Team Spirit, Heroic and MOUZ got their first wins at IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In

Team Spirit, Heroic and Mouz got their first wins at IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In, being one step away from reaching the group stage of the championship. In turn, the teams Complexity Gaming, Sprout and paiN Gaming fell into the lower bracket of the Play-In stage, where they will have the last chance to break into the next stage of the competition.

Team Spirit - Complexity Gaming

The first meeting of IEM Cologne 2022 Play-In took place on the Ancient map. At the same time, the Russian team, despite the start in the attack, managed to show a confident game and close the half with a two-fold advantage. Well, after the change of sides, Team Spirit finally killed the intrigue in the duel, winning not only the pistol series, but the entire confrontation, without allowing the North Americans to return - 16:11.

Heroic-Sprout

A parallel duel took place on the Overpass map. However, the intrigue did not appear here on the server, as the players of the Danish team spent a confident half in the attack, closing the side with a score of 12:3. After the switch of sides, Sprout failed to join the fight, because, having lost the pistol series, she signed her defeat. As a result, Heroic got a confident victory at the start of the championship and made it to the quarterfinals of the Play-In stage — 16:3.

MOUZ—paiN Gaming

The third confrontation that opened the championship took place on the Nuke map. Unexpectedly for many, the Brazilians started right off the bat, having managed to find the opponent's weak point and knock out a two-fold advantage before switching sides. Nevertheless, after the change of sides, the European team seized the initiative, quickly leveling the gap. At some point, it seemed that the Brazilians found their game and put the squeeze on the opponent, but MOUZ managed to make another mini-comeback and take the map to overtime. As a result, the "mice" did not let go, having managed to get a labor victory at the start of the tournament - 19:16.

IEM Cologne 2022 takes place from 5 to 17 July in Germany at the Hyatt Regency Cologne and LANXESS arena venues. As part of the championship, 24 teams from Europe, the CIS, Oceania, China, North and South America are fighting for a prize pool of $1,000,000, as well as rating points in the BLAST Premier table.

Prize pool distribution at IEM Cologne 2022

• 1st place: $400,000 + 3,200 BLAST Premier points
• 2nd place: $180,000 + 1,600 BLAST Premier points
• 3rd-4th place: $80,000 + 1,000 BLAST Premier points
• 5th-6th place: $40,000 + 300 BLAST Premier points
• 7th-8th place: $24,000 + 300 BLAST Premier points
• 9th-12th place: $16,000
• 13th-16th place: $10,000
• 17th-20th place: $4,500
• 21st-24th place: $2,500