Saturday’s group stage at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne in Germany saw Natus Vincere, Astralis, SAW and The MongolZ cruise to a comfortable 2-0 victory in Group A.
All four teams advanced to the upper bracket semifinals with their wins: Natus Vincere shut out paiN Gaming, Astralis took down 9z Team, SAW defeated G2 Esports, and The MongolZ defeated Team Spirit.
Sixteen teams have qualified for the double-elimination play-in stage of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament, which has a total prize pool of $1 million.
The group stage, which began on Saturday and will run through Tuesday, will feature two eight-team double-elimination groups. The group winner will advance directly to the playoff semifinals. The runner-up in the group will advance to the playoff quarterfinals as the top seed, while the third-placed team will advance to the playoff quarterfinals as the lower seed.
The single-elimination playoffs will begin on Friday and conclude on August 18. All matches in the tournament will be best of three except for the Grand Final, which is best of five. The winner will earn a spot in the IEM Katowice event and the BLAST Premier World Finals, as well as an additional $400,000 in prize money.
On Saturday, Natus Vincere won both Anubis and Mirage, 13-4. Ukraine’s Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy had a match-high 29 kills and a plus-9 kill-death differential.
Denmark’s Victor “Staehr” Staehr had 35 kills and a plus-9 KD as Astralis defeated Dust II 13-10 and Inferno 13-5.
SAW won against Nuke (13-5) and Inferno (13-10) thanks to Portugal’s Michel “ewjerkz” Pinto’s 33 kills and a plus-12 KD ratio.
Mongolia’s Ayush “mzinho” Batbold piled up 41 kills against 26 deaths to lead The MongolZ to a 16-13 victory on Ancient, setting the tone for a huge 13-4 win on Anubis.
The four teams from Group B faced off on Saturday, with Complexity Gaming defeating Virtus.pro 2-1 and FaZe Clan shutting out Team Liquid 2-0.
Complexity Gaming started off their match against VP with a 13-6 win on Vertigo, but lost 16-14 on Dust II. They then followed that up with a big 13-5 win on Anubis to stay in the upper bracket.
FaZe Clan took the win with Mirage (13-11) and Nuke (13-10).
The group stage continues on Sunday with six matches.
–Natus Vincere vs. Astralis (Group A Upper Bracket Semifinals)
–SAW vs. The MongolZ (Group A Upper Bracket Semifinals)
–paiN Gaming vs. 9z Team (Group A Lower Bracket Quarterfinals)
–G2 Esports vs. Team Spirit (Group A Lower Bracket Quarterfinals)
–MOUZ vs. Team Falcons (Group B Upper Bracket Quarterfinals)
–FURIA Esports vs. Team Vitality (Group B Upper Bracket Quarterfinals)
Prize Pool, Prize Money and BLAST Premier Points for Intel Extreme Masters Cologne
1. $400,000, 3,000 points
2. $180,000, 2,000 points
3-4. $80,000, 1,200 points
5-6. $40,000, 500 points
7-8. $24,000, 300 points
9-12. $16,000, no points
13-16. $10,000, no points
17-20. $4,500, no points — BIG, HEROIC, MIBR, Eternal Fire
21-24. $2,500, no points — ALTERNATE aTTaX, 3DMAX, Imperial Esports, FlyQuest
–Field Level Media
