Cologne Play-In finishes up, three Americas teams in main event
With MIBR, 00 Nation, and Imperial duking it out for a spot in the main event, it was a tough road for all these teams. However, only 00 Nation managed to push through and secure a spot in the main event.
Tyloo stamp out MIBR
The best-of-three started out in the Brazilian's favor, utterly dominating the Chinese team on their own map pick of Inferno 16-5. The battle was not even really that close, with MIBR taking six unanswered rounds on their T-side to close the map. However, their strong showing on their opponent's pick meant nothing on their own home turf as they were in turn also utterly dominated. Tyloo kept MIBR to just 3 rounds on their T-side on Overpass, and with a perfect T-side of their own, they evened up the series with a 16-3 victory. Every single Tyloo member finished with at least 0.35 rating higher than any MIBR member.
The final battleground of Dust2 offered up the first mildly competitive map of the series, but a stellar T-side propelled Tyloo to a successful 16-10 scoreline, winning the best-of-three that looked so daunting after the first map. With that loss, MIBR's Cologne trip finished at the Play-In.
MIBRTYLOO| MIBR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Breno 'brnz4n' Poletto |
54 - 44 | +10 | 80.9 | 78.8% | 1.19 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
43 - 50 | -7 | 78.1 | 72.7% | 1.05 |
| Jhonatan 'JOTA' Willian |
44 - 43 | +1 | 74.3 | 66.7% | 1.01 |
| Raphael 'exit' Lacerda |
44 - 46 | -2 | 77.8 | 65.2% | 0.99 |
| Matheus 'Tuurtle' Anhaia |
30 - 49 | -19 | 56.2 | 63.6% | 0.76 |
| TYLOO |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Zhenghao 'DANK1NG' Lv |
57 - 41 | +16 | 89.8 | 72.7% | 1.32 |
| Kelun 'SLOWLY' Sun |
49 - 47 | +2 | 70.5 | 71.2% | 1.08 |
| YuLun 'Summer' Cai |
40 - 41 | -1 | 72.7 | 69.7% | 1.00 |
| YuanZhang 'Attacker' Sheng |
42 - 44 | -2 | 72.4 | 71.2% | 1.00 |
 Hansel 'BnTeT' Ferdinand |
42 - 44 | -2 | 71.3 | 65.2% | 0.99 |
Imperial overpowers the Aussies
ORDER's map pick of Inferno went much better than when Tyloo tried to pick it versus a Brazilian team. The Aussies picked up ten rounds on their T-side and from there on out it was smooth sailing. ORDER cruised to a map advantage following their 16-8 victory. They then moved onto Imperial's home map of Mirage, where the Brazilians put up a much stronger fight. Winning the T-side pistol propelled them into a huge advantage, finishing the first half with seven rounds over the Australians' heads. The second half was more back and forth but Imperial's advantage proved insurmountable as they won Mirage with the same scoreline ORDER took Inferno with, 16-8.
The even scorelines then brought us onto the mutually agreed upon decider map of Nuke, where Imperial looked absolutely raring to go. After a short stumble on the pistol round conversion, Imperial's defense was rock solid as ORDER just kept pushing and pushing to no avail. At the end of fifteen rounds, when the dust cleared, ORDER had only two rounds to their name while Imperial stood tall with an impressive thirteen. Despite the hard road, ORDER began the comeback, winning the second pistol and slowly narrowed the scoreline to a more respectable value. Unfortunately for ORDER, Imperial plucked away the necessary three rounds to take home the third map and eliminate the Aussies.
ORDERImperial| ORDER |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Joshua 'INS' Potter |
47 - 50 | -3 | 83.2 | 65.3% | 1.04 |
| Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas |
47 - 46 | +1 | 67.4 | 78.7% | 1.02 |
| Alistair 'aliStair' Johnston |
52 - 51 | +1 | 71.7 | 61.3% | 0.97 |
 Simon 'Sico' Williams |
45 - 45 | +0 | 72.1 | 58.7% | 0.94 |
| Jordan 'Hatz' Bajic |
45 - 51 | -6 | 61.1 | 66.7% | 0.93 |
| Imperial |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
51 - 44 | +7 | 69.6 | 76.0% | 1.14 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
55 - 45 | +10 | 81.9 | 66.7% | 1.14 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
48 - 45 | +3 | 70.9 | 68.0% | 1.07 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
53 - 51 | +2 | 79.8 | 68.0% | 1.07 |
| Lincoln 'fnx' Lau |
34 - 51 | -17 | 55.4 | 56.0% | 0.73 |
The Last Classico
The final match of the event saw old friends meet each other on the server, however on opposite sides. After their victory over ORDER, Imperial had to face 00 Nation for a spot in Cologne. One team stays, the other goes home.
The game started on a map which the old SK lineup never saw, Ancient. With 00 Nation on the attack they poked and prodded to find rounds where they could. Despite losing the pistol, 00 Nation eked out eight rounds at the half, an impressive T-side performance. Imperial were not up to snuff on their own offensive side as their attack faltered despite winning the second pistol as well. Imperial started fighting back at 13-8, but it was too little too late as 00 Nation took their own pick 16-12.
Overpass brought us to familiar Imperial territory, but the duo of Santino "try" Rigal and Bruno "latto" Rebelatto proved indomitable with the two combining for 47 kills to 23 deaths. Imperial won their T-side with nine rounds to their name, but 00 Nation's assault was brutal, subduing Imperial entirely and winning the map 16-12.
00NATIONImperial| 00NATION |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Santino 'try' Rigal |
47 - 28 | +19 | 80.8 | 76.8% | 1.30 |
| Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto |
41 - 26 | +15 | 78.6 | 69.6% | 1.24 |
| Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer |
37 - 37 | +0 | 83.4 | 82.1% | 1.17 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
26 - 31 | -5 | 59.5 | 69.6% | 0.95 |
| Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
27 - 33 | -6 | 54.2 | 73.2% | 0.89 |
| Imperial |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln 'fnx' Lau |
37 - 34 | +3 | 78.2 | 67.9% | 1.13 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
34 - 34 | +0 | 75.1 | 73.2% | 1.01 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
28 - 36 | -8 | 51.8 | 62.5% | 0.86 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
25 - 38 | -13 | 54.9 | 64.3% | 0.82 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
31 - 38 | -7 | 59.6 | 69.6% | 0.81 |
All American teams in Cologne are in group B. The double-elimination tournament gives them some breathing room, but all of their first opponents will be difficult, and with Cologne being one of the most stacked tournaments of the year, it'll be a tough road for any of our American teams to make playoffs. Their opening matches are:
Liquid vs 
Spirit Thursday 01:30PM 00 Nation vs 
FaZe Friday 06:30AM FURIA vs 
Astralis Friday 06:30AM
