Category: CS:GO

Categories
CS:GO

FURIA victorious at ESL Pro League Season 12 NA Finals

FURIA Esports has emerged victorious after great 3-0 series against 100 Thieves in the ESL Pro League Season 12 NA Finals. The Brazillian side was on the path to success all the way through to ESL Pro League weekly gamedays and maintained their form through the finals. Let’s recap how the Brazillian side managed their success.

The Regular Season

FURIA had great weekly showings throughout the Regular Season, dominating right until the end of Week 3 as they lost their first series against 100 Thieves. In Week Four, FURIA lost to Chaos.E.C. and that was the moment that Evil Geniuses surpassed them.

With the two late defeats in the Regular Season, it seemed like the momentum for FURIA had faltered. The story for the Playoffs was one of doubt, although, they had a favourable first match.

The Playoffs

With EG and FURIA taking first and second place, the two teams once again collided in the Playoffs Upper Bracket. While FURIA’s Regular Season momentum had somewhat subsided, Evil Geniuses had only grown with their first-place finish. Although the narrative for EG was to beat the only team that took them down in the Regular Season, FURIA.

It seemed like the FURIA was not shut down at all by the recent losses to other NA teams. FURIA came back strong in their first playoff round and destroyed Evil Geniuses. The results of the maps were not even close to. FURIA held Inferno strong with a 16-5 win, which is extremely unusual for an Inferno game. Moving on, Nuke went the way to the Brazilians with a 16-7 victory. This quick series advanced FURIA into the Grand Final with a 1-0 map advantage.

FURIA showing how dominant they are over EG.

The Lower Bracket twist of fate

It was Evil Geniuses and 100 Thieves that entered the Lower Bracket Final after the Aussies woke up with a great victory over Team Liquid. Both Evil Geniuses and 100T continued their trend of the 2-0 storyline as the Aussies put EG to bed with another 2-0 victory.

To give Evil Geniuses credit they managed a much better showing with two very close maps. 100T won both 16-14 Dust II with the next battle on Inferno going 16-13. The most iconic thing about this result is that Evil Geniuses’ monopoly on North American CS:GO has fallen as their trophy spree is over. With all that said, it was two new teams entering a Grand Final for a considerable time.

FURIA’s clean 3-0

100 Thieves emerging glory was put to an end with the power level that FURIA was on. The first map os the series was Vertigo, and FURIA may have changed the way the map is played forever. The side had discovered a brand-new boost in Vertigo that makes the map much more CT friendly than results in the past has told us. The new triple boost on the scaffolding blindsided 100 Thieves, challenging their on the spot creativity for mush of their T side. It is safe to say that FURIA stole the show on Vertigo and won the map 16-7, bringing them to series point of the tournament.

Don’t you love it when a team brings something new to the table?

The following map was Inferno where both teams put up a good fight. At one point in the map, both teams were on 10-10, showing how close the map was. Although, FURIA worked out how to take down 110T from there and won the map 16-10, taking home the NA EPL trophy.

FURIA has come a long way in the North American scene throughout 2020 and this victory is a huge payoff. Congratulations on FURIA for taking home the ESL Pro League Season 12 NA Finals trophy. $77,500 USD and gaining key Pro Tour points along the way.

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 DreamHack / Stephanie Lindgren.

Categories
CS:GO

ESIC bans 37 CS:GO coaches after spectator bug investigation

After a thorough investigation into the use of a CS:GO spectator bug, 37 coaches have been given bans by ESIC ranging from under four months to three years.

The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) released their findings on September 28 which revealed the outcomes of the investigation.

There were 99,650 demos available to be examined however only 20% of these were investigated.

Despite this, ESIC details that these demos “likely comprise the most substantial cases of abuse.”

In the report, ESIC reveals that the bug had been flagged to admins in tournaments as far back as 2017. However, ESIC has chosen not to comment on these prior reports due to the fact that these were non-ESIC member tournaments.

With regards to further investigation, ESIC stated the following: “ESIC anticipates that it will only need to issue one further report at the end of October which will conclude the investigation into Spectator Bug abuse.”

Which coaches were banned and what does this mean?

