Day: 27 August 2020

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CS:GO

ESL One Cologne 2020 NA – Who made it out?

ESL One Cologne 2020 NA is through to the playoffs. Four teams from the eight teams in the event have made it to the playoffs. The remaining four teams are competing for pieces of the ESL Pro Tour points, cash prize and RMR points for the Rio Major. Let’s take a look at the teams that made it to the playoffs.

Group A

ESL One Cologne 2020 NA works a little different to their European counterpart. With way fewer teams, the event uses a GSL format. Teams that win two series qualify for the playoffs, while the losing two series eliminate you. In Group A, Chaos surprised the scene with a standout win over FURIA in their opening match 2-0. Nuke went to Chaos 16-11 with Inferno won on 22-19. They then met 100 Thieves in the Winners match. The Aussies were upset too, as they lost 2-1, with Chaos taking Nuke 16-10, losing Inferno 16-6, and taking Mirage 16-13.

leaf with the amazing clutch to the win the round.

Meanwhile, FURIA redeemed themselves after their first-round loss to Chaos. FURIA had a close call with Gen.G beating them 16-14 on Train and 16-10 on Inferno. Moving on, Furia took down 100T in the decider match 2-1. FURIA battered 100T on Inferno 16-1 but lost Mirage 16-13, but FURIA took the series on Vertigo 16-7. The two big dogs of Group A had been taken down by the rising stars in the FURIA and Chaos.

Group B

Group B had no major surprise for their results. Both Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses dominated their group. Evil Geniuses showed the skill gap in NA clearly. They beat Triumph easily with a 16-6 victory on Overpass and a 16-5 win on Inferno. Moving on, they battered Team Liquid in the winners final 16-7 on Mirage and 16-9 on Nuke. Evil Geniuses new coach seems to be keeping the fire under EG’s feet, which we first witnessed during the CS_Summit 6 event.

A fun fact for all those North American CS:GO fans.

On the other hand, Team Liquid had to fight for their storyline. TL recently signed Jason “moses” O’Toole as the coach and Michael “Grim” Wince as their new 5th over Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella who retired to compete in Valorant. The team needs more time to gel, so it’s isn’t a surprise to see them be a bit rusty. Their first match against Cloud 9 quite long, going 2-1 to Team Liquid. C9 won the first map on Overpass 19-17, with TL taking Vertigo 16-8 and Nuke 16-10. Moving on they got battered by EG as already mentioned, facing the decider match once again against C9. Here TL had a much better time against C9, beating them 2-0. Overpass did go into overtime with a 19-15 win, while Vertigo was a 16-11 victory.

With that mentioned, North America now moves into the semi-finals of ESL Once Cologne 2020 NA. Chaos and Team Liquid will go one on one against Chaos, with EG facing off against FURIA. The North America Finals will conclude on Saturday, 29th August.

Read More: Who made it out of ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe Groups?

Stay tuned to Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. Image via ESL.

Categories
CS:GO

ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe – Who made it out?

ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe is now halfway through with the Group Stages concluding 26th August 2020. The event has had a long group sage, with two groups going through a losers bracket round for 16 teams. With the dust settled, only eight teams remain heading into the playoffs. Let’s take a look at the story so far.

Group A Upper Bracket

Despite ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe being online, the magic of the event still exists. In a twist of fate, Sprout was surprisingly the first team to make it out of Group A. They beat teams like BIG, and OG to make it out of the group in the Upper Bracket. In both situations, Sprout was definitely the underdog in those scenarios. They somehow manage to compete against the world number 1 in BIG really close, winning 16-12 on Mirage then 19-16 on Nuke. The OG series was much closer, beating OG 16-9 on Train, then losing 16-13 on Mirage before winning 16-3 on Nuke. This is exactly the magic events like these can bring out in teams.

Read More: BIG exit ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe in joint last place.

On the other hand, Complexity had a great showing. This is a team that has been growing ever more slowly throughout the year, and this Group is a sign of their success. They began the event with a swift 2-0 over MAD Lions winning Overpass 16-3 then going 22-20 on Nuke. Then the surprise came against Natus Vincere, were they won 16-9 on Dust II and 16-8 on Nuke.

blameF showing how good Complexity are in 2020

Group A Lower Bracket

Moving into the Lower Bracket, Ninjas in Pyjamas had a storyline to follow. They too managed to beat BIG in the first round of the Lower Bracket and Na’Vi in the second round of the Lower Bracket. The big series finished 2-1, and NiP had to play catch up for most of the series. BIG won the first map on Vertigo 16-5, so NiP gave it their all on Nuke to win 28-26. Finally, NiP won Mirage 16-7. But the real surprise came from Na’Vi. NiP beat Na’Vi on Overpass 16-9 followed by a thrashing on Train 16-3. Both of these results are quite surprising, considering the talent in Na’Vi. Either way, congrats to NiP for making it through a difficult Lower Bracket.

NiP had a stunning performance against Natus Vincere.

OG had a relatively short run in the Lower Bracket after only fighting through one round against MAD Lions. As expected, OG mad quick work of MAD Lions with 16-10 victory on Nuke and 16-9 on Dust II.

Group B Upper Bracket

Astralis has come into ESL Once Cologne 2020 Europe with an almost brand-new team. The roster has two stand-ins with Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen and Patrick “es3tag” Hansen temporarily standing in for sickness and leave. Considering the previous stand-in results for Astralis, these two players have put in work so far. Astralis dismantled Fnatic 16-5 on Nuke and 19-17 on Train. Moving on, they trashed Vitality 16-8 on Nuke and 16-7 on Dust II. Astralis has new life with their upcoming stars on their roster.

In the closest Upper Bracket Round yet, G2 Esports pulled through. G2 Esports warmup was against MiBR who they put to bed instantly. G2 won Vertigo 16-2 and Inferno 16-4. Their real challenge was against Heroic, which brought them to the edge. Heroic won Nuke 16-7, with G2 Esports winning Vertigo 16-7 and Mirage 19-17. Heroic was in the lead for the most part of Mirage but G2 pulled through (we think KennyS really wanted to watch the PSG Champions League Final match).

AmaNEK with the insane clutch to get G2 the round.

Group B Lower Bracket

The Group B Lower Bracket has the same level of excitement and disappointment as Group A. Heroic popped a NiP here by taking down Fnatic 2-0. Both Vertigo and Overpass went to Heroic 16-11. This is rather disappointing, especially with Fnatic being as good as they were at the start of the year.

Meanwhile, Vitality and FaZe had yet another amazing series against each other. Vitality managed to pull through 2-0 in the series, but the results were super close. Vitality won Dust II 19-16, and won Nuke 16-14. This is exactly the high stakes action we want from ESL Once Cologne 2020 Europe

Team Vitality had some great T side Nuke rounds.

With the Group Stages done, ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe continues with the playoffs. The remaining teams are competing in the playoffs from Thursday 27th August to championship Sunday on 30th August.

Stay tuned to Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. Image via ESL.