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Intel Extreme Masters Cologne is one of the most presitigious Counter-Strike events on the calendar, and the tournament kicked off with the opening day of the play-in stage on Wednesday.
The first day produced some upset results, with The Mongolz and Heroic going down as the esports betting sites’ favourite in their opening best-of-three series.
The Mongolz are on the brink of elimination at IEM Cologne after a 1-2 loss to SAW, faltering on defence.
BIG, on the other hand, managed a comeback victory over FlyQuest after initially blowing a 9-3 lead.
These two winners will face off for a spot in the main event of the tournament.
SAW, energised and well-prepared under new head coach Danny “BERRY” Krüger, overcame a slow start on Anubis.
They trailed 4-8 on the counter-terrorist side but rallied in the second half, exploiting The MongolZ’s weak B bomb site.
Despite a comeback from The Mongolz forcing overtime, SAW secured a 16-13 win.
After The Mongolz won on Ancient, SAW dominated Dust2, with key contributions from João ‘story’ Vieira, Michel ‘ewjerkz’ Pinto, and Rafael ‘arrozdoce’ Wing, to win 13-5.
.@BIGCLANgg put a stop to the @FlyQuestCS comeback at the last hour! The German squad opens their #IEM Cologne 2024 campaign with a victory 💪
14-16 Ancient
13-10 Inferno
13-11 Vertigo pic.twitter.com/B9DTOIWTD7— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) August 7, 2024
BIG’s match against FlyQuest was similarly dramatic.
After trading 9-3 terrorist halves and forcing overtime, FlyQuest took the lead.
BIG responded by winning on Inferno and dominating Vertigo with a 10-0 start.
FlyQuest attempted a comeback, but BIG held on for a 13-11 victory.
MIBR, under new in-game leader André “drop” Abreu, defeated Heroic 2-1.
Heroic struggled on the defensive side, losing 7-13 on Mirage and Anubis after a strong start on Ancient.
MIBR’s Felipe “insani” Yuji and AWPer Rafael “saffee” Costa were standout performers.
.@MIBR take down @heroicgg 2-1 in their opening game of #IEM Cologne 2024
10-13 Ancient
13-7 Mirage
13-7 Anubis pic.twitter.com/GtNPlIX1xR— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) August 7, 2024
The next phase will see 3DMAX face Heroic in an elimination match, and 9z Team take on MIBR for a group stage spot.
9z easily defeated 3DMAX 13-3 and 13-4, showcasing star player Franco “dgt” Garcia and captain Maximiliano “max” Gonzalez.
Eternal Fire is close to securing a spot in the main event after a 2-1 win over Falcons.
The match saw standout performances from Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş on Vertigo and Özgür “woxic” Eker on Dust2, despite some sloppy play from both teams.
Team Liquid and FURIA won their opening matches, defeating paiN Gaming and Imperial, respectively.
Liquid, coming off strong performances at BLAST Premier Fall Groups, overcame paiN with solid terrorist-side efforts on Anubis and Inferno.
FURIA’s Brazilian derby against Imperial saw them recover from a disastrous start on Dust2 to win the series 2-1, highlighted by a 13-0 thrashing on Inferno.
Day one of #IEM Cologne 2024 and we've seen it all.
A back and forth affair that goes 3 maps until @FURIA decided to end it with a 13-0 against @imperialesports
3-13 Dust 2
13-11 Nuke
13-0 Inferno pic.twitter.com/Os0naPYZyI— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) August 7, 2024
Thursday’s IEM Cologne play-in fixtures
- SAW (-125) vs BIG (-111.11) @ 1:30pm CEST
- The Mongolz (-250) vs FlyQuest (+175) @ 1:30pm CEST
- 3DMAX (+125) vs Heroic (-175.44) @ 3:45pm CEST
- FURIA (+162) vs Team Liquid (-227.27) @ 3:45pm CEST
- ALTERNATE aTTaX (+600) vs Falcons (-1250) @ 6:45pm CEST
- Complexity (+110) vs Eternal Fire (-151.52) @ 6:45pm CEST