Here is a full list of all 37 coaches who received bans, courtesy of HLTV:

Slaava “⁠Twista⁠” Räsänen (2 cases) – 15.75 months (12.50% concessions)

Peter “⁠casle⁠” Sørensen (2) – 10 months (0%)

Rodrigo “⁠dinamo⁠” Haro (2) – 10 months (0%)

Arno “⁠ArnoZ1K4⁠” Junior (1) – 10 months (0%)

Allan “⁠Rejin⁠” Petersen (7) – 19.8 months (45%)

Eliomar “glou” Hernandez (2) – 10 months (0%)

Arthur “⁠prd⁠” Resende (5) – 10 months (0%)

Alexey “⁠NooK⁠” Kozlovskiy (1) – 7.5 months (25%)

Henrique “⁠rikz⁠” Waku (1) – 10 months (0%)

Alessandro “⁠Apoka⁠” Marcucci (6) – 5.4 months (85%)

Aleksandr “⁠zoneR⁠” Bogatiryev (16) – 36 months (0%)

Germán “hellpa” Morath (2) – 10 months (0%)

Egor “fuRy^” Morin (1) – 7.5 months (25%)

Aset “⁠Solaar⁠” Sembiyev (2) – 10 months (0%)

Nicolai “⁠HUNDEN⁠” Petersen (2) – 8 months (20%)

Ricardo “⁠dead⁠” Sinigaglia (5) – 6.5 months (35%)

Nicholas “⁠guerri⁠” Nogueira (2) – 4 months (60%)

Faruk “⁠pita⁠” Pita (2) – 10 months (0%)

Erik “⁠AKIMOV⁠” Akimov (1) – 7.5 months (25%)

Ivan “⁠F_1N⁠” Kochugov (6) – 8.75 months (12.50%)

Bruno “⁠ellllll⁠” Ono (3) – 10 months (0%)

Pedro “⁠peu⁠” Lopes (2) – 5 months (0%)

Robert “⁠RobbaN⁠” Dahlström (1) – 5.5 months (45%)

Mariusz “⁠Loord⁠” Cybulski (2) – 6 months (40%)

Anton “⁠ToH1o⁠” Georgiev (2) – 10 months (0%)

Andrey “⁠Andi⁠” Prokhorov (1) – 10 months (0%)

Milan “⁠pepik⁠” Gellebra (1) – 10 months (0%)

Morgan “⁠B1GGY⁠” Madour (3) – 7.5 months (25%)

Christian “⁠chrille⁠” Lindberg (2) – 10 months (0%)

starix⁠ (1) – 10 months (0%)

Alexander “⁠ave⁠” Holdt (1) – 6 months (40%)

Jasmeet “⁠RoSeY⁠” Gill (1) – 10 months (0%)

Sergey “⁠lmbt⁠” Bezhanov (3) – 7.5 months (25%)

Henrik “⁠FeTiSh⁠” Christensen (1) – 3.75 months (25%)

Mikołaj “⁠miNirox⁠” Michałków (1) – 3.75 months (25%)

Nikolay “⁠pNshr⁠” Paunin (1) – 3.75 months (25%)

Casper “⁠ruggah⁠” Due (1) – 3.75 months (25%)

So what exactly does this mean for these coaches? ESIC detailed each sanction that will directly affect the coaches.

The coaches must not be physically present or communicate with the team 15 minutes prior to the official match start until the end of the match.

They must not be in the game server during the match or be on the official match channel.

Finally, they must not be a part of the official map veto process before each match.

Many players were disappointed with the severity of some of the bans. Complexity CS:GO player “blameF” was surprised that some were issued just “a few months ban for cheating.”

Do you think the bans were fair?

Let us know!

Follow Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch.

Categories
CS:GO

ESL Pro League Season 12 North America – Who made it?

The ESL Pro League Season 12 North America Group Stages are over and it was an incredibly close four week of matches. There was a race for the fourth seed into the playoffs with 100 Thieves, Chaos, and Gen.G all racing for that final spot. However, 100 Thieves came out on top and head to the playoffs with Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses and FURIA Esports.

The race for fourth

The race for the fourth seed has been stemming from the beginning of the third week. The likes of Chaos, Gen.G and 100T had their super week, and it came down to the wire. Gen.G, unfortunately, had to compete against the top three teams after starting strong, but sadly they went 1-2 in week three. Meanwhile, Chaos started growing wins in week three with a 2-1 week, only losing to Evil Geniuses. 100 Thieves had a strong showing in week three, with a 2-1 week, only losing to Gen.G.

With these results, Chaos managed to take the fifth place from Gen.g, and the race was on between Chaos and 100T in week four. If either team lost and the other one it could decide the fourth-place team. Only in week four, both teams won. Chaos came in clutch with the 2-1 series win over FURIA. Chaos needed to get a sizeable round lead in their wins if they wanted to close the gap of positive round difference to contend against 100T. And that is what they did. Chaos brought their Overpass CT side to 16-3 in an impressive game three.

