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IEM Katowice 2021: Narratives To Watch At This Major Event

IEM Katowice 2021 is finally here, with the Play-in event kicking off and the Main Event just days away. IEM Katowice 2021 is the first major event in the CS:GO calendar with so many teams involved for several months. Naturally, the best squads in the ESL Pro Tour are awaiting Play-in results to compete on Thursday. However, there are many lineups looking for a shot to make it into the big leagues. Here are the stories to watch:

Main Event Narratives

The Main Event of Katowice has brought many good stories over the years. Natus Vincere won 2020’s event, and previously, in 2019, ENCE had their incredible underdog babyface run to the final. Similarly, this year has no shortage of stories. Here are the best:

FaZe Clan’s First Real Test

FaZe Clan has rebuilt their roster once again. Only this time, the roster has Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken and Finn “karrigan” Andersen. The team recently looked solid with nothing to lose at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021, and that was without karrigan. IEM Katowice is their first real showing, and it is going to be a great gauge to see how they’re performing.

Heroic’s Enigma

Heroic is a team that really grew into their own throughout 2020. The roster eventually peaked at the second half of the year, contending for finals in several events. And in the process, building an actual rivalry with Astralis. The roster did partially fall off in some events, coming 5th-8th at events like the Global Showdown and CS_Summit 7. Katowice is an event that will define Heroic as either a team falling off or still hanging one of the best in the world.

Vitality down to Five

Vitality is a team that has prided itself with its six-man roster, tactical substitutions, and winning events with their gameplay. However, the start of 2021 has not been great. A fine resulting from an accidental restream of an event noticed on broadcast, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut getting his lowest ADR game on record at BLAST Premier Spring 2021, and now the temporary leave of Dan “apEX” Madesclair has got the roster shaken up. Vitality has plenty of prep time, so the opening game for them is one to watch.

Vitality down a player at time their six-man roster was working effectively

Play-In Narratives

The Play-ins is the first leg of the tournament, looking to advance eight teams to the quarter-finals. There are plenty of teams in that pool scrapping it out to make it to the one of CS:GO’s most prestigious events. While there are many decent teams, there are a few high profile stories to watch.

How Will mousesports Fare?

Mousesports has gone from one of the best teams in the world several times to falling off the face of the earth. The roster is currently experiencing the latter. Both the aged veteran Chris “Chris J”de Jong is benched and on loan to FPX and karrigan has returned to FaZe Clan. With the veterans out, there are plenty of young talent fending for themselves. Add in the new IGL and the roster is interesting. The question is has Robin “ropz” Kool graduated from young star to the star player and now veteran of the mousesports roster in time?

Karrigan returns to FaZe after several years of absence

The CIS Beast Awakens

Team Spirit, Virtus.pro, and Gambit are three teams on the rise in recent months. The tier 2 Russian squads have made it out of their region and began stomping teams like BIG, mousesports, and others in international online events. Both teams now arrive at their biggest challenge yet: IEM Katowice. Both teams have a darkhorse atmosphere to them, and it will be interesting to follow the growth of new CIS threats in the global scene. There is definitely potential for all these teams to break through the Play-Ins into the Main Event of IEM Katowice 2021.

Can Complexity Keep Up Appearances?

Complexity is a mixed-result team that has been in a weird spot since Owen β€œoBo” Schlatter left the team. The roster has rebuilt and recently won its group in the BLAST Premier Spring 2021. But now there are many more teams to face off against at of CS:GO’s biggest events. The question does the team have what it takes to keep up its appearances? the Play-Ins will be a perfect benchmark.

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 Gaming

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Na’Vi crowned BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 Champions

Natus Vincere has become the 2020 BLAST Premier Global Finals 2020 Champions after taking down Astralis in the Grand Final. Na’Vi has won its first tournament in a while, ending the 2020 event calendar and starting their 2021 with a bang.

