A Tactical Breakdown of the Quarterfinals of IEM Cologne 2022

“Be careful, FaZe”, warned SunPayus as the Spaniard celebrated after his team, Movistar, rode themselves to a stunning Semifinal place. Team Liquid joined the likes of G2, Vitality, and Vitality again to be another “favorite” to have lost to the young Movistar Riders, another dragon for them to slay. On the other side of the bracket, Astralis reverse-swept MOUZ to set up a historically iconic Semifinal against NaVi in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike.

Let’s take a closer, tactical look at how things turned out to be in the Quarterfinals of IEM Cologne.

Astralis vs MOUZ

The first Quarterfinal to be played in the evening in Germany was the Astralis vs MOUZ battle. The maps to be played were MOUZ’s Mirage, Astralis’ Nuke, and the deciding Ancient.

MOUZ dominated Astralis from start to end on Mirage, a map that for long was a permaban for the Danes. It’s important to note that gla1ve doesn’t IGL anymore on Mirage like it was when the former COL duo, k0nfig and blameF arrived. gla1ve came to terms with the fact that he’s pretty far behind on the Mirage meta, and let blameF IGL himself. That said, it does paint a bad picture of blameF, given the way they lost Mirage.

Despite winning the opening pistol and converting the next, they lost the CT-sided first-half 5-10. It was 5-6 at one point when, after a timeout, Astralis strung two rounds in a row, but after that, it was all downhill. JDC was a key figure in the later part of that half. He had won 5 out of 6 opening duels at that point and was a driving force for the EU side. His entries and kills on B in rounds like Round 8 were make-or-break, with a little help of course from the liability that Farlig was on Mirage.

Apart from the fact that Farlig underperformed, costing them quite a few rounds, I feel like even the comms on the Astralis side were underwhelming. Take Round 7 for example. MOUZ are on a half buy, two AKs and a couple of Tec9s. They all go B and trade Xyp9x who was on the site. k0nfig gets a kill from Arches and then tucks into the corner, making sure no one is crossing towards Bench. It’s probably not the best play, but it’s nice regardless. blameF rotates in from the Mid Window, but there’s the comm issue. k0nfig was already in a position so no one could cross towards Bench, so instead of jumping out the Market Window smoke the Ts threw, blameF goes all the way towards Door to lock down the same angle k0nfig had.

Look at the minimap. 6 and 7, blameF and k0nfig, both were holding the same chokepoint, instead of using their utility and helping each other out. blameF and k0nfig had 2 flashes and 2 smokes to facilitate blameF’s Market Window push but the poor comms meant Astralis soon lost the site, and the round.

Mirage was a visible disaster, both on an individual level and team level, but there was still a chance to recover. After all, these Danes once were the masters of LANs.

Nuke was up next, and it was Astralis that won the map, obviously. Farlig revived himself and gave us a great Nuke, being the top fragger with 24 kills. It’s interesting to note that he had switched onto the rifles for a good part of the map, and only switched back to his primary AWP when he had built up his confidence.

Astralis won their T-sided first-half 9-6. After going down 0-2, they won a full eco and rushed to a 7-2 lead after that. MOUZ did kinda recover in the end and try to make life easier for themselves in the second half by posting a relatively respectable 6-9 half, but that early slump in form and lack of rounds really took a toll on them.

The main problem I saw is how passive they were. They always had too little information as to what was going on in areas like Outside. The MOUZ players were playing positions like deep Secret and deep CT. Giving away so much control to highly experienced players like gla1ve and co. is a death sentence, and the scoreline aptly reflected that. Astralis then put up a decently sturdy defense to wrap up the second map.

Ancient is where Astralis truly turned back the clocks and showed us glimpses of the LAN monsters they once were. After a fairly abysmal CT-sided first half where they could only manage 6 rounds, it looked like MOUZ will finally kill off the sturdy Danes and progress to test their mettle against the likes of NaVi.

But Astralis, amongst a crowd clearly favoring MOUZ, rose through the ashes of their poor performances of the recent years by posting a phenomenal 10-3 T side on one of the most CT-sided maps in the CS:GO map pool right now. gla1ve led the team by example as he racked up 29 kills as Astralis won the map 16-12, making a stellar “debut” on the updated Ancient.

