IEM Cologne 2024The MongolZ upset sets up Spirit-G2 elimination match
The reigning Cologne champions will square off against the reigning Katowice winners in the lower bracket.
The final matches of the first day of IEM Cologne's main stage have drawn to a close, seeing The MongolZ move past the Russian heavyweights of Spirit in a shocking 2-0 victory, while Natus Vincere made light work of paiN to continue on through the upper bracket.
The MongolZ's surprising victory over Spirit has damning ramifications, as the latter side is now slated to face off against G2 for their tournament lives after the international side also found themselves in the lower bracket after enduring an upset of their own against SAW.
While one of the reigning Cologne or Katowice champions is locked in for elimination tomorrow, either SAW or The MongolZ are guaranteed to play in the LANXESS Arena thanks to their impressive upsets. The two underdogs previously met in the Play-in, where the Portuguese squad pulled through in a close three-map series.
Meanwhile, Natus Vincere's win over paiN has secured them a matchup versus Astralis for a place in playoffs, while the Brazilians will be facing fellow South American side 9z in their lower bracket elimination match.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| IEM Cologne 2024 | ||
| 11/08/2024 |
15:45
|
Match |
| 11/08/2024 |
16:40
|
Match |
| 11/08/2024 |
18:55
|
Match |
| 11/08/2024 |
19:20
|
Match |
The MongolZ's series versus Spirit kicked off on the former side's pick of Ancient, a map that that Spirit are known to be capable on. Although the Mongolian side managed to procure an early lead, this was soon whittled away by occasional heroics from Spirit's men, leading to a tied-up score at the half.
A pistol-round clutch from Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov allowed the Russian to claim the lead, but two losses to poor buys from The MongolZ had drastic consequences for the rest of the half, as it allowed Garidmagnai "bLitz" Byambasuren's men to drag the map into overtime.
Clip: bLitz braves the flames to secure overtime
The MongolZ then ran away with things in the extra set of rounds, locking down their map pick with a 16-13 scoreline thanks in part to heroic rounds from their captain and a superlative performance from Ayush "mzinho" Batbold.
Things started in a competitive fashion on Spirit's choice of Anubis, but poor grenades, lackluster spacing, and unfortunate timings from the Russian side gave The MongolZ room to run away with the match, stealing away Anubis with a stunning 13-4 scoreline to take the series 2-0.
  Spirit |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 - 34 | -1.96% | 76.2 | 63.0% | 1.00 | |
| 28 - 30 | +0.41% | 67.7 | 65.2% | 0.96 | |
| 26 - 34 | -1.25% | 71.2 | 60.9% | 0.85 | |
| 23 - 35 | -4.96% | 61.7 | 65.2% | 0.75 | |
| 17 - 37 | -3.34% | 55.7 | 50.0% | 0.61 |
 The MongolZ |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 - 26 | +1.77% | 94.3 | 80.4% | 1.41 | |
| 36 - 24 | +3.17% | 72.9 | 78.3% | 1.26 | |
| 32 - 24 | +2.45% | 78.7 | 82.6% | 1.26 | |
| 30 - 25 | +1.32% | 67.7 | 84.8% | 1.18 | |
| 29 - 29 | +2.39% | 76.5 | 71.7% | 1.08 |
Meanwhile, Natus Vincere hardly broke a sweat in their series versus paiN, overcoming an early deficit on the Brazilian's pick of Anubis to mop up a quick 13-4 win.
Natus Vincere did more of the same on Mirage, exposing the gaps in paiN's defense to claim a dominant first half before eventually finishing things off with another 13-4 scoreline, bagging their tenth-consecutive win on Mirage.
Mihai 'iM' Ivan
Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Franco 'dgt' Garcia
Antonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez
Matias 'HUASOPEEK' Ibañez Hernandez
Nicolás 'buda' Kramer
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