The playoff field for the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event in Germany is set, and ENCE and G2 Esports have the most coveted spots in the field.
The two teams completed unbeaten runs through the group brackets on Tuesday, earning byes and landing a spot in the semifinals of the $1 million event. Team Vitality will face Cloud9 in one quarterfinal, while Heroic and Astralis square off in the other.
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began last Wednesday with 16 teams competing in the double-elimination play-in stage. Opening matches were best-of-one, with all additional matches best-of-three.
Eight teams advanced to the group stage, which also featured eight teams that previously qualified: G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, ENCE, Heroic, Cloud9, Natus Vincere and GamerLegion.
A pair of group stages, both double-elimination with matches best-of-three, completed play Tuesday. Each group winner earned a berth in the playoff semifinals while the upper-bracket runners-up and lower-bracket winners got the four quarterfinal slots. The single-elimination playoffs run Friday through Sunday, with the quarterfinals and semifinals best-of-three and the grand final best-of-five.
The championship side will receive $400,000 and a berth in the 2024 IEM Katowice event. The runner-up will get $180,000.
On Tuesday, Group B play began with a pair of lower-bracket semifinal matches.
Natus Vincere swept FaZe Clan, winning 16-6 on Mirage and 19-17 on Overpass, while Astralis swept MOUZ with a 16-8 win on Ancient and a 16-11 victory on Nuke.
From there, Astralis beat NAVI in three games to earn a playoff spot. The first map, Ancient, was an overtime marathon, with Astralis ultimately winning 25-23. NAVI responded with a 16-9 win on Nuke, but Astralis took the winner-take-all map, Overpass, 16-12 to earn a playoff spot.
In the upper-bracket final, G2 pulled off a reverse-sweep of Vitality by taking Vertigo 16-10 and Mirage 16-8 after dropping Inferno 19-17 in overtime.
In Group A, Cloud9 sat one map from elimination but won the final two maps to survive the lower-bracket final and send GamerLegion home. GamerLegion won 16-11 on Inferno to open the contest, but Cloud9 responded with a 16-11 win on Ancient and a 19-17 victory on Mirage in overtime to take the match.
ENCE earned the Group A bye with a 2-1 win over Heroic in the upper-bracket final. ENCE won 16-12 on Nuke to open the contest, but Heroic answered with a 16-8 win on Overpass. ENCE then took Mirage 16-14 to take the match.
Intel Extreme Masters Cologne playoff quarterfinals:
Friday
–Team Vitality vs. Cloud9
–Heroic vs. Astralis
Semifinals:
Saturday
–Vitality-Cloud9 winner vs. ENCE
–Heroic-Astralis winner vs. G2 Esports
Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool
1. $400,000, 2024 IEM Katowice berth
2. $180,000
3-4. $80,000
5-6. $40,000
7-8. $24,000 — GamerLegion, Natus Vincere
9-12. $16,000 — Fnatic, Monte, FaZe Clan, MOUZ
13-16. $10,000 — The MongolZ, 9INE, OG, Ninjas in Pyjamas
17-20. $4,500 — FURIA Esports, Apeks, Team Liquid, Imperial Esports
21-24. $2,500 — Into the Breach, Complexity Gaming, BIG, Grayhound Gaming
–Field Level Media