IEM Cologne 2022Vitality defeat ENCE to set up Movistar Riders rematch
Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer's men have now dropped to the Group A lower bracket.
Vitality kickstarted their journey in the IEM Cologne group stage showing great form by taking down ENCE 2-1. The victory will help shake off some of the doubts created by the French-Danish mix during the previous phase of the event, but there is still a long road ahead of them. Danny "zonic" Sørensen's team now has the chance to avenge their Play-In loss to Movistar Riders, facing them in Group A's upper bracket semi-final on Friday at 19:30 .
Meanwhile, ENCE have been relegated to the lower bracket and will face G2 for tournament survival, meaning one of the dark horses will be sent home without even laying eyes on the LANXESS Arena.
A very energetic Vitality got off to a dominant start on ENCE's pick of Nuke. On the CT side, the French-Danish mix cruised to a dominant 12-3 half on the back of an inspiring performance from Emil "Magisk" Reif. Despite the ability of Snappi's men to constantly find their way into sites, Vitality's composure in post-plant situations gave them the edge to come out ahead.
After switching sides, ENCE found it easier to get in the groove, taking the pistol and successfully reducing their deficit to 8-12. Lotan "Spinx" Giladi started off the game in great form and he carried that fire into the second half, defending the A bombsite to near perfection. Eventually, Vitality found a way to crack the upper site more consistently and closed the map 16-10.
Moving onto Dust2, ENCE took a tumultuous opening pistol round on the B site to kickstart a streak leading them to a 5-0 advantage. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut started to find his rhythm on the offense, but it was Paweł "dycha" Dycha and Pavle "Maden" Bošković who shined the brightest as they pushed their team to an 11-4 defensive half. Vitality had a good start to their CT side, but were unable to keep up the pressure as ENCE recovered and equalized the series with a 16-12 scoreline.
The decider on Mirage opened in a slightly chaotic manner following ENCE's victory in the opening pistol. Eventually, Vitality were able to come out on top with just a few Deagles, kickstarting an 11-round winning streak in which they blew the European mix out of the water. After the break, ENCE briefly put up a fight, but it was only a matter of time until Dan "apEX" Madesclaire's men recovered to end the series 16-7.
 ENCE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 - 53 | +5 | 86.4 | 71.4% | 1.14 | |
| 54 - 53 | +1 | 78.1 | 74.0% | 1.08 | |
| 44 - 54 | -10 | 65.9 | 66.2% | 0.90 | |
| 39 - 53 | -14 | 59.7 | 64.9% | 0.84 | |
| 41 - 54 | -13 | 53.2 | 68.8% | 0.80 |
 Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62 - 43 | +19 | 88.5 | 75.3% | 1.35 | |
| 61 - 49 | +12 | 86.5 | 72.7% | 1.22 | |
| 43 - 42 | +1 | 66.4 | 77.9% | 1.03 | |
| 50 - 53 | -3 | 71.3 | 72.7% | 1.01 | |
| 49 - 49 | 0 | 64.7 | 76.6% | 1.00 |
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
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