Welcome to a special weekly news roundup where we talk about all things IEM Cologne this week! The return to LAN has had many different news stories and TGH is here to break down everything that you may have missed up until today.
Who’s Qualified and Who’s Sent Packing
The Play-Ins of IEM Cologne was filled with upsets, debuts, and qualifications aplenty. Eight teams moved forward after their tough asks in the qualification stage. In a shocking turn of events, FaZe Clan rose to the difficulty of their bracket and edged out Evil Geniuses in their opening round. Soon after the international roster swept Complexity under the rug and went straight to the main event.
By the skin of their teeth, Spirit managed to qualify for IEM Cologne. After an arduous 40 rounds against MIBR, the Russians finally pulled it over the line on Inferno. Although they fell against Richard “shox” Papillon’s Vitality, they finally had to grind out a series against the German underdogs of Sprout.
Heartbreak struck many rosters during the play-ins but certainly hit the most against the Europeans OG and the North Americans Evil Genuises. OG passed their opening round with flying colors against TeamOne. But a striking BIG Clan shocked Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen right out of contention and straight into the lower bracket. All the squad had to do was dispatch of the Aussies, Renegades, and they would be met with jubilation in the next stage. However, Joshua “INS” Potter had finally awoken and completely snatched away a shocking qualification spot at IEM Cologne.
Evil Geniuses had the toughest bracket and the most pressure upon the squad. After their IEM Summer playoffs appearance, the world needed to know if the squad could replicate their outlier of a result. Even though the North Americans handled the Chinese ViCi Gaming squad with ease, Robin “ropz” Kool and mousesports proved too tall of an order for the EG boys to cross and were sent packing once more.
The Opening Rounds
Ninjas in Pyjamas, Vitality, FaZe, BIG, Renegades, Complexity, mousesports, and Spirit all qualified for the main event. How did they fare in today’s games? NiP found some trouble in their opening map against Team Liquid. But once their backs were against the wall, the Swedes retaliated swiftly against the North Americans and now set themselves up against Gambit in the upper bracket.
Mousesports caused quite the ruckus in their opening against the CIS stars of Gambit. Pushing them to the brink, the international roster had the series in the palm of their hand. But once the Mirage CT side of Gambit came into play, all hope was lost. Not a single T-sided round came for mousesports, and they fell by the wayside to set up a terrifying elimination prospect against Team Liquid.
BIG and Complexity shared opposite halves of a dominant coin. On one hand, the Germans made light work of the CIS polar bears, Virtus.Pro. On the other side, Complexity were simply dominated by Niko “NiKo” Kovac and G2 and were hurtled down to the lower bracket.
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