00Nation turned out to be stronger than Imperial and advance to the group stage of IEM Cologne 2022

00 Nation managed to beat Imperial, which gave them the opportunity to advance to the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2022 stage as a group. The meeting ended with a score of 2:0 (Ancient 16:12; Overpass 16:12).

00Nation vs Imperial

1. 00NATION removed Nuke
2. Imperial removed
3. 00NATION picked Ancient
4. Imperial picked Overpass
5. 00NATION removed Dust2
6. Imperial removed Inferno
7. Mirage was left over

1) On the first map of the confrontation, Imperial didn't have the best defense. They managed to win the pistol round and the opponent's eco, but once 00Nation got to the full rounds, Imperial couldn't handle the onslaught of their compatriots. The first half ended with a terrible score for Imperial, given the strength of the defensive side on Ancient. After switching sides, 00Nation lost the pistol round but then won the next one, resulting in a five round streak for them. Imperial failed to turn the match in their favor, while coldzera and company are getting ready for the next map, the opponent's pick. 00Nation 16:12 Imperial.

2) On Overpass we watched an interesting game with an unexpected outcome. 00Nation got off to a good start on defense, but at some point the game started to fall apart somehow. Imperial win the first half 9-6. After switching sides, FalleN and company manage to win the pistol and the next round. But then, 00Nation just ruined all Imperial's plans for the third map and began to show an incredibly powerful attack, the defense was not ready for such an onslaught. Leading with a score of 11:6, Imperial failed to complete the meeting in their favor, all they could do was win another round and with that the game, as well as the tournament, ended for them. 00Nation 16:12 Imperial.

00Nation advance to the group stage after a playoff against their compatriots. Prior to this, the team beat Astralis with a score of 16:6 and lost to Team Spirit with a score of 1:2. However, the victory over Imperial in the lower bracket guaranteed a place in the group stage of the championship.

Imperial did not take advantage of the chance to reach the group stage. The team takes 9th-12th place in the Play-In, while earning $4,500 per team.

IEM Cologne 2022 takes place from 5 to 17 July in Germany at the Hyatt Regency Cologne and LANXESS arena. 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: Sprout, BIG, TYLOO and Imperial - $4,500
• 21st-24th place: paiN Gaming, Complexity Gaming, MIBR and ORDER — $2,500