IEM Cologne: Vitality defeats OG, NiP loses against FaZe

IEM Cologne: Vitality defeats OG, NiP loses against FaZe

31. July 2023 by Andrew Williams

At IEM Cologne, Vitality prevailed over OG, as did FaZe over NiP. Cloud9 dominated 9INE and ENCE defeated fnatic. In addition, TheMongolz played against GamerLegion and Heroic played against Monte.

Vitality vs. OG

Vitality won with a dominant 2-0 victory (Mirage 16-6, Anubis 16-13) against OG at IEM Cologne.

Vitality started directly strong on the first map and led 12:3 at the side exchange. Nemanja “nexa” Isaković’s team reared back but had no chance as Vitality made several rounds to win Mirage. The second map was Anubis and it went similarly, although OG tried harder this time. It went back and forth for a while, but a 1vs1 clutch from Emil “Magisk” Reif finally turned the tide and Vitality was able to finish the map with 16:13.

Cloud9 vs. 9INE

Cloud9 defeated 9INE in a 3 map game (Vertigo 10-16, Ancient 16-4, Anubis 19-17).

9INE had a dominant start on Vertigo and was able to win his map choice relatively easily with 16:10. The second map was Ancient and there it looked quite different, because 9INE never has much success on Ancient. Cloud9 showed himself in top form and gave the Poles no chance, they finally finished Ancient with a sovereign 16:4. The decider took place on Anubis. There it was again Cloud9 who kicked off the match and took a 10-5 lead until the break, but 9INE followed suit and the match went into overtime. There Cloud9 could win the game with 19-17.

ENCE vs. fnatic

ENCE defeated fnatic 2-0 in the Upper Bracket of Group A (Overpass 16-13, Nuke 16-11).

ENCE did not have an easy game against fnatic and both teams looked shaky. The Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer-led team managed just seven rounds on Overpass’ defense and struggled to convert a 15-5 advantage against Nuke after a dominant T-side. fnatic won six in a row before ENCE put the game away for good.

FaZe vs. NiP

FaZe defeated Ninjas in Pajamas by a score of 2-1 (Mirage 14-16, Overpass 16-5, Nuke 16-7).

The match started on a hard fought Mirage. However, the Ninjas in Pyjamas had a little more going for them and took the first map.

The next map was Overpass and ropz helped his team win the map and showed an incredible performance of 1.98. On the last map, Nuke, it was Broky who helped FaZe win with 20 kills. FaZe won the map and the match 2-1.

Heroic vs. Monte

Heroic won against Monte on Mirage 16-14 and on Overpass 16-11.

The Danish team struggled on the first map, but then managed to pick themselves up and step on the gas again. Monte tried to hold on, but it wasn’t quite enough, even though the map was hard fought. In the end Heroic Mirage won and it was straight to the second Mao, Overpass.

Monte showed full effort on Overpass and managed to take a 7:2 lead thanks to Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev. At halftime, the score was 10-5, after which Heroic was back in control and surged past Monte to win the map 16-11.

GamerLegion vs. TheMongolz

GamerLegion defeated TheMongolz 2-1 (Mirage 8-16, Inferno 16-8, Overpass 19-15).

GamerLegion had a very bumpy start on Mirage, and it almost looked like TheMongolz might prevail. But then GamerLegion recovered on their own Inferno pick and went on to win on the deciding map, Overpass. GamerLegion will face fnatic tonight at 19:30.