Liquid will collect a cheque for $1 million from season two of the Intel Grand Slam (IGS) after lifting the ESL One Cologne trophy.
The North American giants took down Vitality in a four-map series at the Lanxess Arena to pick up their fourth IGS-eligible title of the season, after IEM Sydney, DreamHack Masters Dallas and the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals.
Liquid locked the prize five events into the season, which lasted just 144 days. By comparison, the first IGS season had 15 events and lasted 523 days.
Even more impressive is the fact that Liquid won the season inside 63 days following a perfect streak that began on May 5, when they lifted the IEM Sydney trophy. Nick "nitr0" Cannella's troops beat four different teams in finals en route to the grand prize, besting fnatic in Sydney, ENCE in Dallas, G2 in Montpellier and Vitality in Cologne.
In case Liquid lost the final in Cologne, they would still have six more chances to win the Intel Grand Slam, which rewards the team that wins four eligible tournaments inside a window of ten consecutive events. Season 1 champions Astralis were the only other team to win an IGS trophy this season after coming out on top of the IEM Katowice Major.
Contacted by HLTV.org, ESL declined to comment on whether the Intel Grand Slam will return for a third edition. In less than two weeks, ESL will host IEM Chicago, an event that was supposed to count towards season 2.
Below you can find the events that comprised the second edition of the Intel Grand Slam and their respective champions:
IEM Katowice 2019-
Astralis
IEM Sydney 2019-Liquid
DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019-Liquid
ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals-Liquid
ESL One Cologne 2019-Liquid