Team Vitality and G2 Esports will meet in the Group B upper-bracket final after notching wins on Monday at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event in Germany.
Team Vitality swept MOUZ 2-0 and G2 Esports defeated FaZe Clan by the same score. The losing clubs dropped into the lower bracket, where Natus Vincere knocked out OG 2-1 and Astralis eliminated Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in quarterfinal matches on Monday.
In Group A, meanwhile, Cloud9 swept Monte 2-0 and GamerLegion rallied past Fnatic 2-1 in the lower-bracket semifinal matches.
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 advanced to the group stage, which also features eight teams that previously qualified: G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, ENCE, Heroic, Cloud9, Natus Vincere and GamerLegion.
Two groups of eight are competing 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 Monday, Vitality mowed down MOUZ 16-4 on Inferno and 16-5 on Mirage. Frenchman Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut led Vitality with 38 kills and a plus-17 kills-to-deaths differential.
G2 took down FaZe 16-4 on Inferno and 16-12 on Ancient. Nemanja “huNter-” Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina posted 47 kills and a plus-23 K-D differential, and Russian Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov added 46 kills and a plus-25 for G2.
In the lower-bracket quarters, Natus Vincere beat OG 16-13 on Anubis, absorbed a 16-11 loss on Inferno and prevailed 16-10 on Ancient. Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy of Ukraine had 63 kills and a plus-17 for Natus Vincere.
Astralis earned 16-6 wins over Ninjas in Pyjamas on both Vertigo and Ancient. Johannes “b0RUP” Borup paced the all-Danish Astralis squad with 46 kills and a plus-18.
In the Group A lower-bracket semis, Cloud9 beat Monte 16-14 on Anubis and 16-11 on Ancient. Russia’s Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov carried Cloud9 with 55 kills and a plus-30 differential.
GamerLegion fell to Fnatic 16-5 on Vertigo before storming back, earning close wins of 16-12 on Inferno and 19-17 in overtime on Ancient. Frederik ‘acoR’ Gyldstrand of Denmark and Nicolas ‘Keoz’ Dgus of Belgium each posted 57 kills for GamerLegion; acoR’s plus-9 differential was the only positive individual K-D on the winning side.
The tournament continues Tuesday with six matches in the Group Stage:
–Heroic vs. ENCE (Group A upper-bracket final)
–GamerLegion vs. Cloud9 (Group A lower-bracket final)
–Team Vitality vs. G2 Esports (Group B upper-bracket final)
–FaZe Clan vs. Natus Vincere (Group B lower-bracket semifinals)
–MOUZ vs. Astralis (Group B lower-bracket semifinals)
–TBD vs. TBD (Group B lower-bracket final)
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
9-12. $16,000 — Fnatic, Monte, two teams TBD
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