MOUZ and Natus Vincere reached the final four of the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne playoffs by winning tightly contested quarterfinal matches on Friday in Germany.
MOUZ overcame FURIA 2-1 in one quarterfinal showdown, while Natus Vincere pulled out a 2-0 victory over The MongolZ in the other. MOUZ advanced to face Team Vitality in Saturday’s semifinals, while NaVi will take on Team Spirit.
The single-elimination playoffs are the third and final stage of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. Playoff matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five final on Sunday.
A play-in stage allowed eight teams to advance to the group stage, joining eight teams that directly qualified into the groups. The group stage at IEM Cologne consisted of two double-elimination groups contesting best-of-three matches. The two group winners advanced directly to the semifinals, the two runners-up moved to the quarterfinals as high seeds, and the two third-place teams headed to the quarterfinals as low seeds.
The winning team Sunday will receive $400,000 and the runner-up will get $180,000.
On Friday, MOUZ opened with a 19-16 double-overtime win over FURIA on Train. FURIA countered with a 13-10 win on Mirage, but MOUZ pulled out a 13-11 result on the final map, Inferno. Lotan “Spinx” Giladi of Israel led MOUZ with 67 kills on a plus-9 kills-to-deaths differential, while teammate Hungary’s Adam “torzsi” Torzsas had 63 kills on a plus-24.
NaVi didn’t need to go three maps to beat The MongolZ, but the first map, Inferno, required plenty of extra time before they broke out of a tie for a 22-18 win. NaVi finished the job with a 13-6 triumph on Ancient.
Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov of Ukraine (51 kills, plus-17) and Drin “makazze” Shaqiri of Kosovo (51 kills, plus-12) paced NaVi.
The tournament continues Saturday with the two semifinal matches:
–Team Vitality vs. MOUZ
–Team Spirit vs. Natus Vincere
Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool:
1. $400,000
2. $180,000
3-4. $80,000
5-6. $40,000 — FURIA, The MongolZ
7-8. $24,000 — G2 Esports, FaZe Clan
9-12. $16,000 — Team Falcons, 3DMAX, Aurora Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas
13-16. $10,000 — Astralis, GamerLegion, Team Liquid, HEROIC
17-20. $4,500 — paiN Gaming, Virtus.pro, TYLOO, FlyQuest
21-24. $2,500 — BIG, MIBR, Complexity, B8
–Field Level Media
