Into the Breach exit IEM Cologne Play-In at the hands of TheMongolz

The Mongolian side were dominant, taking a quick 2-0 win over their European opponents.

The MongolZ have eliminated Into the Breach from the IEM Cologne Play-In thanks to a dominant 2-0 win, taking Mirage and Ancient 16-8. Usukhbayar "⁠910⁠" Banzragch provided the firepower to win Mirage, whilst Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren fragged out on Ancient.

Now The MongolZ progress to a qualification match, where they will face the loser of Monte vs FURIA.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2023 Play-in
28/07/2023	The MongolZ 16:00 FURIA	Match

A very tight overtime loss to MOUZ opened The MongolZ’s account at IEM Cologne, but they showed in that match they had the chops to be competitive in this Play-In. They bounced back with a convincing victory here over Into the Breach, playing better both as a team and as individuals, and they will be confident they can challenge for a main event spot in their qualification bout on Friday.

By contrast, Into the Breach were utterly outclassed in both of the matches they played in Cologne, following up a 5-16 loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas with another defeat to The MongolZ. Into the Breach’s AWPer Joey "⁠CRUC1AL⁠" Steusel stated after the game in a broadcast interview that he felt his team were not up to scratch individually against the Mongolians, saying "it's really hard to win rounds if you can't kill people."

Into the Breach did lose two of the players that helped them make an upset run to the playoffs of the most recent Major in the off-season, and it seems they have some way to go to bed in the new additions of Adam "⁠NEOFRAG⁠" Zouhar and Aurimas "⁠Bymas⁠" Pipiras. Thomas "⁠Thomas⁠" Utting mentioned the team having some "small clashes" over how to approach the game in an interview following the Ninjas in Pyjamas game, and those will need to be ironed out sooner rather than later.