Ninjas in Pyjamas rallied for a 2-1 win over HEROIC as the play-in round of the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event got underway Wednesday in Germany.
The play-in phase of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament features 16 teams competing in a double-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches. Eight teams will earn 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 Wednesday, HEROIC opened with a 13-10 victory on Nuke, but Ninjas in Pyjamas rebounded to claim Overpass and Ancient, both by 13-9 scores.
Ukraine’s Artem “r1nkle” Moroz paced Ninjas in Pyjamas with 58 kills and a plus-20 kill-death differential. Sweden’s Linus “nilo” Bergman and Belarus’ Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich each had 48 kills for HEROIC.
Only one other opening-round match went to a third map, with FURIA edging FlyQuest. FURIA jumped in front by taking Inferno 13-7, but FlyQuest equalized with a 19-17 double-overtime win on Dust II. FURIA sealed the match with a 13-10 decision on Mirage.
Brazil’s Yuri “yuurih” Santos recorded 58 kills and a plus-14 K-D differential for FURIA. Australia’s Justin “jks” Savage wound up with 56 kills and a plus-6 K-D differential for FlyQuest.
In the other matches, all of which finished 2-0: FaZe Clan beat BIG, Team Liquid topped paiN Gaming, 3DMAX handled MIBR, GamerLegion got past Complexity, Virtus.pro downed TYLOO and Astralis bested B8.
The Thursday schedule:
Upper-bracket second round (winners advance)
–FaZe Clan vs. Team Liquid
–3DMAX vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
–GamerLegion vs. Virtus.pro
–Astralis vs. FURIA
Lower-bracket first round
–BIG vs. paiN Gaming
–MIBR vs. HEROIC
–Complexity vs. TYLOO
–B8 vs. FlyQuest
Lower-bracket second round (winners advance)
–Four matches, teams TBA
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
21-24. $2,500
–Field Level Media
