Counter-Strike returns to the LANXESS Arena with IEM Cologne, pitting 24 teams against one-another for their share of $1,000,000 USD. Of these teams, eight will receive a distinct advantage: their consistency in recent months has earned them direct qualification into the Group Stage, bypassing the Play-Ins entirely.
In the lead up to IEM Cologne 2022, eight teams put up performances strong enough to earn a direct invite into the event's Group Stage, bypassing a strong Play-In Stage that eliminated the likes of MIBR and BIG Clan. Four of those teams were seeded into Group B: Team Liquid, Cloud9, FURIA Esports and FaZe Clan.
After four groups of play, the field of competition at the ESL Pro League had thinned down to 12. Another round of play saw four more squads eliminated as we said goodbye to Heroic, Fnatic, Entropiq and Players in the Round of 12.
The ESL Pro League playoffs began yesterday, with ENCE taking down Fnatic in convincing 2-0 fashion and FaZe Clan edging out Players in a three-map affair. On day two, more Round of 12 action will occur with Heroic taking on Team Liquid and Entropiq squaring off against Astralis.
After four weeks of competition, the field of teams at ESL Pro League Season 15 has thinned from 24 to 12. The playoffs begin today, with the Round of 12 pitting the second and third seeded teams from each group against one-another. The first day of competition will open with ENCE taking on Fnatic in a best-of-three series, followed by FaZe Clan in action against Players.
IEM Katowice is well into the group stage now and we take a look at Natus Vincere and their prospects in advancing in the tournament. We also had a quick chat to s1mple about returning to form after the player break that was so long.
It was a rough start for Team Liquid, but is kind of expected given the reshuffle that just occurred, changing the entire makeup of the team coming into IEM Katowice. Also featuring nitr0 talking about his return to CSGO from VALORANT.
Recently G2 Esports added young prodigy m0NESY to the squad and looked to make an impact at IEM Katowice in their first big tournament together. We take a look at how they are doing, where they go from here, and what NiKo thinks about the pressure of competing with a new roster.
We haven't seen them for awhile, but FURIA is coming out swinging at IEM Katowice with a huge win over Astralis - but how much further can they make it? We take a look at that as question arT as to FURIA's position amoungst the top teams.
We talk to YEKINDAR about Virtus.Pro's potential as a team now with FL1T on the squad, before looking ahead to their tournament path that lay in front of them and their chances of getting to the grand finals and hoisting the trophy up.
