Day two of the IEM Cologne 2024 Group Stage is over, with our first few teams now locked into an appearance at the LANXESS Arena in a few days’ time. We’ve also seen one big high-profile elimination already, too – read on to find out what happened on the server!
NAVI roll over Astralis
Credit: Viola Schuldner | © ESL
So this is what the best team in CS2 looks like right now, huh? NAVI became the first team to secure their place in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike at IEM Cologne 2024, defeating Astralis in a dominant 2:0 series. The Danes never looked competitive, and NAVI looked as though they had all the protocols in place for every situation. This was arguably an indication of better form than even during their Major win, sending out a massive warning to any team looking to compete with NAVI.
All of NAVI’s riflers were firing on all cylinders here, with AWPer w0nderful barely having to lift a finger all series. Of everyone, we want to give a shoutout to iM. His return to form has been stunning to watch, and Astralis had no answers here as he made his way into their backlines time and time again. In this kind of individual form, NAVI are going to be a force to be reckoned with throughout the rest of IEM Cologne 2024.
SAW make the LANXESS for the first time ever
Credit: Viola Schuldner | © ESL
History was made today, as SAW reached the IEM Cologne Playoffs for the first time in their history. It’s a reward for the grind of this Portuguese roster, and they’ve looked mighty impressive from the moment they stepped onto the server in Germany. Here, The MongolZ fell 2:1, which is especially painful given they won the first map of the series.
SAW were driven largely by an amazing performance from ewjerkz, who dropped 61 kills in the series. The MongolZ’s stat line doesn’t tell a rough story – each player played okay. It just wasn’t enough to win the right rounds at the right time on this occasion. While SAW have their LANXESS Arena spot confirmed, The MongolZ get one more chance to qualify. They’ll need to go through some tough clashes to make it out of the Group A gauntlet, though.
Spirit eliminated at the hands of G2
Credit: IEM on X.
We knew we’d be losing one of these teams today, but it doesn’t make it any less weird. IEM Katowice 2024 winners Spirit have been sent on the first flight home without winning a single map, taken down here by a much-improved G2. Individually, Spirit looked terrible, and it seemed as though something was off with the team here. It’s a concerning result at one of the biggest CS2 tournaments of the year, and the individual form of magixx and zont1x will likely come in for some scrutiny in the coming weeks.
For G2, it seemed as though all their problems from yesterday’s horror show against SAW were solved. A resurgent huNter- led the way, and it was good to see how they made adaptations after a rough day at the office.
Here are all of the results from day two of the IEM Cologne 2024 Group Stage:
Vitality 2:0 FURIA
MOUZ 2:1 Falcons
NAVI 2:0 Astralis
SAW 2:1 The MongolZ
G2 2:0 Spirit
9z Team vs paiN Gaming: Result Pending