At IEM Cologne, the two CS:GO lineups of Vitality and Astralis prevailed against Heroic and Cloud9 and thus both solved their ticket for the semifinals. There they will meet ENCE and G2 respectively. There is $1 million in prize money at stake at the event in Cologne, with first place taking home a whopping $400,000 of it.
The winner of the CS:GO event will also qualify for IEM Katowice 2024, which will end tomorrow, August 6, 2023, and then crown the winner in the Grand Final. In the meantime ENCE took down Vitality in the first semi-final.
Vitality prevails against Cloud9
Vitality defeated Cloud9 2-0 (Mirage 16-11, Inferno 19-17) and managed to get to the semifinals, no surprise as they were looking strong lately and belong to the favorites to win the IEM Cologne. Vitality will play ENCE next today. The reigning major champions squared off with Shahar “flameZ” Shushan in their stage debut. The match started on Mirage and Cloud9 had a rather slow start to the match. Although they later woke up and gave their opponents contra, Vitality finished the first map with a score of 16-11.
.@sh1rocsgo is an absolute MONSTER on the AK-47 💀#IEM pic.twitter.com/pl4W10LNYx
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) August 4, 2023
The second map was Inferno. This time Cloud9 was more awake and gave Vitality a hard time, at the start no team was able to gain the upper hand and it was a closely contested game. It came to the overtime, in which ZywOo stepped on the gas and helped his team to a 19-17 victory. The new lineup of Cloud9 did not look bad and showed a lot of potential, if they have more time to work together they will be even more dangerous.
Astralis defeats Heroic
Astralis defeated Heroic 2-0 (Ancient 16-7, Inferno 16-11) and surprised many fans by making it that far, with a strong dev1ce and blameF finding his stride as IGL it looks like they could take on anyone. Astralis will face G2 in the semifinals tonight. Christian “Buzz” Andersen and Nicolai “device” Reedtz were the driving force behind their team. Buzz even achieved a score of 1.59, device was not far behind with a score of 1.45. The match between Astralis and Heroic started on Ancient and up until halftime the teams were neck-and-neck, even though Astralis led very slightly. After the change of sides Heroic suddenly ran out of breath and looked unfocused.
STOP TRYING TO TAKE @dev1ce's AWP
HE WILL NOT LET IT HAPPEN.#IEM pic.twitter.com/PjB6BVlafO
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) August 4, 2023
They didn’t manage to collect themselves, while Astralis made more and more rounds. In the end, Astralis prevailed on Ancient with a score of 16:7. Things went similarly on Inferno, with both teams looking about even in the first half and the score 8-7, relatively close. But then Heroic stumbled again and Astralis fired out of all guns. They lost only three rounds in the second half, impressed with their new lineup on their debut on stage and took the win on Inferno with a dominant 16-11. Astralis thus punched their ticket to the semifinals.
Header: ESL | Helena-Kristiansson