The review of the playoff stage of ESL One Cologne 2019
Ihor MatusIn this material, we will consider the success of participants only in the final stage. We have told previously about the group stage in another material, which you can find by following the link.
Ninjas in Pyjamas
The Swedish team didn’t leave a public without an interesting match with the participation of Natus Vincere. NiP showed good opposition in the battle with NaVi. Plopski who has recently joined the team looks like a nice strengthening of the team and the team managed to play together with the young talented player well and advanced to the playoffs. Despite this, the Swedes showed not the best performance in the final stage. NiP managed to win 7 rounds on the defense side on Inferno, the map, which had been chosen by Natus Vincere, after which moved to the attack side and won 5 more rounds, having lost on the map with a score 16-12. The things were even worse on Mirage, which was picked by the Swedes. Natus Vincere started playing for the defense side there and they won 10 rounds, which guaranteed them a comfort play after the change. When NiP moved to counter-terrorists, they were not able to win more than 4 rounds, on the outcome of which they lost with even a less beautiful score than on Inferno, namely 16-9.
Ninjas in Pyjamas placed 5th-6th and earned a money prize in the sum of $11,000. Also, considering the after-match interview with GeT_RiGhT, it has become clear that the player will be replaced soon, however, he is not going to finish his career and will try to make it to the top CS:GO teams in a new team. It’s worth to remind that this Swedish esportsman became the best CS:GO player in 2014.
NRG Esports
The American team became the second but not the last team to advance to the playoffs with a new player. Right before the start of the competition, NRG removed daps from the main roster and signed stanislaw who had represented the tag Complexity Gaming before that. NRG played well in the group stage but they had to fight with one of the strongest teams in the world, the titans of France, Team Vitality, in the playoffs. Here, NRG won 7 rounds on Dust 2 and Mirage and finished the participation in the tournament on the 5th-6th place. They earned a money prize in the sum of $11,000 for their efforts.
Astralis
Despite the Danes are not leading the world top anymore, they are a pretty strong team, which can compete with all teams in the world. This time, their performance in the group stage was finished by the French from Team Vitality. The match between the Danes and the French was pretty eventful and very interesting. On Dust 2, Vitality showed their advantage and finished the map with a score 16-8 without taking much in their favor. Everything went in a different and more unpredictable scenario on Inferno. The teams played the first half very tough, having finished it with a score 8-7 in the favor of Astralis. After the change, the Danes brought the game to 15-10 very quickly and when they were ready to finish on Inferno, Vitality showed an incredible resistance and, having won five rounds in a row, moved the game to overtime. This didn’t help the French and Astralis won the map with a score 22-19 and went to prepare for the third map. Before the start of the final battle, Vitality was in a good mood and it was clear that they were for the final fight with Astralis. The French started the game on Overpass as a weak side - the attack side. This didn’t stop the last ones from winning eight rounds and continuing the fight on the defense side with a good advantage in their favor. After the change, Astralis managed to prevail only in 2 rounds and as a result, Overpass was over with a score 16-9 and Vitality advanced to the grand final.
Astralis earned a money reward in the sum of $22,000 for the 3rd-4th place.
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere played BoombI4 on a very good level. They exceed the expectations of many viewers, having advanced to the semi-final. They beat Ninjas in Pyjamas in the quartrefinal, however, they had to fight with the best team in the world and its main personal opponent. NaVi was not able to achieve this goal. Natus Vincere picked Dust 2 for themselves, while Liquid decided to pick Overpass. Mirage was the final match, however, things didn’t come to it. Liquid started on the attack side on the first map and won 9 rounds, after which, having moved to CT, they managed to finish the started and finished Dust 2 with a score 16-12. Everything was a bit different on Overpass. NaVi had an advantage in the first half in the form of the defense side and due to this, they managed to realize 9 rounds. Team Liquid didn’t get rattled and after moving to the CT side, they lost only 3 rounds and achieved victory in 10 rounds. The map was also over with a score 16-12 in the favor of Team Liquid and Natus Vincere finished their way in the tournament on the 3rd-4th place.
Just like Astralis, Natus Vincere earned a money prize in the sum of $22,000. The debut of BoombI4 in Natus Vincere can be called successful for a reason. The player has shown that he can become a serious strengthening of the team and we will see more interesting performances by Na’Vi soon.
Team Vitality
The French team has proved one more time that it is the strongest in the world and now, will place second on the list of best CS:GO rosters by HLTV. Vitality defeated NRG Esports without special problems and, having made some efforts, beat Astralis. Having made it to the grand final, they had to fight with the strongest team in the world Team Liquid.
Liquid picked Overpass in the final match, on which the French play well too, and Inferno. Vitality, in turn, chose its favorite Dust 2 and Mirage. Vertigo was the final map.
Vitality didn’t play well on Overpass, on the outcome of which they won only 6 rounds for the defense side and after the change of sides, they didn’t win a round. It’s worth to notice that Twistzz showed very good performance in this game who won a clatch, leaving 1 vs 4, with a score 6-5 in the favor of Liquid.
The French things went better on the second map because Dust 2 is one of their best maps. They achieved victory there but many efforts were made to achieve this because the match was over with a score 19-17 in overtime.
Liquid crushed their opponents quickly on Inferno and won 11 rounds for the defense side and after the change, finished the map with a score 16-11.
On Mirage, the first half was pretty perky, tough, interesting and was full of intrigues and gave hope of watching the fifth map. The first 15 rounds were over with a score 8-7 in the favor of Liquid. After moving on the attack side, the Americans killed the intrigue, having lost only one round to the French. As a result, the match was over with a score 16-8.
Team Vitality placed second at the tournament and earned a money prize in the sum of $50,000.
LIke s1mple in one of the championships in 2018, ZywOo received the MVP title, despite the team’s loss in the event, which proves the status of one of the best players in the world at the moment one more time. According to the majority of viewers, the esportsman will have to enter the top three CS:GO players of 2019 and if the French player continues pleasing viewers with such a performance, they will be right. By the way, he became the only representative of his team in the last match who played with a positive ratio of kills and deaths and his rate was higher than 1, which was not peculiar to his teammates.
Team Liquid
It was not too difficult for many people who were following the tournament in Cologne to predict the winner of ESL One Cologne 2019 because Liquid came as one of the main favorites of the competition. Some teams played with renewed rosters, while Liquid’s roster hasn’t changed since December last year and nitr0 and EliGe have been playing under the colors of “the Horses” since March 2015. The five has found their key to success in the form of stability and permanent improvement.
In the group stage, the Americans faced small issues in the first two matches and were close to stepping down to the lower bracket. They managed to overcome difficulties and the team managed to make it right to the semi-final. There, Liquid played with Natus Vincere, who one more time were not able to beat its most uncomfortable and hated opponent, and advanced to the grand final where achieved victory over Vitality.
Team Liquid earned the main money reward in the sum of $125,000 for their efforts. It was very difficult to detach someone from the roster because all the players were playing a decent level. It was so difficult to determine the best player in Liquid for HLTV that they decided to give the MVP title to the French from Team Vitality, Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut.
Due to their victory at the previous tournament, Team Liquid has become the winner of the second season of Intel Grand Slam and earned a money bonus in the sum of $1,000,000.
ESL One Cologne 2019 - is not the last July championship. The next tournament will be BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019 where Liquid might achieve the fourth victory at a large LAN final in a row. Considering Intel Grand Slam and GG.Bet Chicago Invitational 2019, Liquid’s series amounts six victories.