FURIA, Astralis, HEROIC, 3DMAX and Team Liquid grabbed the final five berths into the group stage of the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event as the play-in stage wrapped up Friday in Germany.
FURIA swept Astralis 2-0 in the last of the upper-bracket matches where the winner advanced to the next stage. Astralis dropped to the lower bracket, but was able to overcome paiN Gaming 2-1 in a do-or-die match while HEROIC, 3DMAX and Team Liquid also advanced through the lower bracket.
The play-in phase of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with 16 teams competing in a double-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches. Eight teams earned spots in the group stage, which also will include eight teams that received direct berths: Team Vitality, MOUZ, Team Spirit, Team Falcons, The MongolZ, Aurora Gaming, G2 Esports and Natus Vincere.
The group stage, which begins Saturday, will consist of two double-elimination groups contesting best-of-three matches. The two group winners will advance directly to the semifinals, the two runners-up will move to the quarterfinals as high seeds, and the two third-place teams will head to the quarterfinals as low seeds.
The playoffs, which will start on Aug. 1, will be single elimination. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be best-of-three ahead of the best-of-five final on Aug. 3.
The winning team will receive $400,000, and the runner-up will get $180,000.
On Friday, FURIA staved off Astralis in a 13-11 win on Nuke and a 13-9 triumph on Dust II. Brazil’s Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato of FURIA led all players with 45 kills and a plus-17 kills-to-deaths differential.
In the lower bracket, paiN Gaming finished Round 1 Friday by rallying past BIG 2-1. They moved on to face Astralis, who opened with a 13-4 blowout on Nuke; after paiN evened it up with a 13-8 win on Ancient, Astralis pulled out a 13-11 win on Inferno. Denmark’s Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard led Astralis with 56 kills on a plus-17.
HEROIC swept Virtus.pro 2-0, with a 13-8 victory on Overpass and a 13-10 win on Mirage. Belarusian Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich had 42 kills and a plus-16 K-D to pace HEROIC.
3DMAX faced TYLOO went deep into overtime to pull out a 22-20 win on Inferno before finishing the job with a 13-10 triumph on Ancient. Lucas “Lucky” Chastang of France starred for 3DMAX with 59 kills on a plus-14 K-D.
Finally, Team Liquid beat FlyQuest 2-1, sandwiching a 13-6 win on Nuke and a 13-9 result on Ancient around a 13-3 loss on Dust II. Liquid was led by Canadian Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, who posted 48 kills and a plus-12 differential.
The group stage begins Saturday with six upper-bracket quarterfinal matches:
–Team Vitality vs. Astralis (Group A)
–FURIA vs. G2 Esports (Group A)
–Team Falcons vs. GamerLegion (Group A)
–3DMAX vs. The MongolZ (Group A)
–FaZe Clan vs. Natus Vincere (Group B)
–Aurora Gaming vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas (Group B)
Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool
1. $400,000
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 — paiN Gaming, Virtus.pro, TYLOO, FlyQuest
21-24. $2,500 — BIG, MIBR, Complexity, B8
–Field Level Media
