Vitality advanced to the group stage of IEM Cologne 2022

The Vitality team turned out to be stronger than Sprout with a score of 2:1, thanks to which they qualified for the group stage of IEM Cologne 2022. In turn, the Danish-German team left the championship, taking the final 17-20th place and earning $4,500.

The fight started on the map Vertigo, which became the choice of Sprout. At the same time, the first half ended with a score of 9:6 in favor of the Vitality players, who continued to stick to their line after the switchover. However, in the second half, the wards of BERRY managed to calm the eminent opponent, slightly seizing the initiative. As a result, Sprout managed to bring the map to overtime, and then to take the lead in the series — 22:20.

Next, the teams moved to the Dust 2 map, which became Vitality's choice. Here, the Danish-French team did not exchange for mistakes, closing the half in the attack with a two-fold advantage. After the side switch, the game leveled off as Sprout managed to seize the initiative again. And yet, Vitality had enough advantage to take their own pick and even the score in the series - 16:11.

Everything was decided on the Overpass map, the first half of which ended with a minimal advantage in favor of zonic's players. Well, after the change of sides, Vitality quickly increased the gap, in fact, allowing nothing to their opponent. As a result, the Danish-French team managed to win an important victory and made it to the group stage of IEM Cologne 2022 — 16:10.

Recall that in the parallel match Astralis defeated BIG with a score of 2:1 and knocked out the German team from the championship.

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: Sprout and BIG - $4,500
• 21st-24th place: paiN Gaming, Complexity Gaming, MIBR and ORDER — $2,500