Natus Vincere’s run to the Final

Everyone thought that Natus Vincere was going to pull a typical Na’Vi result in the online era. The team hasn’t been particularly great recently and that was the form they started the event with. In their opening series, they played against Team Liquid, and lost 0-2. From there, the CIS roster had to play in the Lower Bracket to survive.

But their journey to the Finals was remarkable. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, the roster pulled it back again and again.

The first Lower Bracket opponent was against Complexity, and that was a close call. The Complexity series started off on a back burner. Complexity won the first map on Mirage 19-17, continuing Na’Vi’s loss streak. With elimination point set, NaVi came back on Nuke to win 16-8 breathing life into the roster. Moving on Na’Vi won Inferno 16-11, surviving for another series.

A familiar foe was next in line as Na’Vi faced off against the newly refreshed G2 Esports. Even with G2 Esports star carry Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, Na’Vi still managed a 16-6 win on Train and 16-8 on Mirage. The momentum was in full swing for the CIS roster as Na’Vi was ramping up and starting to catch fire as the event went on.

The IGL’s brain was firing on all cylinders in his team’s approach and mechanical play.

After that, it was rematch time vs Team Liquid. It was clear Na’Vi was back in form when they faced Team Liquid again. This time, Na’Vi won the series 2-0, with the scores 16-13 for Inferno and 16-14 Nuke for the win.

After that, it was the 3rd and 4th place matchup between Natus Vincere and Team Vitality. This match was an absolute banger, with the series breaking the viewership record for an online CSGO event – excluding majors. Na’Vi and Vitality pulled in a 687k viewers peak. It was easy to see why; two best players in the world facing off against each other in what the community has described as a tough year to pick a world number one player.

As for the series itself, it was an incredible Lower Bracket Final. The first map went the full distance of a 19-17 Nuke, with Overpass heading to 16-12 for Vitality. The final map was Dust II, which is Vitality’s favoured map. but Na’Vi managed a 16-10 win. The Lower Bracket Final was a story of tremendous comeback, and the quality of their final LB opponent made it so much more special.

Na’Vi dominating the esports viewership for CS:GO

Na’Vi’s BLAST Premier Global Finale

With the Lower Bracket wrapped, Natus Vincere found themselves against Astralis, a team that has finally returned to form and keep making Finals. It was another 2-0 battle for Na’Vi as they had hit their peak form at this point. Nuke was once again on the cards as the most popular map in the current era of CS:GO. Astralis pulled their usual trick of substituting in Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen specifically for the map. Unfortunately for the Danes, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Egor “flamie” Vasilev were on point for the map, ending in a 16-12 victory for the CIS team.

The next map was Inferno, where the Danes never had a chance. Na’Vi destroyed Astralis making the number one team in the world look like an am-pro team. Na’Vi won 16-5, on a map where the design tends to create fairly even showings. Nonetheless, Na’Vi managed a 1.0 or more rating on four players, whereas everyone on bar one on Astralis earned less than a 0.9 rating. It was telling to how much everyone on Na’Vi was on fire. With that set, it became really easy for the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 to award s1mple the MVP of the event.

A well-deserved MVP after a really long and challenging event

With the event over, CS:GO is back in action. The CS:GO offseason is done and teams are back, with the next event being the DreamHack Open January event. 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.

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Eight teams confirmed for IEM Global Challenge 2020

The IEM Global Challenge 2020 is confirmed, with the eight teams heading to Europe to compete in one of the 2020’s final events. The IEM Global Challenge 2020 will feature the four teams who earned their way to the event via recent tournament victories, with another four teams gaining their spot through the World Ranking system.

The first four teams to earn their spot through the events are Heroic, FURIA, Team Vitality and Chaos Esports Club. These four teams were successful at the DreamHack Open Fall, IEM New York NA, IEM Beijing-Haidian EU and NA events. While FURIA and Heroic were confirmed for months, Vitality and Chaos joust joined with the success at IEM Beijing over the weekend.

