After many surprises and tons of epic games, we left the Cathedral of Counter-Strike satisfied, as Cologne showed us the best the game had to offer. In this article, we’ll talk all about what happened during IEM Cologne 2024.

Before we got to the stage of the LANXess Arena, we first had to go through the Play-In, which had a pretty even field that didn’t bring huge upsets, but did feature some small surprises. The elimination of Eternal Fire, BIG and Heroic being the biggest ones. In the end, it was 9z, Complexity, SAW, Liquid, paiN, TheMongolZ, Falcons, and Furia advancing to the Group Stages.

The Group Stage

Group A

The first two games of Group A didn’t include any surprises as Na’Vi and Astralis easily disposed of paiN and 9z sending them straight to the lower bracket with comprehensive 2:0 wins. We were expecting to see the same happen for G2 versus SAW, but instead, the Portuguese team flipped the script and took a rather easy 2:0 against Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski and co. We weren’t done with the surprises either, as the heavily favored Team Spirit came up against TheMongolZ and after losing an OT thriller on Ancient, totally folded on Anubis, sending them straight to the lower bracket, setting up a showdown between the Portuguese and Mongolian underdogs for a spot in the quarters.

Everything kept going as expected for Na’Vi as they stomped Astralis in another 2:0, locking up that quarter final spot, while the underdog shadown saw SAW saw TheMongolz in half in a 2:1 contest. The upper bracket was completed when Na’Vi stopped the Portuguese surge, bouncing back from a 0:1 deficit to win Ancient and Inferno and grab the semi-final spot.

In the lower bracket, things got testy quickly. paiN won a hard fought victory against 9z, sending them to a battle against TheMongolZ, where they surprised the young upstarts beating them 2:1. On the other side of the bracket, a matchup nobody could’ve predicted (including us, in our IEM Cologne preview). G2 and Spirit fighting for their lives. The CIS side couldn’t get into the game, getting absolutely stomped 13:3 and 13:1, ending their Cologne journey without even winning a map. G2 then took on Astralis, who they also beat 13:3 and 13:1… with the exception of Mirage which Astralis took 13:10, for a 1:2 loss for the Danes. In the end, G2 faced off against paiN and managed to stave off the upset, winning two maps comprehensively.

Group B

On the other side of the group stage, we had a much calmer time. Mouz beat Falcons in a bit of a shaky 2:1, FaZe and Vitality disposed of Liquid and FURIA 2:0. The only real surprise was CompLexity beating Virtus.Pro 2:1. CoL’s winning was short-lived though, as MOUZ disposed of them, guaranteeing a spot in the quarterfinals. Vitality eeked out a 2:1 win against FaZe, including an overtime victory. In the upper final, Vitality overcame Kamil “Siuhy” Szkaradek’s team in an overtime win on Vertigo, sending them to the semis.

In the lower bracket, Virtus.Pro couldn’t get going in the tournament, becoming the second CIS team to be sent home with two losses after a 2:1 loss to Falcons. Meanwhile, Liquid bounced back with a strong win against FURIA. Falcons’ run didn’t manage to continue their run, losing to FaZe, while Liquid managed to win against CoL in a North American derby. Finally, in the final Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s men managed to defeat their former teammate in Russell “Twistzz” Van Dulken once again, sending Liquid home and FaZe to the quarters after an epic comeback from 11:1 down on Mirage.

Quarter-Finals

MOUZ vs G2

The first quarterfinal saw a matchup of Polish IGLs, and of the generations of Polish Counter-Strike, as siuhy came up against Snax. MOUZ picked Dust2, G2 picked Mirage and Inferno was left over. We never got to Inferno, however, as the two Maghreb-based maps proved too tough for G2, with the Germany-based org winning 13:9, 13:8 on their way to a rather simple 2:0 off the back of a powerful performance from Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo and Adam “torzsi” Torzsas fighting off a great performance from Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov.

FaZe vs SAW

The Portuguese squad, consisting of Portuguese vets Christopher “MUTiRiS” Fernandes and Ricardo “roman” Oliveira as well as three young bucks has never quite seen these heights, and everyone was sort of expecting their Cinderella run to end when faced with the stubborn FaZe. The maps picked were Inferno, Anubis, and Nuke. 

