Heroic and ENCE swept their way into the Group A upper-bracket final with wins on Sunday at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event in Germany.
Heroic beat Monte 2-0 and ENCE did the same to Fnatic after those four teams won their opening matches in the group stage on Saturday.
Elsewhere in Group A, GamerLegion rallied past The MongolZ 2-1 and Cloud9 beat 9INE by the same score, eliminating the losing clubs from the competition. And in Group B, Team Vitality beat OG 2-0 and FaZe Clan defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 in upper-bracket quarterfinal fixtures.
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 Sunday, Heroic eked out wins of 16-14 on Mirage and 16-11 on Overpass to blank Monte. Martin “stavn” Lund led the all-Danish Heroic roster with 49 kills and a plus-13 kills-deaths differential.
ENCE pulled out similarly narrow map wins, 16-13 on Overpass and 16-11 on Nuke, to beat Fnatic. Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia of Spain finished with 42 kills and a plus-18 K-D, and Israel’s Guy “NertZ” Iluz had 42 kills on a plus-10 for ENCE.
GamerLegion fell behind The MongolZ by losing 16-8 on Mirage to open the match, but they responded with a 16-8 win on Inferno and won 19-15 in overtime on Overpass to survive and advance. Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand of Denmark racked up 74 kills and a plus-22 differential to lead GamerLegion.
Cloud9 dropped their opening match to 9INE, losing 16-10 on Vertigo. Cloud9 then won a 16-4 rout on Ancient and pulled out a 19-17 overtime win on Anubis. Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy of Russia paced Cloud9 with 65 kills on a plus-19.
Over in Group B, Vitality took down OG 16-6 on Mirage and 16-13 on Anubis. Shahar “flameZ” Shushan of Israel led Vitality with 44 kills on a plus-21.
FaZe Clan lost a close one on Mirage, 16-14, to Ninjas in Pyjamas before rallying with a 16-5 rout on Overpass and a 16-7 result on Nuke. Robin “ropz” Kool of Estonia guided FaZe with 68 kills and a plus-23.
The tournament continues Monday with six matches in the Group Stage:
–Fnatic vs. GamerLegion (Group A lower-bracket semifinals)
–Monte vs. Cloud9 (Group A lower-bracket semifinals)
–Team Vitality vs. MOUZ (Group B upper-bracket semifinals)
–G2 Esports vs. FaZe Clan (Group B upper-bracket semifinals)
–OG vs. Natus Vincere (Group B lower-bracket quarterfinals)
–Astralis vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas (Group B lower-bracket quarterfinals)
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
13-16. $10,000 — The MongolZ, 9INE, two teams TBD
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