Chaos had a great Overpass showing against FURIA

Nevertheless, Chaos’ dream of making playoffs was shut down. 100T was the match after Chaos, and they got the clean 2-0 series win against Triumph. With that victory, 100T qualified to the ESL Pro League Season 12 North America Playoffs.

Evil Geniuses top the groups

Evil Geniuses remain the most consistent North American team in CS:GO. Throughout the four weeks of the EPL, Evil Geniuses has only lost one series to FURIA 0-2 and Triumph is the only team to take a map off them in their series wins. With Chaos beating FURIA, EG secured first place as the only team with a 6-1 record in the Group Stage.

Since FURIA and Evil Geniuses are the top two seeds from the Groups, they both head to the Upper Bracket Final. This will be a rematch, and it will be interesting to see if FURIA can beat EG once again on 24th September. Evil Geniuses are back-to-back North American champions, and they have continued to grow their trophy cabinet since coming back from the player break. Perhaps Evil Geniuses are destined for another trophy if FURIA is not able to repeat the Group success they had in week three.

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 / Helena-Kristiansson.

Categories
CS:GO

ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe – The Group Stage winners

The ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe Group Stages are over. The top four teams from each group are decided and will head to the quarterfinals beginning on 29 September. With that said, let us take a look at the eight teams who made it out of the Groups.

Group A

Over in Group A, Natus Vincere was the most consistent team in the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe. The team was constantly in the top two teams of the Group with a first-place finish by the end of Group A. The only team to beat them in their group was ENCE, who was tied first place with Na’Vi until they fell off in the final week. For Natus Vincere, this a huge deal after their recent tournaments has been sub-par considering their standard. The Group Stage of the EPL has woke them up into the giants we know they are.

As mentioned in the week before, Group A was becoming a lot tenser by the second week. The likes of Heroic, G2, OG and BIG were climbing and the battle for the three other seeds in Group A was tough. In the end, Heroic and BIG grew into the role of quarterfinalist, with BIG even knocking ENCE out of the top two to take the second-place group finish.

Heroic’s win over OG sent them to the quarterfinals

Group B

Over in Group B, Astralis came from being a bottom team to a top team in the space of two weeks. They are the most improved team in the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe league by far. In Week Two, Astralis got their in-game leader, Lukas “Gla1ve” Rossander back. Every other game they rotated Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, which seemed to have worked. By the end of the Group Stage, Astralis sit in first place with a 6-1 record, just like Natus Vincere in Group A.

As for Group B, it was rather close as it was all the way through the group stage. Complexity fell off as the favourites for Group A in the final week as mousesports played upset and took the world number five down ina 2-0 series. Moving on, FaZe Clan somehow managed a victory over them, making space for Astralis to pass them. With mousesports clutch win, they managed to keep them in the playoffs race before locking it in with a win over Vitality. Surprisingly, Team Spirit made it through tho the quarter-finals after a great series. They made their way into the groups after their victory over mousesports in the final week.

mousesports getting in a key round which leads to a 2-0 series over Vitality

Quarters

On the 29th September, Natus Vincere will play mousesports in the first quarter-finals of the day. Moving on, Complexity and ENCE will battle in the following series. BIG and Team Spirit are the third matchup of the day with Astralis and Heroic closing the day with a Danish darby. The losers of these series will play on 30th September in the Lower Bracket Round One elimination matches. The action is expected to kick off at 14:00 CEST for both days.

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

Categories
CS:GO League of Legends

Origen rebrands as Astralis ahead of 2021

Storied EU LCS and LEC organisation Origen has revealed a dramatic name change as it rebrands as Astralis. The team, originally founded by legendary mid laner Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez, revealed the rebranding on Twitter on the morning of September 15.

With the change in name, the squad takes on the branding of its sister team within parent company RFRSH Entertainment. In 2019, Origen was acquired by RFRSH to become part of the Astralis Group. Astralis’ most notable contributions to esports have been in the form of its CS:GO roster.

As part of the announcement, it was also revealed that general manager Martin “Deficio” Lynge and founder xPeke would be stepping away from the organisation. Both veterans of the European League of Legends Scene, Deficio has since seen multiple roles from broadcaster to manager. Meanwhile, xPeke has primarily been known for his ownership of Origen. Both will now move on to new opportunities.

New Name, New Opportunities?

