RECAP ESL One Cologne 2015 Group Stages - DAY2:

Group E:
The first game of group E was anticipated to be an sweep in favor of the North American team Counter Logic Gaming against Team eBettle. Everything seemed great for the Americans when the map veto turned great -- de_mirage, one of CLG's favourite maps. After early round trades between CLG and eBettle, the Americans came out on top, leading with a 10:5 scoreline. The Polish eBettle, however, managed to bring it back and even take the lead for a while, mainly due to great performances from players peet and GruBy. However, the Poles failed to close out the game, and CLG took the last two rounds, for a 16:14 win.

The second match featured overwhelming favourites Natus Vincere who came up against the Americans, fighting for the last spot at the knock-out stage. After a very close game against Team eBettle, CLG brought their A-game against the Ukrainians on de_cobblestone, taking a big 6:1 lead before Na'Vi were able to retaliate, finishing the half 9:6 in favour of CLG. At the beginning of the second half, Na'Vi established dominance, winning seven out of eight rounds in a row. CLG were able to crawl their way back into the game, just to lose the last three for a 16:14 victory in favour of Na'Vi. Another thing worth mentioning is that jdm, despite the loss, leading the scoreboard and server with a massive 32 kills.

Group F:
This group was actualy the first one to be played out today. The first game featured Team Kinguin and the second best Australian team Immunity. The game saw Kinguin take an early 4:1 lead on de_dust2, just to have Immunity come back with seven back-to-back rounds of their own to end the half 6:9 in favour of the Aussies. They continued their amazing performance in the second half, going up to a 13:8 scoreline. After that, Kinguin stepped things up a notch, and won out from there, surviving the scare and closing the game at an intense 16:13. Two players that stood out were Kinguin's dennis and Immunity's rickeh, who topped the scoreboards for both teams, with 27 frags a piece.

The last game of this group saw North American hope Cloud9 take on Team Kinguin in an exciting game on de_dust2. Team Kinguin managed to win the early game battles on the CT side, just to lose their grip on the game. Halftime saw a 6:9 scoreline in favour of C9. Things, however started looking up for the all-star team, taking the pistol round on the T side. C9 were able to respond, however, with two round wins of their own before Kinguin started shying away from their A executes and shifting onto the B site of the map. Kinguin took another four just to fall to a C9 eco A site retake that saw C9 pick up another round. However, that's all Cloud9 were able to get before Team Kinguin won out, upsetting Cloud9, and moving into the quarters with a 16:13 win over the Americans, knocking them out. Freakazoid and Skadoodle being the only ones operating on a high level over on the American side.

Group G:
The first game of this group saw the Australian Renegades face off against the newly reformed French team, Titan. de_mirage was our stage for the upcoming upset. Titan were expected to take it, however, they were able to salvage a total of six rounds on their Terrorist side. Titan was up 6:3 before RNG were able to take the remainer of the half for a 6:9 finish. Moving on from there, the Aussies also took the pistol round, just to fall to a Counter-Terrorist eco on the follow-up round. Titan made swift work of the Aussie players, nearly tying things up at 9:10. After that, RNG shifted into second gear, and thanks to big individual performance and calling from SPUNJ, RNG finished the game at a 16:9 scoreline.

The next game pitted Renegades against the Ninjas in Pyjamas, coming in as underdogs, following their stop from TSM yesterday. The map turned out to be de_inferno, a good map for both teams. RNG looked on fire following the Titan win and taking the pistol round. However, due to their mistake, and a dropped AK -- allu -- who was the MVP of this game, managed to get a triple spraydown and swaying the round in favour of NiP. Following that round, the fighting spirit was sucked out of the Aussies, who only got two more rounds on their T half, ending the half 12:3. The second half started off with both teams trading rounds back and forth for a while, before the Swedes put their foot down and closed the map out at a 16:5 scoreline.

Group H:
This group featured two great matches, the first one being FlipSid3 versus Mousesports. This game was played on de_cobblestone and F3 having a monstrous start to the game, taking an solid 8:2, lead before Mouz came back into it and closed the gap to one round difference at half time, finishing 8:7. The German Mousesports then continued their dominance, with five more straight rounds, before being shut down for six rounds in a row. The last four rounds were traded between the two teams equally, with the Ukrainian Flipsid3 coming out on top with a 16:14 win. It is also worth mentioning that both bondik and Markeloff played a huge part in this game win for F3.

The last, but not least, game of today was yet another one played on de_cobblestone. Luminosity Gaming took on the "on-fire" FlipSid3. CT rounds were the name of the game, with both the teams managing to win their halves at 9:6 scorelines, leading us to an exciting overtime. LG managed to win the first round of the OT, being on the less favoured T side, and things looked up for them as they also took the next two on their CT. The Ts, however, managed to make their "broken buy" work and pulled yet another OT out of the bag. This time, LG had more success on the CT side, and winning all three rounds. Switching over, F3 looked broken, and LG took the final round for a close 22:18 win. The IGL of F3, Blad3, showed up sensationally, dropping a 30-bomb in the regulation time before adding another 10 to it during the overtime, for a total of 41 kills and 11 assists! We also saw Markeloff continue his great performance with 34 kills. On the Brazilian side, it was LG's FalleN who lead the way with 37 frags.

The ESL One Cologne group stages have concluded. Congratulations to all the qualified teams! Tomorrow will be starting the playoffs with EnVyUs, Natus Vincere, TSM, Kinguin, Virtus.pro, NiP, Fnatic and Luminosity...

The playoffs begin tomorrow at 10:45 CEST !

PLAYOFFS:
- EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere at 10:45 CEST
- TSM vs. Kinguin at 13:55 CEST
- Virtus.pro vs. NiP at 17:00 CEST
- Fnatic vs. Luminosity at 20:05 CEST

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