Team Spirit, Team Falcons prevail at IEM Cologne playoffs

Field Level Media|published: Sat 20th June, 24:53 2026

Nolan Starkey, a senior at Rossville High School, plays Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Monday, April 15, 2019, in Rossville. Starkey signed his letter of intent Wednesday to play esports at Trine University in Angola, Ind. Rossville High School Senior Signs With Trine University To Play Esports

As the top performing team during Stage 3 group play, it is unsurprising that Team Spirit got off to a strong start during the eight-team playoff on Friday.

Team Falcons, on the other hand, had perhaps more success than expected as the fifth seed.

Both teams earned 2-1 victories in the quarterfinals Friday to advance to face one another in the next round on Saturday.

The Counter-Strike 2 tournament with 32 entrants competing for their share of a $1.25 million prize pool began June 2 with the start of the first stage.

The field was ultimately trimmed to the final eight playoff teams through a series of three stages, where all matches were best-of-three, as is most of the playoffs. Sunday's grand final will be best-of-five, with the winner taking home $500,000.

Spirit, unblemished in Stage 3, picked up where they left off by handling G2 Esports. Despite absorbing a surprising 13-9 loss on Overpass to open, the Russian esports team showed resilience in rallying for a 16-14 overtime win on Dust II and a 25-22 quadruple-OT victory on Mirage.

As expected for such a closely contested match, multiple players racked up impressive kill numbers. Spirit's Danil "donk" Kryshkovets paced all players with 81 kills and a 1.32 rating, though teammate Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov added 75 kills against just 56 deaths.

G2 was paced by Matus "MATYS" Simko's 71 kills and 1.19 rating.

The Falcons established an advantage over fourth-seeded Team Vitality with a 13-11 win on Anubis to begin play. When Vitality rallied to win 13-11 on Inferno in Game 2, Team Falcons responded with a 13-11 closeout victory on Dust II.

Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov led all scorers with 63 kills, while his Falcons teammate Maksim "kyousuke" Lukin (52 kills) had the match's highest rating at 1.43.

Vitality was led by Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut's 54 kills and 1.16 rating.

The semifinals will be contested on Saturday. Previous qualifiers FURIA and Aurora Gaming face off in the first match of the day before Spirit and Falcons match up later in the day.

Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool

1. $500,000

2. $170,000

3-4. $80,000

5-8. $45,000 -- BetBoom Team, 9z Team, Team Vitality, G2 Esports

9-11. $15,000 -- Natus Vincere, FUT Esports, The MongolZ

12-14. $15,000 -- MOUZ, Monte, Legacy

15-16. $15,000 -- B8, PARIVISION

17-19. $10,000 -- paiN Gaming, TYLOO, BIG

20-22. $10,000 -- MIBR, M80, Astralis

23-24. $10,000 -- GamerLegion, FlyQuest

25-27. $5,000 -- Lynn Vision Gaming, NRG, Team Liquid