Three teams sweep openers at IEM Cologne

Complexity Gaming, 9z Team and Team Liquid were the lone sides that swept their opening matches by 2-0 scores on Wednesday in the play-in competition for the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne in Germany.

Sixteen teams are involved in the double-elimination play-in stage of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. Eight will advance to the group stage, where eight previously qualified teams await: Team Spirit, FaZe Clan, MOUZ, G2 Esports, Team Vitality, Natus Vincere, Astralis and Virtus.pro.

The group stage, which runs from Saturday to Tuesday, will feature two double-elimination groups of eight. The group winners move directly to the playoff semifinals. The group runners-up advance to the playoff quarterfinals as high seeds, and the group third-place team go to the playoff quarterfinals as low seeds.

The single-elimination playoffs are scheduled for Aug. 16-18. All tournament matches are best-of-three with the exception of the grand final, which will be best-of-five. The champion earns berths in the IEM Katowice event and the BLAST Premier World Final while also pocketing $400,000.

On Wednesday, Complexity got past ALTERNATE aTTaX 13-7 on Inferno, 13-10 on Anubis. The United States' Ricky "floppy" Kemery paced Complexity with 34 kills and a plus-9 kill-death differential.

9z Team routed 3DMAX 13-3 on Anubis, 13-4 on Nuke behind 37 kills and a plus-23 K-D differential from Uruguay's Franco "dgt" Garcia.

Liquid edged paiN Gaming 16-13 in overtime on Anubis, 13-11 on Inferno. Australia's Justin "jks" Savage put up 43 kills and a plus-13 K-D differential for Liquid.

The day's other matches all resulted in 2-1 scores: Eternal Fire over Team Falcons, MIBR over HEROIC, FURIA Esports over Imperial Esports, BIG over FlyQuest and SAW over The MongolZ.

There will be six matches played on Thursday, then six more on Friday.

Thursday

Upper-bracket second round

Complexity Gaming vs. Eternal Fire

FURIA Esports vs. Team Liquid

BIG vs. SAW

Lower-bracket first round

ALTERNATE aTTaX vs. Team Falcons

HEROIC vs. 3DMAX

FlyQuest vs. The MongolZ

Friday

Upper-bracket second round

MIBR vs. 9z Team

Lower-bracket first round

Imperial Esports vs. paiN Gaming

Lower-bracket second round

Four matches, teams TBD

Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool, with money and BLAST Premier points

1. $400,000, 3,000 points

2. $180,000, 2,000 points

3-4. $80,000, 1,200 points

5-6. $40,000, 500 points

7-8. $24,000, 300 points

9-12. $16,000, no points

13-16. $10,000, no points

17-20. $4,500, no points

21-24. $2,500, no points

--Field Level Media