by Only six teams remain at one of the most prestigious CS:GO events on the calendar, with G2 Esports, ENCE, Heroic, Astralis, Team Vitality and Cloud9 all booking their place in the playoffs at IEM Cologne.
Before Tuesday’s final group-stage series, Heroic, ENCE, Team Vitality and G2 Esports had already qualified for the playoffs, with ENCE and G2 going straight through to the semi-finals after winning their respective upper-bracket group finals.
ENCE and Heroic played out a three-map series, with both teams winning their respective map picks, Nuke (ENCE) and Overpass (Heroic).
It took all 30 rounds on the final map, but the world number five ended the world number one’s nine-match win streak, relegating Heroic to the quarter-finals.
.@ENCE ARE GOING TO THE SEMI FINALS OF #IEM COLOGNE 2023!
They manage to take down @heroicgg on the third and final map of the series ??
16-5 Nuke
8-16 Overpass
16-14 Mirage pic.twitter.com/rpl0wY2Xx6— Intel? Extreme Masters (@IEM) August 1, 2023
The second of the two upper-bracket finals featured another two top-five teams, with world number two Team Vitality taking on world number three G2 Esports.
However, this series would turn out to be quite the opposite of the other final, as Team Vitality took G2’s map pick (Inferno) in overtime before then giving up their own map pick (Vertigo) as G2 extended the series to the third map, Mirage.
Although G2’s counter-terrorist efforts had been lacking during the series, it was their CT side on Mirage that won them the series, as they recorded an 8-1 second half to wrap up the map 16-8 and book their place in the semi-finals.
SEMI-FINALS FOR G2 ??@G2esports take down the most recent major winners @TeamVitality 2-1 to already make the #IEM Cologne top 4!
Could it be Katowice & Cologne in the same year? ?? pic.twitter.com/5Le4yqzg9V
— Intel? Extreme Masters (@IEM) August 1, 2023
Meanwhile, the lower-bracket final for Group A also took place on Tuesday, with Cloud9 taking down GamerLegion in another tight three-map series.
GamerLegion took the opening map 16-11 before Cloud9 returned serve with their own map win with the exact same scoreline, sending the series to a deciding map.
Much like the upper-bracket finals, this clash went to Mirage for the final map, and it was Cloud9 who ran out victors after claiming a 19-17 win in overtime.
The Group B lower-bracket final featured the new rosters of Natus Vincere and Astralis, where Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev would be looking for his seventh-straight appearance at the IEM Cologne playoffs.
However, after an enthralling three-map series, NaVi and s1mple failed to advance to the final weekend, meaning that Astralis would be back in the playoffs at IEM Cologne for a third-straight year.
The quarter-finals will kick off on Friday at LANXESS Arena, with the opening series set to start at 3:30pm CEST.
Friday’s quarter-final series
- Team Vitality (-227.27) vs Cloud9 (+170) @ 3:30pm CEST
- Heroic (-200) vs Astralis (+150) @ 7pm CEST
