At IEM Cologne, MOUZ suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Team Vitality. Natus Vincere came out on top against OG and G2 won against FaZe.
Cloud9 vs. MONTE
Cloud9 defeated Monte 2-0 (16-14 on Anubis and Ancient 16-11) to stay in the running in IEM Cologne.
bro out here winning 1vs3 against c9 @br0CSGO #IEM pic.twitter.com/CvR8C1UAJT
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 31, 2023
The match started on Anubis and the first map was directly a head-to-head race, which could only be decided thanks to Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov of Cloud9. He finally prevailed over Monte and helped his team win the first map 16-14. On Anubis, he shined again and showed an impeccable performance with more multi-kill rounds. Cloud9 also won the second map 16-11 thanks to him.
GamerLegion vs. Fnatic
GamerLegion won 2-1 (Vertigo 16-5, Inferno 10-16, Ancient 17-19) against Fnatic.
.@afro_csgo SAVES THE DAY WITH A USP#IEM pic.twitter.com/7uA1ckwuya
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 31, 2023
Fnatic had a good start in the match as they defeated GamerLegion on Vertigo thanks to a solid performance from Fredrik “roeJ” Jørgensen. However, they don’t stay as strong and the tide turned. They then struggled to keep up the pace on the other two maps and GamerLegion managed to win both Inferno and Ancient.
Vitality vs. MOUZ
Vitality won against MOUZ with a dominant 2-0 (Inferno 16-4, Mirage 16-5) and secured a spot in the semifinals of the Upper Bracket of Group B.
.@zywoo IS JUST THAT GOOD 🤯#IEM pic.twitter.com/AfvHye0noV
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 31, 2023
The first map was Inferno and there MOUZ already looked frighteningly weak. Vitality’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Emil “Magisk” Reif were just too strong and didn’t give MOUZ a chance to fight their way up. MOUZ lost with 4-16. Next it was Mirage’s turn and there it was basically exactly the same – namely bad for MOUZ. They had to take an unpleasant defeat, because they also lost this map with 5-16.
NiP vs. Astralis
Astralis defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 (Vertigo 16-6, Ancient 16-6).
He just never loses these. @dev1ce#IEM pic.twitter.com/oCl0EmzdSg
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 31, 2023
The match started with Vertigo, and Ninjas in Pyjamas got off to a flying start and quickly took the lead thanks to some strong frags from Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov. But then Astralis overtook and secured the victory of the first map. On Ancient, Ninjas in Pajamas won a pistol round and got off to a good start, but it didn’t last long and the second map also ended with a 16-6 for Astralis.
G2 vs. Faze
G2 qualified for the playoffs after a 2-0 win over FaZe in the Upper Bracket of Group B.
1vs2 for a spot in the #IEM Cologne playoffs! @G2m0NESY 🥶 pic.twitter.com/5s0Jr7dE5b
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 31, 2023
On Inferno, HooXi was the man of the hour and helped his team to a halftime lead of 11-4. G2 won the first map 16-4. On Ancient it was much closer and m0NESY and huNter- showed a top performance. Both teams fought fiercely, but again it was G2 who prevailed, the final score was 16-12.
Navi vs. OG
Natus Vincere won 2-1 against OG (Anubis 16-13, Inferno 11-16, Ancient 16-10).
Natus Vincere had a good start on the first map, Anubis and attacked directly. OG stumbled and couldn’t do much against Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s performance, which gave Navi an 11-4 lead. Both teams looked solid after that, but Natus Vincere managed to win Anubis.
.@f1kucs single handedly holds off the retake ⚡#IEM pic.twitter.com/XQOFIJ7x48
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 31, 2023
The second map was Inferno. nexa put in a fantastic performance with a rating of 1.68 and helped his team to 7-8 by the break. The second half was dominated by OG and they finished Inferno with a 16-11 win.
The third and final map was Ancient. Natus Vincere won the first pistol round and made 3 wins after that. The teams switched sides at a score of 10-5, and OG surged ahead briefly but was quickly thwarted by Natus Vincere, who won the map 16-10.