Shroud To Co-stream Final IEM Cologne Playoff Matches

ESL has announced that Mike “⁠shroud⁠” Grzesiek has been granted co-streaming privileges for the semi-finals and grand final of IEM Cologne, the possibility of which the former professional player first teased on Thursday.

The 27-year-old played one of his final events under Cloud9 at ESL One Cologne 2017, where the North American team reached the grand final before being swept by SK 3-0.

shroud has been a consistent force in driving viewership for professional VALORANT tournaments, often times boasting over 100,000 concurrent viewers on his own channel. The strategy has paid dividends for the Riot Games FPS, which has had multiple co-streamers broadcasting their events, racking up hundreds of thousands of extra viewers outside of their own tournament broadcast.

shroud previously played in the grand finals of ESL One Cologne in 2017

Notably, Mythic member Erik “⁠fl0m⁠” Flom has been a proponent for ESL and other tournament organisers to allow co-streaming so that he, and other streamers with large followings, can watch CS:GO matches with their community, with BLAST being one of the first to implement the initiative in 2020.

The news from ESL comes after further interest and demand grew for the tournament organiser to distribute co-streaming rights to individual personalities, with discussions regarding the benefits of giving external stakeholders the ability to view the tournament broadcasts on their own channels becoming more prevalent on social media.

The schedule for the final matches of IEM Cologne looks as follows: