paiN eliminated from IEM Cologne Play-In at the hands of Sprout
A fight for their life, paiN were up against Sprout, and considering their impressive performance against MOUZ that they lost by the skin of their teeth they were favorites. Unfortunately, Sprout had turned a new leaf since their first game and took the series in a close 2-1.
The downfall of paiN started on Ancient, in the first half things seemed to be evenly matched as the Brazilians took the first half 8-7 but as their opponents took the CT-side things started to get out of control. The end seemed inevitable on one round, in particular, went the German madman, Timo "Spiidi" Richter, ran through three molotovs to get a kill. This summed up how things were going for pain in the first map as they fell apart and lost 16-10.
paiN woke up from their slumber in the first map and were to keep things competitive, some fantastic individual plays from Gabriel "nython" Lino allowed the squad to take the first half 9-6. They were able to keep their foot on the gas despite a scary run from Sprout at the end of the map. In the end, the Brazilians were too powerful on Dust2, ending the map 16-12.
With each team having a dominant map, things looked spicy going into Vertigo. Sprout were none too happy forced to play a third map and started their T-side very strong, bursting forth to a quick 5-0 lead. The remainder of the half was jostled between the two teams, and when the dust settled, Sprout only barely managed to hold onto their lead, holding the slightest advantage after the 8-7 half. Sprout went on to win their sixth pistol round of the series and took that momentum to win six in a row, just on the cusp of victory. After a few more rounds, Sprout finished their meal, completing Vertigo 16-10 and winning the series 2-1.
With this loss, paiN are eliminated from IEM Cologne.
SproutpaiN| Sprout |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Victor 'Staehr' Staehr |
68 - 48 | +20 | 90.7 | 77.5% | 1.31 |
 Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich |
59 - 46 | +13 | 80.0 | 81.2% | 1.26 |
| Timo 'Spiidi' Richter |
61 - 54 | +7 | 89.4 | 78.8% | 1.22 |
 Laurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea |
59 - 52 | +7 | 70.3 | 75.0% | 1.13 |
| Rasmus 'raalz' Steensborg |
56 - 52 | +4 | 72.0 | 75.0% | 1.12 |
| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
59 - 56 | +3 | 83.5 | 67.5% | 1.13 |
| Gabriel 'nython' Lino |
66 - 56 | +10 | 84.5 | 67.5% | 1.10 |
| Vinicios 'PKL' Coelho |
49 - 63 | -14 | 71.0 | 70.0% | 0.90 |
| Wesley 'hardzao' Lopes |
40 - 62 | -22 | 60.9 | 58.8% | 0.72 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
38 - 66 | -28 | 55.4 | 62.5% | 0.66 |
