Wrapping up the Play-In Stage of IEM Cologne 2022

The action in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike was kickstarted with 16 teams in the Play-In Stage, with 8 qualifying for the Group Stage to rustle with the likes of NaVi, FaZe Clan, and Cloud9.

There were some cutthroat matches and interesting plot lines. Before we get into some of the best stories springing out of the Play-In, and the contextual background behind all the stories, let’s look at who qualified for the next stage. The eight teams that progressed into the Group Stage were:

• Heroic
• Team Spirit
• Outsiders
• Movistar Riders
• Team Vitality
• Astralis
• 00 Nation
• MOUZ

The Danes go through

Astralis and Heroic both qualify for the Group Stages, one expected and one, well, unexpected for me. Both the teams have been relatively struggling in their own levels. Heroic never found their stride to get deep into Playoffs and win an event, and Astralis, well, have struggled really hard to get into Group Stages in the first place, let alone get into the deeper rounds of it.

Here in the Play-Ins of Cologne, Astralis managed to qualify by the skin of their teeth. After an humiliating early first-round loss to SA’s 00Nation, 16-6 on Mirage, Astralis were left to fight it all in the Lower Brackets. They met Complexity there, and I’ll refrain from making fun of COL because I’m an empathetic and moral man, but mostly because there’s a whole section for that later in the article.

Astralis 2-0ed Complexity like they were supposed to, and then faced recently crowned Roobet Cup champions, BIG. It was a cutthroat match, going all 3 maps. The first map looked to be going BIG’s way as they boasted an 11-4 CT-sided lead at halftime. But Astralis one-upped them 12-3 to steal away Nuke in dramatic 16-14 fashion. But they got the taste of their medicine on BIG’s Dust 2, where the Germans overturned a 6-9 deficit to win the map 16-13. My favourite Play-In match had gone on to the third map, and honestly, it wasn’t as auspicious as I built it up in my head. Astralis won the map 16-11, thanks to a great performances from blameF, k0nfig, and Farlig alike.

Despite me siding with BIG to bring it home in their own home, Astralis proved me wrong and set up a date match with FURIA.

Heroic, on the other hand, had it relatively easier. They blew away Sprout 16-3, and then carried that form into the first map against MOUZ, defeating them 16-5 on their own map pick. MOUZ did fight back in the following two maps, winning Heroic’s pick of Inferno 16-11, thanks to a stunning defense, but eventually succumbed to the sheer strength of the Danes.

Heroic will now play NiP in Round 1, and if I may try to imitate Nostradamus, NaVi in the Upper Bracket Round 2.

The Vitality scare

The French-Danish contingency showed some promising signs of revival in BLAST Premier Spring Finals, as they reached the Grand Finals leaving ENCE and G2 in their wake. Though they were no match for the new NaVi lineup in the Grand Finals, they did get the hopes of thousands of people up.

I was one of those thousands, but as I watched Vitality lose round after round on their own map pick of Overpass against the Spanish Riders, I could slowly sense the disappointment creeping up from my chest to my head, asphyxiating my hope and dreams in the process.

Vitality did not perform as well as we all had hoped, plain and simple. They even gave us a scare against Sprout, where they went a map down in an elimination match. And though they did manage to save their faces by qualifying, they definitely don’t deserve any award for that.

The event started great for Vitality. They took a 14-1 CT-sided lead on Overpass against TYLOO, and even though it was still TYLOO, I was satisfied. They managed to close out the map, but not without giving TYLOO a fighting chance.

Against Movistar Riders, they had a good first half on Vertigo, winning the CT side 9-6. But everything went downhill from there. They lost the second half 10-4, and, well, the second map 16-4. To say it was a disaster would be an understatement. SunPayus had his way with Vitality time and time again, and was awarded the MVP for the destruction he caused in the Vitality camp. An exciting team to look forward to in the Group Stages. By the way, if you feel like this isn’t the first time you’ve heard of Movistar Riders, it’s because they were the darling team of ESL Pro League earlier in the year, where they went 5-0 in the Group Stage.

They will now be facing G2, and then one of Vitality and ENCE, so there’s potential for an early 0-2 exit there, but I’d love to be proven wrong.

Coming back to Vitality, they now had to face Sprout to book a seat in the Group Stages. A task that seemed fairly easy turned sour when Sprout fought deep into double overtime to win their own pick of Vertigo. Thankfully, Vitality did not choke and managed to keep things under control. They won both the following maps, but not without hiccups.

Nevertheless, they will now face ENCE in Round 1 of the Group Stage. It’ll be an interesting match, to say the least.

NA still in the ashes

The only NA team in the Play-In was Complexity, with EG not even qualifying for the tournament. And as has been the trend for months now, Complexity did not look any closer to being a competition to anyone who faces them. COL has extended their hot streak of losing matches in Cologne, going up to 11 now without a win. I doubt that COL even unpacked their bags in their hotel, given that they’d be one of the first to leave Germany.

