BetBoom Team and 9z Team continued their torrid runs at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major, joined by FURIA and Team Spirit in winning their Round 2 High matches on Friday in Germany.
BetBoom — who’ve battled all the way from Stage 1 to make it this far — upset Team Falcons 2-0, and 9z Team, who entered the tournament in Stage 2, beat Team Vitality 2-1.
BetBoom’s next opponent will be FURIA, who outlasted MOUZ 2-1 on Friday, while 9z will take on Team Spirit, who rallied 2-1 over Aurora Gaming.
Sixteen teams are still standing at the Counter-Strike 2 tournament that began with 32 entrants, competing for their share of a $1.25 million prize pool with the grand final scheduled for June 21. The champion receives $500,000.
Stage 3 utilizes a Swiss System format and all matches are best-of-three. The top eight finishers will proceed to the playoffs next week.
On Friday, BetBoom scored the only 2-0 win of the High matches by gritting out a 13-11 victory on Nuke and a 13-10 result on Ancient to stymie the Falcons. Kirill “Magnojez” Rodnov paced the all-Russian BetBoom squad with 47 kills and a 1.80 match rating.
Meanwhile, 9z lost to Vitality 13-4 on Inferno before bouncing back 13-9 on Mirage and 13-11 on Dust II. Ignacio “meyern” Meyer of Argentina carried 9z with 46 kills and the team’s only positive kills-deaths differential (46-39).
FURIA sandwiched a 13-5 victory on Nuke and a 13-7 win on Overpass around MOUZ’s 13-5 result on Inferno. FURIA relied on a match-high 56 kills from Kazakhstan’s Danil “molodoy” Golubenko.
Spirit fell 13-9 to Aurora on Dust II before drubbing their opponents 13-4 on Anubis and 13-5 on Nuke. Russian Danil “donk” Kryshkovets (46 kills), Belarusian Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich (44) and Russian Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov (43) led a balanced Spirit attack.
The four winners of the Round 2 Low matches move into the Mid matches for Round 3, while the losers will have to play win-or-go-home Round 3 Low matches.
The MongolZ blanked B8 2-0, Natus Vincere did the same against Legacy, Monte charged back to beat PARIVISION 2-1 and G2 Esports defeated FUT Esports 2-1.
Stage 3 continues Saturday with eight matches:
Round 3 High matches
–Team Spirit vs. 9z Team
–BetBoom Team vs. FURIA
Round 3 Mid matches
–Natus Vincere vs. The MongolZ
–Team Falcons vs. Monte
–Aurora Gaming vs. G2 Esports
–Team Vitality vs. MOUZ
Round 3 Low matches
–B8 vs. FUT Esports
–PARIVISION vs. Legacy
Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major prize pool
1. $500,000
2. $170,000
3-4. $80,000
5-8. $45,000
9-11. $15,000
12-14. $15,000
15-16. $15,000
17-19. $10,000 — paiN Gaming, TYLOO, BIG
20-22. $10,000 — MIBR, M80, Astralis
23-24. $10,000 — GamerLegion, FlyQuest
25-27. $5,000 — Lynn Vision Gaming, NRG, Team Liquid
28-30. $5,000 — THUNDERdOWNUNDER, Sharks Esports, HEROIC
31-32. $5,000 — Gaimin Gladiators, SINNERS Esports
–Field Level Media