With the four teams confirmed, there were another four teams to earn direct invites through the ESL Pro Tour Rankings. Europe has two slots to the event, with Astralis and Complexity earning their tokens to the event. Over in North America, Evil Geniuses clinched their spot as they have had the next best run after FURIA Esports took the mantle over the last few months. Natus Vincere takes the final slot as they are the most dominant team in the CIS region.

What the Invited Teams means for the Event

The most interesting part of this is how Astralis and Complexity are the two European teams attending. With the recent Vitality victory at IEM Beijing, they secured themselves a spot. If they didn’t the competition of EU teams could have meant Vitality may have earned their invite through the EU top teams, while competing against the likes of BIG and Complexity for the spot.

The stars aligned for Complexity’s invite

On the other hand, the North American seeds are wild. With both Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses getting eliminated by Chaos E.C. and Triumph, it meant that one of NA’s T2 teams were going to a big event with intercontinental matchups. A typical final between EG and TL would have likely meant that both teams would have been invited, but the rise of Chaos has thrown a spanner in the works to really grow the success of the roster.

There was no question for Na’vi’s appearance at the event. If they won the EU Beijing event, they would have qualified via that route. But if they didn’t, then there was no doubt they would qualify through CIS. The only team close to them are VP and forZe, but both rosters are considerably far behind them in terms of quality.

With the amalgamation of teams at the event, the IEM Global Challenge 2020 is going to be an interesting event, with plenty of big teams competing against teams they normally never compete against. The IEM Global Challenge 2020 is set to start on December 15th to December 20th. The groups for the event are yet to be revealed.

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 IEM.

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Vitality impress at BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group B

Vitality is the champion of the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group B, and they pulled off the victory in an impressive showing. The French organisation unleashed their six-man roster on the CS:GO world for the first time, and it was indeed a sight to behold. Let’s see what happened through the Group.

Vitality’s path

Vitality is one of those teams that have been consistently good near enough all year long. Unlike many top teams, Vitality hasn’t faltered in the online era, and they consistently put up good showings in almost every tournament. However, the roster seems to choke on the final hurdle, as they have been to four finals and failed to lift a trophy in 2020.

With the context set, Vitality entered their BLAST Premier Fall Group B with a fresh start. The team brought its six-man roster forward, and it got better and better as the event went on. On the other hand, Complexity had their new player, Justin “jks” Savage begin playing for the team after recently departing from 100T. So the series was definitely a warm-up for both sides. The French started off against the juggernaut, Complexity. The series went the full distance, wit Nuke going 16-14 to Vitality. Nabil β€œNivera” Benrlitom then got his debut match on Dust ii, but unfortunately, Complexity had a great map and won it 16-12. The final map had the new player head to the bench, and that was the recipe for Vitality claiming another 16-14 win on Vertigo.

Moving on, they faced BIG in the Upper Bracket of Group B. BIG found their way to this after facing off against FaZe Clan in the other opening round of Group B. FaZe just lost their best player, but the roster put up a good fight forcing them into overtime in the first map, and taking the second map. However, BIG ended up winning it. But the same could not be said about their series vs Vitality as they lost 2-0. Int eh first map both Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Richard “shox” Papillion combined to have 36 kills in the first half of Dust II. Vitality took Dust II 16-10, with Overpass a 16-11 win.

Vitality had to make the odd comeback here and there to get the series win

Vitality’s Final

Once again, Vitality met BIG in the Grand Final of the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group B. BIG came in a bit more prepared this time, but it wasn’t enough to stop the reformed French side from taking the Group win. Vitality once again showed off their favour for Dust II and won it 16-12. Vitality’s T side was nigh unstoppable, as the working combination of Nivera and ZywOo shared 25 kills opening and clearing the CT side.

BIG may have lost the series, but they had grand moments of their own throughout the series

Big did get their own back against Vitality on Nuke. 16-14 seems to be the default for Nuke in this Group B event, and that’s how BIG won against Vitality. BIG dominated the first half with a 12-3 showing, but somehow Vitality almost managed the same scoreline on the next half. It was only in the key moment of round 30 that BIG switched the narrative on its head and secured the third map.

