MLG Columbus 2016: $1 Million good reasons to win!

Countdown to the Major!

We are less than one week away from the start of the last ever Major in CS:GO history. To ease the waiting time, we have created a countdown series, where we dive into the history of all 18 Majors. Today we have reached MLG Columbus 2016.

MLG Columbus 2016

Date: March 29th – April 3rd, 2016

Number of teams: 16

Prize Pool: $1,000,000

Winner: Luminosity Gaming (coldzera, fer, FalleN, fnx, TACO)

MVP: Marcelo "coldzera" David

Map pool: Cache, Cobblestone, Dust2, Inferno, Mirage, Train, Overpass

For the first time in history, a Major took place in North America. It was also the first time, that a Counter-Strike tournament had a $1,000,000 prize pool.

16 teams were again ready to fight for the Major and the $500.000 in first prize. Fnatic entered the tournament as the number 1 ranked team in the world and was considered tournament favorites to win their fourth Major title. Defending champions from Team EnVyUs had not been on top of their game since the win at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015. Instead, NAVI, Luminosity Gaming, and the newly formed Danish roster from Astralis were potential candidates for the Grand Final.

All four favorites made it out of the group stage with only Fnatic losing a match along the way. The Swedish favorites immediately crashed out of the playoffs after Astralis dominated them hard. For the first time in history, there would be a non-European team in the Grand Final. Team Liquid and the Brazilians from Luminosity Gaming were paired in one of the Semi-Finals. Here the Brazilians got the better of s1mple and Team Liquid after two maps with overtime, where Team Liquid missed out on 15 match points before Coldzera finished the NA team off in Luminosity's first match point.

Over in the other side of the bracket, it was Natus Vincere who qualified for their second consecutive Grand Final with a clear 2-0 win against Astralis.

NAVI vs Luminosity

The battle for the title stood between two rosters, who had started to form a rivalry. The two teams had faced each other in several Grand Finals or late stages at tournaments in the previous year. It was NAVI who went into the match as favorites. Luminosity chose Mirage as their map pick, while NAVI leaned on Overpass. The Brazilians got off to a difficult start trailing the CIS team 6-0 before fighting their way back. Natus Vincere had not lost a single map in the tournament, but on Mirage they were finally defeated after overtime.

Now the fight was moved to Overpass which quickly turned into a catastrophe for NAVI. On their own map pick, NAVI lost 16-2 to a well playing Brazilian side, who managed to become the first team outside of Europe to win a major title.

Tournament results:

1. Luminosity Gaming - $250,000
2. NAVI - $150,000
3-4. Astralis - $70,000
3-4. Team Liquid - $70,000
5-8. Ninjas in Pyjamas - $35,000
5-8. Virtus.pro - $35,000
5-8. Counter Logic Gaming - $35,000
5-8. fnatic - $35,000
9-12. FaZe - $8,750
9-12. Gambit - $8,750
9-12. MOUZ - $8,750
9-12. G2 Esports - $8,750
13-16. Flipsid3 Tatics - $8,750
13-16. Splyce - $8,750
13-16. Team EnVyUs - $8,750
13-16. Cloud9 - $8,750

Highest rated players at MLG Columbus 2016:

1. Marcelo 'coldzera' David (Luminosity Gaming) - 1.32 rating

2. Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač (MOUZ) - 1.30 rating

3. Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev (NAVI) - 1.28

4. Egor 'flamie' Vasilev (NAVI) - 1.25

5. Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev - 1.24

6. Nicolai 'dev1ce' Reedtz (Astralis) 1.22

7. Oleksandr 'Shara' Hordieiev (FlipSid3) 1.21

8. Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen (Astralis) - 1.20

9. Håvard 'rain' Nygaard (FaZe) - 1.19

10. Vlаdуslаv 'bondik' Nеchуроrchuk (FlipSid3) - 1.19