The Italian map almost immediately proved the doubters wrong, with SAW taking FaZe’s map pick 13:6 in a dominant showing. FaZe responded in kind, beating them 13:11 in a tight game on Anubis.

The final map came down to the wire, and more. With SAW taking over on their T-Side, FaZe faced off against 4 consecutive match points, defending all of them successfully and sending the game to overtime. The extra rounds, however, weren’t as kind to FaZe, as they lost 16:14, with Helvijs “broky” Saukants being a notable underperformer, which must be disappointing for karrigan, as this tournament has been a return to form for Robin “ropz” Kool, who has been struggling with his performances in CS2 for a while now. This upset will be one that’s long-remembered.

Semi-Finals

With the format of IEM promoting the group winners straight to the Semis, we only had two quarters, with QF winners facing off against the strongest teams from each group.

Na’Vi vs MOUZ

MOUZ surprised everyone picking Inferno in the veto, while Na’Vi surprised no one picking Mirage, a map on which they’ve won 11 straight games at the time. Ancient was left over and we were off to the races.

The first half of Inferno made everyone question siuhy and Dennis “Sycrone” Nielsen’s judgement, as Na’Vi stormed to a 9:3 lead on their CT half. However, MOUZ’s CT-side turned out to be just as strong, as the game went into overtime. Eventually, however, a few strong clutches from Na’Vi pulled them over the finish line.

On Mirage, the story was a bit of a reverse, with Mouz taking the first half 8:4. However, their T-half fell apart due to some incredible heroics from Justinias “jL” Lekavicius and Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy, with the latter scoring an incredible 91% headshot percentage. Eventually, Na’Vi managed to come back on their CT-side, winning an extremely tight game 13:11, and taking the least one-sided 2:0 of the tournament.

SAW vs Vitality

With SAW looking to make one of the greatest underdog runs in the history of Counter-Strike, they faced off against the ultimate underdog killers in Team Vitality. The French-Israeli squad looked strong all tournament long, only dropping one map… and we’re not going to extend this part longer than we should. They didn’t drop a map here. SAW picked Nuke, Vitality picked Dust2, Inferno was left over… but never came to be. Two quick 13:6 and 13:5 wins from the dominant and consistent Vitality sent them to the final, making the game a matchup of the reigning major champs and the team they took the title off of.

Grand Final

Na’Vi vs Vitality

The Grand Final in IEM events is a BO5, setting us up for a long night in the LANxess Arena, and boy did this Grand Final deliver. Na’Vi picked Nuke, Vitality picked Dust2, Na’Vi picked Mirage (of course), Vitality picked Inferno and Anubis was left over as the decider.

The first game was a great setup for an epic final. The teams traded 8:4 CT halves on their way to a 16:14 Vitality win, courtesy of a few incredible clutches from the likes of Spinx, despite an underperformance from Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. 

It looked liked Dust might’ve been a map where Vitality would take over with their individual talents, but instead, it was a map that saw Ihor “w0nderful” Zdanov and b1t absolutely take over, despite ZywOo’s strong game.

Finally, we get to Mirage, that saw not one, not two, but three overtimes after the teams traded even halves and multiple clutches from both sides forced us into more and more overtimes. Eventually, however, Vitality’s mechanical skills overcame Na’Vi’s tactical perfection, breaking their Mirage streak.

Inferno was another exciting map. After being left to stew on their loss during an extended break, Na’Vi came out losing the first half 10:2. Just as it looked all over after a pistol loss on their T-Side, the team picked themselves back up and cut down the deficit to 12:9. However, that wasn’t enough, as Vitality managed to defend their bombsites from Na’Vi’s onslaught and won the first Cologne title in their organization’s history, and in Dan “apEX” Madesclaire’s long and storied career, with ZywOo winning the much deserved HLTV MVP, bringing them back into the IEM Grand Slam picture.

Conclusion

IEM Cologne 2024 was a hell of a ride, with memorable matches, a big underdog story, and a final for the ages. We can’t wait for the next big tournament in IEM Rio 2024! Who do you think was the best player of the tournament? What was your favorite storyline? Who do you think will win the IEM Grand Slam? Let us know on our social media.