Movistar Riders and Vitality win opening matches at IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In

The Movistar Riders and Vitality teams won the opening matches at IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In. Thanks to victories over MIBR and TYLOO, both teams got closer to reaching the group stage of the championship. In turn, the losing teams went to the lower bracket of IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In, where they will compete for the right not to be eliminated from the tournament.

MIBR-Movistar Riders

The first of the last two encounters took place on the Ancient map. At the same time, the Brazilian team immediately seized the initiative on the server, showing a confident game in defense. In turn, the Spaniards managed to snatch only four rounds, thus leaving vague chances for a comeback. However, after the switchover, Movistar Riders quickly transformed as the team managed to show point defense under the opponent, quickly leveling the gap. As a result, the Spanish team managed to turn the game around and at the same time get into the quarterfinals of the upper bracket — 16:13.

TYLOO-Vitality

A parallel duel took place on the Overpass map. There was no intrigue here at all, since the Danish-French team, having started on defense, allowed TYLOO to win only one round and prepare for defeat in advance. After the side switch, the Chinese team still tried to return to the game, as it managed to win the pistol series and several rounds of prestige. And yet, Vitality did not bring the matter to shame, having managed to get an easy victory at the start of IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In - 16:9.

Recall that a little earlier, the teams Team Spirit, Heroic and MOUZ got their first victories at the IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In. In addition, the teams BIG, Outsiders and 00NATION won their first championship victories.

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