FURIA, Team Liquid among 5 to advance at IEM Cologne

FURIA, Astralis, HEROIC, 3DMAX and Team Liquid grabbed the final five berths into the group stage of the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event as the play-in stage wrapped up Friday in Germany.

FURIA swept Astralis 2-0 in the last of the upper-bracket matches where the winner advanced to the next stage. Astralis dropped to the lower bracket, but was able to overcome paiN Gaming 2-1 in a do-or-die match while HEROIC, 3DMAX and Team Liquid also advanced through the lower bracket.

The play-in phase of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with 16 teams competing in a double-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches. Eight teams earned spots in the group stage, which also will include eight teams that received direct berths: Team Vitality, MOUZ, Team Spirit, Team Falcons, The MongolZ, Aurora Gaming, G2 Esports and Natus Vincere.

The group stage, which begins Saturday, will consist of two double-elimination groups contesting best-of-three matches. The two group winners will advance directly to the semifinals, the two runners-up will move to the quarterfinals as high seeds, and the two third-place teams will head to the quarterfinals as low seeds.

The playoffs, which will start on Aug. 1, will be single elimination. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be best-of-three ahead of the best-of-five final on Aug. 3.

The winning team will receive $400,000, and the runner-up will get $180,000.

On Friday, FURIA staved off Astralis in a 13-11 win on Nuke and a 13-9 triumph on Dust II. Brazil's Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato of FURIA led all players with 45 kills and a plus-17 kills-to-deaths differential.

In the lower bracket, paiN Gaming finished Round 1 Friday by rallying past BIG 2-1. They moved on to face Astralis, who opened with a 13-4 blowout on Nuke; after paiN evened it up with a 13-8 win on Ancient, Astralis pulled out a 13-11 win on Inferno. Denmark's Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard led Astralis with 56 kills on a plus-17.

HEROIC swept Virtus.pro 2-0, with a 13-8 victory on Overpass and a 13-10 win on Mirage. Belarusian Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich had 42 kills and a plus-16 K-D to pace HEROIC.

3DMAX faced TYLOO went deep into overtime to pull out a 22-20 win on Inferno before finishing the job with a 13-10 triumph on Ancient. Lucas "Lucky" Chastang of France starred for 3DMAX with 59 kills on a plus-14 K-D.

Finally, Team Liquid beat FlyQuest 2-1, sandwiching a 13-6 win on Nuke and a 13-9 result on Ancient around a 13-3 loss on Dust II. Liquid was led by Canadian Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, who posted 48 kills and a plus-12 differential.

The group stage begins Saturday with six upper-bracket quarterfinal matches:

--Team Vitality vs. Astralis (Group A)

--FURIA vs. G2 Esports (Group A)

--Team Falcons vs. GamerLegion (Group A)

--3DMAX vs. The MongolZ (Group A)

--FaZe Clan vs. Natus Vincere (Group B)

--Aurora Gaming vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas (Group B)

Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool

1. $400,000

2. $180,000

3-4. $80,000

5-6. $40,000

7-8. $24,000

9-12. $16,000

13-16. $10,000

17-20. $4,500 -- paiN Gaming, Virtus.pro, TYLOO, FlyQuest

21-24. $2,500 -- BIG, MIBR, Complexity, B8

--Field Level Media