Inferno made an appearance as the final map of the series. Vitality would once again earn a 16-12 to take the series 2-1 and win BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Group B. Once again, Vitality’s new pairing of ZywOo and Nivera popped off again, and that was the key to a successful 10-3 half, claiming the map at a 16-12 win.

Vitality has done nothing but impress throughout this Group B showing. The ability to mix and match to the team with strategies and setups in mind obviously proved crucial in Vitality’s aim to get wins on the board. With them and BIG in the final, they both Head to the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown Finals later in the year. We look forward to seeing how Vitality redefines the six-man roster.

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.

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Astralis win third ESL Pro League trophy

Astralis has emerged victorious of the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe after beating Natus Vincere in the Grand Final. This is the third time Astralis has earned an ESL Pro League trophy in their team’s history, and they did so after coming through the Lower Bracket.

The Path to Redemption

The main story of Astralis in the EPL this season has mainly been about bedding in a new team. Astralis has opted in for a seven-man roster after their players have repeatedly taken time off for burnout. Throughout the event, Astralis has played with Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen, Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, and their returning IGL, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander.

Astralis found mixed results early on in the EPL after having a slow start. Nevertheless, by Week Two of the regular season, the team got glaive back and began to play with es3tag more for the regular season. Then by the end of the Regular Season, Astralis had managed to push themselves at the top of their group.

Although, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Astralis in the Playoffs. The Danish side lost their first match against Danish rivals Heroic and then made their way into the Lower Bracket for the ESL Pro League Season 12 European Playoffs. From there, the side began the next stage of their redemption story as they looked to advance through the Playoff bracket.

The redemption story started off strong. Astralis drew Team Spirit in the Lower Bracket First Round, and they beat them 2-0. Moving on, they then matched up against a weakened Complexity as the team is playing with a substitute since the departure of Owen “oBo” Schlatter. Astralis too won the Complexity series 2-0, but things started to get a bit difficult with their next event against mousesports.

The series went 2-1 to Astralis, but the score doesn’t tell the full story. The opening match on Dust II was a heavy stomp for Astralis with a 16-3 victory. It appeared the Danes were about to get another stomp of a series, but mouz returned the favour with a 16-6 on Inferno. The final map on Nuke was super close, where Astralis ended up taking the map 19-17 in a hotly contested series.

Just one of many highlights from Astralis in the EPL Season 12

The final hurdle for Astralis was Heroic, which set off a rematch between both of these teams. Heroic’s 2-0 victory had set Astralis on a warpath of redemption in the Playoffs, so this series meant everything to the team. Once again, Astralis secured another 2-0 for themselves taking down Heroic 16-13 on Vertigo and 16-12 on Overpass. With that storyline conquered, there was only one trophy left, the final.

The Grand Final

Natus Vincere was the team they met in the Grand Final after they had a successful Upper Bracket Playoff run. The team earned themselves a free win because of the success, so the pressure was on Astralis to make a comeback. The challenge of coming back only became harder as Na’Vi won Dust II 16-12. With the scoreline 2-0 to Na’Vi, Astralis needed to win three maps to win the series.

Lo and behold that is exactly what Astralis did. With their back against the wall, they then reverse swept the series with a 16-14 win on Nuke, 22-19 win on Train, and finally a 16-11 win on Overpass. Astralis overcame so many obstacles through the entirety of the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe event. Above all, this Grand Final victory shows how much work they have put in to embed a new seven-man roster. Not only this, but they showed great adaptation and remained strong even when it looked like they were on the verge of elimination multiple times.

In hindsight, this series was certainly exciting for all the right reasons

Astralis now has some time to prepare for the next few events they have to compete in. In addition, Astralis’ next big event is DreamHack Open Fall 2020 on 15th October- 25th October, followed by the BLAST Premier Fall starting on 29th October.

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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.

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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.

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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.