However, the name change isn’t all good. As Origen rebrands as Astralis, the team leaves behind a plethora of hashtags, nicknames, and memes which have energised their player base. But as some are quick to point out, Origen’s brand is one that has drastically fallen in stock during its six years of existence. 

https://twitter.com/Froskurinn/status/1305791153728520192

Astralis, on the other hand, is one of the biggest names in CS:GO. They’re also a rising star within the esports scene as a whole. Since their rise to prominence, the team has had its fair share of controversies and scandals. But overall remains a strong brand. The revitalised team will enter the next scene with a new identity and perhaps a chance for a fresh start. 

Keep your eyes peeled on Dart Frog on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for all the latest League of Legends news and analysis

Categories
CS:GO

ESL Pro League Season 12 Week 2 Europe – Complexity undefeated

The second week of ESL Pro League 12 is over and Complexity is on top of the world. The masters of Group B gained another two series victories in ESL Pro League Europe Week 2. Furthermore, Group A sees ENCE and Na’Vi at the top, but three key victories from Heroic has seen them get into a strong position heading into Week 3 of the Groups.

Group A

In Group A, ENCE and Na’Vi remain in as the top two teams in the group, each with a 4-1 scoreline. ENCE lost their first match this week against last-place GODSENT, bringing them back in line with Natus Vincere. On the other hand, Na’Vi earned two victories in Week 2, one against AGO and the other against OG. Although, Na’Vi had to earn their victory against OG, as the series went to the third map and they only won the decider on Nuke 16-14.

The more interesting narrative in Group A comes from the middle of the pack. Heroic, BIG, G2 Esports, and OG are 3-2 or 2-3, showing how competitive the third week is likely to be. Heroic’s 3-0 score in Week two comes after they had a great three-game series against G2 Esports, a close three-game series against BIG, and another close series against GODSENT. Two of these three victories are clutch results for Heroic as they took down two teams they are in direct contest with. The best thing is this makes them third in the group standings as they hold the head-to-head against BIG. Out of the mid-table, the ESL One Cologne Champions, Heroic, seem the likeliest candidate for advancing into the quarter-finals.

Looking ahead to Week 3, G2 and OG have some difficult games as they both have to take on ENCE and Natus Vincere – the top two of the group. G2 and OG need to put on a stellar show because their chances at advancing into the top four of the groups are slimming based on current results in this group.

Plays like this are what got Heroic a juicy 3-0 score.

Group B

On the other side of the European event, Complexity is dominating their opponents in Group B. Complexity had yet another fantastic week, taking down the likes of Team Spirit and Fnatic. However, Complexity went from two 2-0 victories in Week 1 to two 2-1 victories in Week two. Complexity’s grasp may be slipping after their star performance against Astralis and NiP in the ESL Pro League Europe Week 2. In Week 3, Complexity has three series to play against teams like mousesports, Vitality, and FaZe. The likes of mousesports and Vitality may give Complexity a proper good go since both teams are performing in ESL Pro League Season 12.

Complexity had to put in the work to take the series victory against Fnatic.

Another important aspect of Group B is the ability for any team to miss the quarters. As it stands, mousesports and Fnatic are the two mid-table teams in position to escape Group B. Although, almost every team outside the top two are 2-2, with the exceptions of NiP’s 1-3 score and FaZe’s 0-4 score. Also, every team has to play three games in Week 3, so whoever escapes Group B is the better team.

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 BLAST.

Categories
CS:GO

Heroic and EG win ESL One Cologne

Heroic and Evil Geniuses are your ESL One Cologne Champions after they both took down their opposition in the EU and NA Online events. Both teams put in fantastic work and show the world why they are winning the majority of their games over the last few months.

Heroic win EU

Heroic have put in the work over the last few months of the online era. The team was approaching around 70% win ratio over the last few months before the player break, and this trajectory only carried on into Cologne. The team returned for the DreamHack Open Master Summer event where they finished second place. With the hype from that tournament, they transitioned into a successful team for Cologne.

The most impressive thing about Heroic is that they had to win the event, facing off against the likes of Fnatic in the Lower Bracket and Team Vitality in the final. What makes the event even better is they beat Team Vitality 3-0, which is really unprecedented. With this victory, Heroic become the first Danish team to win an ESL One event, granting them a historic status within Denmark.

Heroic’s map results were quite extraordinary as well. Heroic won Mirage 16-7, Inferno 16-13 and Nuke 16-9. This is incredibly exciting considering that these are some of the more popular maps in CS:GO right now, and Team Vitality has some excellent firepower and strategy as they one of the better teams in CS:GO.