.@AstralisCS ARE GOING TO THE SEMI-FINALS OF #IEM COLOGNE 2022! ?

They take down @mousesports 2-1 and confirm themselves in the top 4!

8-16 Mirage
16-9 Nuke
16-12 Ancient pic.twitter.com/l5Z49ahFto

— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) July 15, 2022

They had set up an iconic matchup against NaVi in the Semifinals of Cologne. A rematch of the 2018 Cologne Semifinals. The result, I believe, wouldn’t be any different. NaVi are just too strong to lose to Astralis, meaning the Danish curse of Cologne would continue on. There’s always a place for miracles of course, though.

Movistar Riders vs Team Liquid

Team Liquid’s new iteration had reached the Playoffs of IEM Cologne. Facing high-flying Movistar Riders, Team Liquid definitely looked like the slight favorite. But every single time have we thought “They’re a good team, but the lucky run ends here”, be it against Vitality all the way back in the Play-In, or be it G2 in the Group Stage, or Vitality again in the Group Stage, have the Spaniards given us a shock, a reason to sing their songs.

And for all of us who thought, “Play In and Group Stage is fine, but this is the Playoffs in an arena full of people, hence it’ll be an easy Liquid win”, well, the Riders proved us wrong once again.

On Liquid’s pick of Ancient, Movistar Riders put forth an impenetrable defense, winning it 11-4. SunPayus was a key figure in that map win. He was very mobile and kept Liquid guessing as to where he’d be. He wasn’t missing any shots, and was constantly creating space and earning advantages for the Riders. Movistar Riders were constantly trying to not let Liquid to their proper defaults. They didn’t allow the NA team to execute properly or earn map control without resistance. They had some nice ideas as well, like that creative boost on A.

Movistar Riders were playing off of the info they were gaining at every step of the way. They were making plays out of the situation as opposed to going through their scripted plans. That really kept them going as the map progressed. Movistar Riders finally ended the map with a 16-9 win, twice squashing the chance for Team Liquid to get back into the game.

Movistar Riders’ stellar defense didn’t carry on to their own map pick of Inferno, though. After a great T-sided first half where they racked up 10 rounds against the NA defense. It was a great attacking half from Movistar where they constantly pinned Liquid into a corner and exploited the holes in their setups. Banana success was the only way Liquid were able to post rounds on their CT side, apart from their revered, superior firepower.

The mopoz 3k in the second half was really a thing of beauty, but it masked the reality that Movistar had to rely on individual moments of magic to put one on the board. Their CT side was weak and they couldn’t win consecutive rounds in that second half, eventually losing the map 14-16.

The final map was Vertigo. Movistar Riders took an early 3-0 lead but fell behind 4-5 when Liquid cranked up the speed and the heat to gain some fast round wins. The Spanish team adjusted to that by fine-tuning their approach to maximize their retake potential, a strategy that worked wonders. They executed 4 successful consecutive retakes and closed the half with a 10-5 lead off the back of 6 consecutive CT round wins.

Team Liquid did try to mount a comeback but the Spaniards double downed on their merits and suffocated the hopes and dreams of an entire continent. EU prevailed, once again. But it’s definitely a performance and a run that Liquid will soon be proud of after they get over the gloom and doom of their loss. They’ve shown their potential and proved that their ceiling is higher than people expected, especially now that a player like YEKINDAR has joined the NA camp.

It just means so much to these boys ?????? @Movistar_Riders ❤️#IEM pic.twitter.com/6IHq7dpuyC

— FAZE VS NAVI FINALS CONFIRMED?? (@ESLCS) July 15, 2022

The number of pistol wins (5 out of 6) and eco/half-buy wins that Movistar Riders racked up against some of the most skillful and mechanically gifted players in the world really put on display the tactical astuteness the Spaniards have. It paints their ability to win in crunch situations and their general competitive superiority in a beautiful, golden light. Their mastery over textbook CS has come a long way in helping them reach what they reached: the Semifinal in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike.

The only team Movistar Riders have lost to in the recent past is NaVi, and likely, FaZe Clan will be joining that list. It had been a dream run to a Final, and the fact that only NaVi and FaZe Clan could beat Movistar Riders really justifies the truth in a Top 4 finish.

A Cinderella story, indeed.