IEM Cologne 2022 continues its course and the Cathedral of CS:GO already knows the picture of the playoffs with the end of the group stage. Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan, the two main favorites to get a place in Cologne, secured their tickets directly to the Semifinals of the German tournament. In addition, it became known that MOUZ, Astralis, Movistar Riders, and Liquid will debut in the Quarterfinals on July 15.
We are here to recap the performances of the classified teams able to force a tiebreaker for the playoff slots. Without further ado, we bring you the highlights of the group stage of the IEM Cologne 2022.
Quarterfinals of the IEM Cologne
The action of the Playoffs will continue with two games in the Quarterfinals. On Friday, July 15, MOUZ will face Astralis, and Movistar Riders will compete against Liquid for a place in the Semifinals. You can follow the games through https://cover.gg/matches/current, a webpage that brings all the CS:GO data in one place. But now, we want to take a closer look at the teams that have managed to secure the qualification and enter the decisive phase of the event.
MOUZ
After initially losing 2-1 to Natus Vincere in the first match of the group, MOUZ recovered, beating Heroic 2-0 and Team Vitality 2-1. Against the ninjas they had to pull a comeback to reach the quarterfinals. The club went from an unfavorable 9-16 in Vertigo to a 16-12 and a resounding 16-3 in Inferno and Mirage respectively. Finally, the European team avoided an elimination from the German CS:GO event by beating NiP 2-1 in the lower final bracket. Jon “JDC” de Castro from MOUZ is the only German player who will compete in the Lanxess Arena.
Movistar Riders
The Movistar Riders will finally debut in the playoffs in the quarterfinals after losing the last match 2-1 to Natus Vincere, a champion of the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals. Nevertheless, the defeat did not take away the merit of the entity, which will be the first completely Spanish quintet in history to play at the Lanxess Arena. To do this, the Spaniards surpassed G2 and Vitality twice: by 2-0 in the qualifier and by 2-1 in the group stage.
Team Liquid
Team Liquid managed to save the roles at the IEM in Cologne after a very discreet first half of the year. After beating 00Nation with a tight 2-1 in the first match of the lower bracket, the team showed a great performance compared to the 2-1 defeat against Team Spirit in the upper opening round. The North American roster defeated Cloud9 and FURIA by 2-0 to reach the Quarterfinals.
Semifinals of the IEM Cologne
Let’s also see the leaders of the IEM Cologne that have dominated this first phase, remaining undefeated and demonstrating superior styles of play.
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere took the pass to the semifinals after beating Movistar Riders 2-1 in the upper final bracket. The Ukrainian team had a hard time against the Spaniards after yielding in the initial Inferno, but later recovered and went from less to more. So, after the initial 9-16 on Inferno, Natus Vincere won 16-11 and 16-10 in Mirage and Overpass, respectively.
FaZe Clan
FaZe was another team that took the direct pass to the Semifinals thanks to a resounding 2-0 result against Astralis in the upper final bracket. The American roster has surpassed group B undefeated, recovering from the bad feelings experienced in both the BLAST Premier Spring Final and the IEM in Dallas. In contrast, the Danish organization showed a surprising improvement with two solid 2-0 wins against Outsiders and Cloud9.
How do the IEM Cologne Playoffs continue?
For the time being, The ESL released the match schedules of Quarterfinals of IEM in Cologne. Also, after NaVi’s and FaZe’s victories over MRS and Astralis, we already know the first crossing of the Semifinals. However, it remains to be known which will be the other two squads that will accompany them in the next instance. During next Friday we will find out how the remaining Semifinal will be shaped. Here are the games that you can follow through the official channels of the IEM on Twitch and YouTube.
- July 15, 13:30 pm UTC – MOUZ vs Astralis
- July 15, 17:00 pm UTC – Movistar Riders vs Team Liquid