Cologne wasn’t any better than the previous tournaments. COL faced Team Spirit, and though the second half was evenly split, their defense in the first half was atrocious. Just 5 CT-sided rounds on Ancient meant it was an easy 16-11 win for the CIS squad in the jungles.

After Astralis succumbed to a surprise loss to try-coldzera’s 00Nation, (is it even a surprise anymore?) COL now had to face the once-giant Danes instead of possibly a weak SA team. Lady Luck clearly isn’t having any mercy on NA.

COL lost 0-2 to Astralis, and as much as I would like to say that COL has poor defense, I can’t because they simply are poor everywhere. Complexity always does just enough to not let the game be an absolute steamroll, and they stop at that. They never have enough in their tank to push for a win, even a map win.

As Grim very aptly put it in an interview, “Every other team has pressure on them to not become the first team to lose to Complexity.”

It’s been 7 months since NA disbanded, and to be honest, it’s time to throw in the towel. Changes need to be made. NA simply doesn’t have enough talent for 3 S-Tier teams, and people need to accept that. There have been enough wake-up calls for this team, and even a drunk hibernating sloth bear can hear the gallows’ bells ringing.

Outsiders’ promising re-rise

The former Virtus.pro squad has been stranded ever since the war started. It feels like a lifetime away, but I clearly remember hyping this team up and calling them “the dark horses that can kill anyone on their day.” Ever since, all the CIS drama had revolved around NaVi and the former Gambit squad, and Outsiders were exactly that: Outsiders. Fallen off the radar and licking the wounds to health, Outsiders have clearly been working off the stage lit with grim limelight to build back into the highest echelons of the CS:GO scene, albeit with some new faces.

Their first match in Germany was against Imperial Esports, the darling veteran team of CS:GO. There wasn’t much to fight for in the residential town of Inferno, as Outsiders dispatched Imperial into the Lower Bracket with relative ease, a 16-6 win. But the names that lined up next for the gladiators weren’t mere pushovers. Germans in their own homeland, off the high of winning their first S-Tier trophy, were up next for the CIS squad to beat. BIG had just won the Roobet Cup by defeating Cloud9 once and FaZe Clan twice.

Given these circumstances, it was beyond me how Outsiders 2-0ed BIG. Then I realized… LAN.

Both maps went 16-13, Outsiders’ way. And just like that, they had defeated the *truest* onliners to join the likes of Heroic to qualify for the Group Stage. BIG, on the other hand, had to brawl it out against who once were the LAN kings in Astralis. The Danes did manage to beat BIG and qualify for the Group Stages, a victory in itself, given their recent performances.

Outsiders will now face the mighty Cloud9 in the first match of Group Stages, and then I’d guess Astralis in the Lower Bracket. Astralis is getting 0-2ed in the Group Stages, it seems. Sad.

Condemning the home team

IEM Cologne was in Cologne, a German city. BIG is a German team. Tada.

Though some might argue BIG would be boosted as crowd favorites, and hence it was fair for the only German team to be knocked out before arenas came into the picture, I kinda disagree. The energy that flows through the cheering souls of a crowd oh so united is a sight to behold.

There’s clearly a mental blockade that syrsoN and co. are facing when it comes to LAN. gob b has quite a task in his hand: to bring the BIG we see online into LAN and turn them into serial winners.

As we’ve talked about previously in the respective sections, BIG lost to Outsiders and Astralis. They had fighting chances against both the fairly strong Play-In teams, but in the end, we expect more from BIG than to lose both and crash out so early on their own home turf.

Cloud9 has managed to overcome the “onliners” tag with the IEM Dallas win earlier. Heroic, too, has managed to squash the “onliners” insult, not by trophies, but by performances. They’ve taken down the greatest in the world on LANs time and time again. But BIG’s slate remains dirty and inked. I would’ve been the first one to come and criticize the Germans, but I think I’ll regress this time. I opt to give gob b a chance to figure it out and bring out the best in BIG.

May the competition surge.

A quick Spanish mention

Movistar Riders are the only Spanish team in the event, and they’ve managed to beat MIBR and Vitality to go 2-0 and into the Group Stage. That’s no easy feat, given how they thrashed Vitality on Vitality’s own map pick. These Spaniards need to be mentioned and talked about because they have the potential to be that dark horse. As I said before, they’ve done it before in ESL Pro League Season 15, where they went 5-0 in their Group, defeating the ex-Gambit squad, Team Liquid, and BIG in the process. SunPayus and co. are pretty damn skilled. They play textbook CS to perfection, and are definitely a team to keep an eye out for.

Cologne is just getting started.