BIG, Outsiders and 00NATION kick off IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In with victories

Teams BIG, Outsiders and 00NATION started with victories in the IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In, thanks to which they got closer to reaching the group stage of the championship. In turn, the teams ORDER, Imperial Esports and Astralis got into the lower bracket of the Play-In stage, where they will have the last chance to break into the next stage of the competition.

BIG-ORDER

The first meeting of the second pack of matches took place on the Nuke map. At the same time, the German team confidently took advantage of the won knife round to start on defense and convert their strong side with a final score of 12:3. Well, after the change of sides, BIG did not delay the inevitable, winning the pistol series to close out the Australians and advance to the next round of IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In — 16:7.

Outsiders - Imperial Esports

A parallel duel took place on the Inferno map. As expected, the Brazilian team did not manage to oppose anything to the opponent, showing a too passive attack and winning only five rounds in half. Well, after the switch of sides, Imperial Esports finally disappeared from the server, since the Russian team won not only the pistol series, but the entire match — 16:6.

00NATION - Astralis

The third match took place on the Mirage map. Surprisingly, the Brazilian team made a confident debut in the first half, managing to show a good defense, and at the same time close the half in their favor with a two-fold advantage in the score. At the same time, after the change of sides, Astralis did not manage to wake up, continuing its free fall. This gift was successfully used by 00NATION, which got a sensational victory at the start of IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In — 16:6.

Recall that a little earlier, the teams Team Spirit, Heroic and MOUZ got their first victories at the IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In.

IEM Cologne 2022 takes place from 5 to 17 July in Germany at the Hyatt Regency Cologne and LANXESS arena venues. As part of the championship, 24 teams from Europe, the CIS, Oceania, China, North and South America are fighting for a prize pool of $1,000,000, as well as rating points in the BLAST Premier table.

Prize pool distribution at IEM Cologne 2022

• 1st place: $400,000 + 3,200 BLAST Premier points
• 2nd place: $180,000 + 1,600 BLAST Premier points
• 3rd-4th place: $80,000 + 1,000 BLAST Premier points
• 5th-6th place: $40,000 + 300 BLAST Premier points
• 7th-8th place: $24,000 + 300 BLAST Premier points
• 9th-12th place: $16,000
• 13th-16th place: $10,000
• 17th-20th place: $4,500
• 21st-24th place: $2,500