MIBR, BIG eliminate North, Renegades in Cologne

MIBR and BIG live to fight another round at ESL One Cologne after beating North and Renegades, respectively, in the lower bracket semi-final stage.

The match between MIBR and North kicked off on the latter's map pick, Mirage, with the Danes getting off to a 4-0 lead as Terrorists. The Brazilians then seemed set to secure their first round, but Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup denied them with a triple-kill that included a 1v2 clutch.

It was only on the seventh round that MIBR won their first on the back of a double and a triple from Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga and Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David, respectively. North immediately reset their economy with Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså and Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz turning a 2v4 situation around, but MIBR still won the next round on a shoddy force-buy. Until half-time, however, the former SK squad were only able to win one more round, with pistols.

After picking up their CT pistol, North seemed set to quickly lock down the map, but MIBR responded with a successful force-buy. Two rounds later, the Brazilians won their 14th, and then Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass found a lifeline for his team with a 1v2 clutch.

Although MIBR kept trying to turn the game around despite North eventually hitting map-point, Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen's men prevailed making it past the final hurdle to close the map out on the 30th round.

On MIBR's map pick, Overpass, the Brazilians got off to a flying start despite losing the first gun round, 6-1. MSL then came up huge with an ace to secure his team's second round, but Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip and co. kept breaking through the defence to go up 11-2.

That was when North finally came back to life, stringing together the final two rounds of the half to close the gap and make it 4-11. Still, MIBR won the second pistol round with a quad-kill from Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo in B, which opened up a way for them to hit 14 rounds without much effort.

North still attempted a response, losing only one of the next six rounds, but it was in vain as MIBR kept their composure to lock the map down, 16-9, on the back of a triple-kill from Stewie2K.

Inferno was the decider, and it started with MIBR winning their third pistol round of the series, this time as CTs, and followed it up against the ecos. Nevertheless, North went on a seven-round winning streak to take control of proceedings, 7-3.

From that moment, MIBR managed to win three of the next five rounds to bring the deficit to three rounds by half-time, 6-9. North then increased their lead after prevailing in a chaotic pistol round after switching sides, but MIBR responded with a triumphant force-buy.

After building up their economy, North hit their 11th round on the board, but that wasn't enough to stop MIBR, who only gave up a single round from there on out before finishing things off, 16-12.

On the secondary stream, the series began on Dust2, BIG's map pick, with the German squad winning their CT-side pistol round and the subsequent anti-ecos. Renegades then prevailed in the first gun round, but BIG were in charge of the early stage of the map.

Renegades had won just three rounds by the 12th round, but that was when a 1v2 post-plant clutch from Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage inspired his team to reduce the deficit to three rounds by half-time, 6-9.

In the second half, Renegades restored parity at 9-9 after picking up the second pistol round and winning the anti-ecos. BIG then won three rounds of their own, but the Australian side did not let them take any control of the half, losing a single round to take the lead in the series, 16-13.

Next up was Train, Renegades' map pick, but it was BIG who started things off on the right foot. Even though the Australians won the first gun round, Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik's squad was in charge and lost just three more rounds to bag a 11-4 half-time lead.

Renegades did not back down and quickly reduced the deficit to 7-11 in the second half. BIG hit map-point after conceding just two of the following six rounds, and then it was only a matter of time until they closed it out, 16-12, despite Renegades' efforts.

Inferno was the last map played in the series. BIG quickly bagged a 3-0 lead after winning their CT-side pistol round, and further added to their lead with an AWP quad-kill from Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield in the first gun round.

Renegades were then able to level up the score, though BIG had hit seven rounds in a back-and-forth affair, and then even take the lead, 8-7, into the half.

In the second half, Renegades looked a brighter side, losing just two rounds before reaching their 13th, and although BIG went on a massive seven-round streak to hit match-point, Renegades still managed to take the game to overtime.

There, the Germans got two of the first three rounds for a 17-16 lead, but then Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad equalized the score with a great 1v3 clutch. Still, BIG proved to be the stronger side and finished things off, 19-17.