floor of the Lanxess Arena during their teams's semifinal match which the North American side took 2-0 earning themselves their first berth into a Major final.

Josh 'jdm64' Marzano raises his arms triumphantly and Aleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev jumps out of his seat after beating fnatic 2-0 during the semifinals earning Team Liquid a spot in the finals of a Major for the first time.

Duncan 'Thorin' Shields was back at an ESL event since his ban before IEM Katowice two years ago to analyze the Major with this year's breakout analyst Janko "YNk" Paunović.

Nick 'nitr0' Cannella looks up at the giant screens as he high fives fans after beating fnatic for a spot in the final.

Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo cheers after winning the first map of the final, de_train, en route to a 2-0 victory and Major title. De Melo had the highest rating on that map and was crucial to SK's success in the tournament.

Wilton 'zews' Prado is embraced by his mother stageside right after SK lifted the ESL One Cologne 2016 trophy for the first time.

Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo lifts a Major trophy for the second time in a row after already winning at MLG Columbus 2016, thus remaining the only team to have won a one million dollar event in CS:GO.

SK pose for the cameras with the trophy and two Brazilian flags, one of which was given to the team by Luis 'peacemaker' Tadeu who had been wearing it during the final match between SK and Liquid.