G2 Esports used a late burst to finish off a 3-1 victory over ENCE and win the grand final of the $1 million Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event Sunday in Germany.
G2 Esports dominated Group B play then were in complete control against Astralis for a 2-0 victory in the playoff semifinals Saturday.
The grand final opened with G2 winning 16-4 on Nuke and 16-10 on Mirage before closing in on the title with a 16-9 win on Ancient. ENCE had pulled off a 16-13 victory on Anubis to stay alive.
On Ancient, G2 trailed early 2-0 before reeling off five consecutive points for an 8-2 lead and never trailed again. With Ancient all even at 9-9, G2 reeled off the seven points to end it.
Russia’s Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov had 92 kills with a plus-40 kill-deaths ratio for G2, while Nikola “NiKo” Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina was nearly as dominating with 91 kills and a plus-38 ratio.
Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer of Denmark led ENCE with 67 kills but had a minus-2 ratio.
With the victory, G2 earned $400,000 of the prize pool and a berth in the 2024 IEM Katowice event. ENCE earned $180,000.
The $1 million 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, 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.
Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool
1. $400,000, 2024 IEM Katowice berth – G2 Esports
2. $180,000 — ENCE
3-4. $80,000 — Team Vitality, Astralis
5-6. $40,000 — Cloud9, Heroic
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