However, Heroic has had some wind knocked out their sails. Heroic’s coach has been found to have abused a spectating bug during the DreamHack Masters Summer event. He was caught abusing a bug where the spectator camera was allowed to stay in a position the following round. This meant that the coach was allowed to get free information in live rounds. Because of this, ESL has banned their coach for a year, leading to him being benched from the team. This is serious allegations, and definitely one to watch as we pay closer attention to Heroic in the coming events.

ESL has ruled that Heroic, MiBR and Hardlegion abused the bug in recent tournaments.

EG win ESL One Cologne clean

On the other side of the Atlantic, Evil Geniuses beat Team Liquid 3-2 after an intense series between two rivals. Both teams ended up trading map after map, where Evil Geniuses earned their series victory on map 5. To top it off, both teams had really close map results as well. This was an incredible series, showing that North American CS:GO us getting their top tier rivalries back.

After a period of struggle for Team Liquid, they came bouncing back in the Final. Team Liquid had a slow start getting to the top of the scene after Evil Geniuses battered them in the Group Stages and Cloud 9 took a map off them in the elimination round. However, the more the tournament went on, the more Team Liquid found their footing.

Evil Geniuses found themselves taking the first map of the series on Nuke 19-16 after Team Liquid had only been battered 16-9 on Nuke by EG in their group stage encounter. Moving on, Liquid had a nice map of Vertigo with a 16-9 map win. Team Liquid dominated the T side of Vertigo, showing the world how exactly the T side can run away with the map.

Team Liquid with great gameplay on Vertigo

The theme of the series came back to haunt Team Liquid. EG would once again get a map pick, with yet another close scoreline on Inferno. This map was another 16-12 map, with Evil Geniuses taking the map, bringing them to the series point. Although, TeamLiquid was not going to be eliminated that easily. Mirage was the following map and team Liquid dominated that showing 16-6. Finally, it was time for the decider on Dust II.

Dust II went yet another 16-12 victory, with EG coming in clutch and taking the trophy. Yet again, EG takes another trophy in North America and maintain their dominance over Team Liquid. The only thing to note on this front is that EG has some work to do as this newly fired up Team Liquid roster is making it their rivalry really competitive once again.

EG are your ESL One Cologne Champions.

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 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.

Categories
CS:GO

NiP eliminate BIG from ESL One Cologne

Ninjas in Pyjamas have eliminated BIG from ESL One Cologne Online – Europe. The Swedes survive the Lower Bracker Round One, advancing further into the tournament. Meanwhile, BIG can no longer have their 2018 dream avenged as they leave the tournament losing two different matchups against Sprout and NiP.

BIG Clan are one of the biggest teams in 2020. Their journey through the online era has been great for the German side. They continuously upset some of the major teams throughout the year and even came first-place finishes by beating teams like G2 in Grand Finals. Their consistent results meant that BIG began to reign in their own era in CS:GO, becoming world number one.

Coming out of the player break, it looked like BIG was set for another great online period. BIG’s first tournament back out of the player break was in DreamHack Open Summer. BIG emerged victorious, absolutely shutting down Heroic in the finals. With that momentum, it looked like they were set to enter ESL One Cologne still on form.

However, things did not go to plan for BIG. In the first round, they were surprisingly upset 2-0 by the fellow German side, Sprout. That series was super close, with Sprout taking the first map 16:12, while the second map was only won in overtime 19:16.

How NiP eliminated BIG in the Lower Bracket

In their next series, NIP faced BIG in the Lower Bracket. BIG started off strong, winning their first map of the tournament on Vertigo 16-5. The strong BIG we expect had finally turned up. Although that was to be their last great showing of the event.

Ninjas in Pyjamas began to wake up on the second map of Nuke. The Swedes’ CT side was not a desirable showing, but their T-side began to show promise. The game became tied at 10-10, with NiP snowballing themselves to 14 before BIG caught up. With a surprise, NIP secured their 15th with an eco round. Eventually BIG settled their CT side dominance on Nuke by tying the map. The game went on for several overtimes before NiP secured the win 28-26.

syrsoN kept BIG’s dreams alive in overtime but it wasn’t enough to get the win.

Mirage was the final map for the two teams, and NiP tore through their opposition. NiP had a few weak rounds straight out of the gates, but they found themselves returning to form. By round 8, BIG needed a call out, but it was not enough to slow NiP down. NiP ended the half 11-4. Moving into the other half, BIG found some life, but NiP closed the map and series 16-7.

With that result, the world number one exists their home ground event tied for last place in Europe. ESL One Cologne is the tournament of upsets and it is only day three. The BIG upset is surely the biggest one so far, but no doubt there are more yet to come.

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 StarLadder.