Cloud9, Astralis ease past NiP, ENCE in Cologne opener

Cloud9 defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-3 on Inferno) while Astralis beat ENCE (16-5 on Nuke) in the first round of matches at ESL One Cologne.

The match between Ninjas in Pyjamas and Cloud9, played out on Inferno, kicked off with the North Americans, who are using Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk in Cologne, winning their Terrorist pistol thanks to a triple-kill from Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham in a 3v4 situation. After securing the subsequent anti-ecos, Cloud9 still lost the first gun round, but they remained in charge of the map.

It wasn't until the ninth round when Ninjas in Pyjamas bagged their second round, but Skadoodle immediately countered them with a 1v2 clutch in the following. Even though the Swedes responded in the next round, Cloud9 shut them down to go up 12-3 by half-time.

Cloud9 carried that momentum into the second half, making light work of Ninjas in Pyjamas to close out the map with a convincing 16-3 victory.

On the secondary stream, Astralis faced ENCE on Nuke. It all started with Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif finding a quad-kill to help his team pick up their T-side pistol, which they followed up with the anti-ecos and the first gun round. The Finnish team then won their first round on the back of a triple-kill and a 1v1 clutch by Sami "⁠xseveN⁠" Laasanen.

However, that was not enough to stop the attacking side, who remained in the driving seat, losing just one more round before half-time to switch sides with a dominant 13-2 lead.

In the second half, ENCE still found a lifeline after stringing together the first three rounds as CTs, but as soon as Astralis picked up weapons it was all about the Danes, who quickly put the last nail in the coffin, 16-5.