Monte breeze past new-look GamerLegion in IEM Cologne group stage opener

Monte have adapted to life without Mohammad "⁠BOROS⁠" Malhas with flying colors.

Monte continued their impressive form at IEM Cologne in the group stage by recording a straightforward victory against GamerLegion, who were badly missing the firepower of Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan and Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek. They dominated their map pick of Mirage (16-8) and looked strong on Overpass (16-11), exacting revenge against GamerLegion for their victory at the BLAST Paris Major.

Monte now move on to the upper-bracket semi-final against the winner of HEROIC vs. The MongolZ, with GamerLegion facing off against the loser of the same series.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2023
30/07/2023	GamerLegion 19:30 The MongolZ	Match
30/07/2023	Monte 20:30 HEROIC	Match

Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro joined the broadcast for a post-match interview, admitting his team expected GamerLegion to go for the Overpass pick. "We went in blank after their roster changes, but we definitely expected them to pick Overpass, so we just prepared for that map and it worked."

The match started on Monte's pick of Mirage, and GamerLegion found themselves on the back foot from the get-go. A dominant 11-4 half for the majority-Ukrainian roster set them up for a comfortable 16-8 win, moving the series on to Overpass.

The pre-match statistics were looking great for Monte on the map, and opening signs seemed to point towards a rough time for Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev and company. The teams engaged in force-buy wars that lasted the entire first half, and GamerLegion were no doubt pleased after getting seven on the offense. Their CT half was far from convincing, though, as they consistently dropped advantageous situations on their way to an 11-16 defeat, including losing a 1vs4 against Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk.