MOUZ and Fnatic booked their spots in the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event by winning two play-in matches apiece on Wednesday in Germany.
The $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began 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 will advance to the group stage, which also will feature eight teams that previously qualified: G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, ENCE, Heroic, Cloud9, Natus Vincere and Gamer Legion.
Two groups of eight will compete in double-elimination play from Saturday through Tuesday, with all matches best-of-three. The two group stage winners will move to the playoff semifinals, the group-stage runners-up will head to the playoff quarterfinals as high seeds and the group-stage third-place teams will go to the playoff quarterfinals as low seeds.
The single-elimination playoffs will run Aug. 4-6, 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 Wednesday, MOUZ opened with a 22-19 double-overtime win over The MongolZ before sweeping Ninjas in Pyjamas in two maps, 16-12 on Nuke and 16-7 on Inferno. Slovakia’s David “frozen” Cernansky led MOUZ in the second match with 57 kills and a plus-35 kill-death differential. Denmark’s Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke logged 38 kills and a plus-2 K-D differential for Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Fnatic snuck past Complexity 19-17 in overtime on Inferno, then downed 9INE in two maps, 16-12 on Ancient, 16-10 on Vertigo. Denmark’s Fredrik “roeJ” Jorgensen paced Fnatic with 49 kills and a plus-17 K-D differential in the second match. Olek ‘hades’ Miskiewicz had 43 kills and a plus-8 K-D differential for 9INE’s all-Polish squad.
Ninjas in Pyjamas had advanced by beating Into The Breach 16-5 on Ancient, while 9INE squeezed past OG 19-17 in overtime on Overpass.
Four other first-round play-in matches were contested on Wednesday. Apeks beat BIG 16-10 on Mirage, Astralis downed Team Liquid 16-10 on Ancient, Monte got past Imperial Esports 16-9 on Nuke, and FURIA Esports handled Grayhound Gaming 16-11 on Ancient.
On Thursday, Apeks will oppose Astralis while Monte square off with FURIA, with the two winners qualifying for the group phase.
The four lower-bracket first-round matches also are set for Thursday: The MongolZ vs. Into The Breach, Complexity vs. OG, BIG vs. Team Liquid and Imperial Esports vs. Grayhound Gaming.
Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool
1. $400,000, 2024 IEM Katowice entry
2. $180,000
3-4. $80,000
5-6. $40,000
7-8. $24,000
9-12. $16,000
13-16. $10,000
17-20. $4,500
21-24. $2,500
–Field Level Media