Techno: "A really big achievement for us"

The 19-year-old was over the moon after his team upset Spirit in the opening round of IEM Cologne.

The MongolZ pulled off the second upset of IEM Cologne's group stage as they moved past Spirit in just two maps, putting the current world No.2 on the brink of elimination.

The Mongolians' marquee performance was made all the more surprising by the fact that they appeared to be losing some steam after winning YaLLa Compass in early June. After early exits at ESL Challenger Jönköping and the Esports World Cup, they were outclassed by 3DMAX in the grand final of the Skyesports Championship - the team's last event before Cologne.

"It's a really big achievement for us," Sodbayar "⁠Techno⁠" Munkhbold told HLTV after the match. "We're feeling so happy right now.

"We played them in the Katowice Play-Ins and lost 2-0. We made a lot of mistakes at that time. We could have won one map, but we lost it. Now we fixed our problems. I think that's the biggest reason we won today."

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2024
11/08/2024	SAW 15:45 The MongolZ	Match

The victory sets The MongolZ up for a rematch against SAW in the second upper bracket round of the group. The two teams faced each other on Wednesday in the Play-In stage, with the Portuguese outfit running out 2-1 winners.

"The last match, we were ahead on Anubis," Techno said. "We just made a lot of mistakes. We made so many in this match. I think we will now figure it out, and I think we can win it. We didn't underestimate them, they're a good team."

It has been just two weeks since The MongolZ made history by entering the top 10 in the world rankings, but they don't plan on stopping here. As they prepare for Sunday's grudge match against SAW, the Mongolians have another goal in their sights: securing a spot at the LANXESS arena and playing in front of a massive crowd.

"T​​hat's our main goal, yeah," Techno said. "Our main goal. Getting to the stage."