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Astralis and Monte won their matches in three maps on Thursday to earn berths in the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event.

They join MOUZ and Fnatic, who qualified on Wednesday.

Astralis defeated Apeks and Monte knocked off FURIA Esports, sending those losing teams into the lower bracket, where they will face opponents on Friday.

Winners of first-round matches in the lower bracket on Thursday included The Mongolz and OG, who were 2-0 winners over Into The Breach and Complexity, respectively.

The other lower-bracket winners were Team Liquid (2-1 over BIG) and Imperial Esports (2-1 over Grayhound Gaming).

The $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began Wednesday with 16 teams competing in the double-elimination play-in stage. Opening matches were best-of-one, with all additional matches best-of-three.

Eight teams will advance to the group stage, which also will feature eight teams that previously qualified: G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, ENCE, Heroic, Cloud9, Natus Vincere and Gamer Legion.

Two groups of eight will compete in double-elimination play from Saturday through Tuesday, with all matches best-of-three. The two group stage winners will move to the playoff semifinals, the group-stage runners-up will head to the playoff quarterfinals as high seeds and the group-stage third-place teams will go to the playoff quarterfinals as low seeds.

The single-elimination playoffs will run Aug. 4-6, with the quarterfinals and semifinals best-of-three and the grand final best-of-five.

The championship side will receive $400,000 and a berth in the 2024 IEM Katowice event. The runner-up will get $180,000.

Thursday’s losers in the lower bracket — Into the Breach, Complexity Gaming, BIG and Grayhound Gaming — were eliminated and take home $2,500.

Astralis won their first and third maps to defeat Apeks. They took Overpass 16-10, and after Apeks won on Anubis, also 16-10, Astralis clinched on Ancient, 19-16, in overtime.

Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and Nicolai “device” Reedtz led Astralis’ all-Danish lineup with 59 kills apiece. Aleksandar “CacaNito” Kjulukoski of North Macedonia scored 67 kills for Apeks.

Monte edged FURIA on their first map, Mirage, 16-13, but fell 16-5 on Overpass. On the third map, Ancient, Monte rebounded from a 5-3 deficit. They won 10 of the next 11 rounds en route to a 16-7 victory.

Volodymyr “Woro2K” Veletniuk of Ukraine posted 55 kills and teammate and countryman Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev added 54 for Monte. Yuri “yuurih” Santos paced FURIA’s all-Brazilian team with 57 kills.

Friday’s action will have four matches in the lower bracket’s second round. FURIA Esports take on The MongolZ and Apeks meet OG in the early matches, followed by 9INE vs. Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas opposing Imperial Esports.

Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool
1. $400,000, 2024 IEM Katowice entry
2. $180,000
3-4. $80,000
5-6. $40,000
7-8. $24,000
9-12. $16,000
13-16. $10,000
17-20. $4,500
21-24. $2,500 — Into the Breach, Complexity Gaming, BIG, Grayhound Gaming

–Field Level Media