Fnatic and ENCE win in Group A kickoff of IEM Cologne 2023

The excitement of IEM Cologne 2023 continues, and at the start of the Group Stage, Fnatic and ENCE achieved excellent victories against Cloud9 and 9INE, respectively, to start with everything in Group A.

It is worth noting that both teams had to apply a reverse sweep to take the victory in this first Group A match. On Fnatic’s side, they defeated Cloud9, who had to play their first match without Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov, who could not arrive in the country due to visa problems. On the other hand, ENCE came from behind spectacularly to beat 9INE.

Let’s see what happened in the victories of Fnatic and ENCE on the first day of Group A at IEM Cologne 2023.

Fnatic kills Perfecto and electroNic debut with Cloud9

Undoubtedly, all the spotlight was on the debut of Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy and Denis “electroNic” Sharipov with Cloud9. However, Fnatic took care of this first presentation of the former NaVi players and managed to take an excellent 2-1 victory.

It all started in Vertigo, Fnatic’s map pick, where Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov and Abay “HObbit” Khassenov led Cloud9 to victory. In the first half, we have that Cloud9 got a very tight partial victory (8-7) on their CT side. Then, at the change of sides, we observe how Fnatic managed to get ahead on the scoreboard by 12-11. However, Cloud9 was able to close the map with a 16-13 victory.

Then, in Anubis, Cloud9’s map pick, things changed completely because Fnatic came out with everything to tie the series 1-1. William “mezii” Merriman and Christopher “Dexter” Nong were defensive walls for the black&Orange squad and managed to help Fnatic to a 9-6 partial victory. Then, at the turn of the tables, Fnatic withstood Cloud9’s comeback to take the 16-10 win and even the series 1-1.

Finally, we were treated to CS:GO at the highest level possible in Ancient, as we had an exceptional T-side for both teams. In the first half, Cloud9 took the partial victory by 9-6, again with sh1ro leading the team. However, Fnatic was able to wake up with some impressive collective work in the second half to even the score 15-15. At Overtime, Fnatic had more fuel than Cloud9 and managed to win 19-16.

.@FNATIC open up the #IEM Cologne Group Stage with a 2-1 victory over @C9CSGO!

13-16 Vertigo
16-10 Anubis
19-16 Ancient pic.twitter.com/mQgmG7bBxK

— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) July 29, 2023

ENCE apply a reverse sweep against 9INE

Just like the Cloud9 and Fnatic match, 9INE was expected to continue with a great level of play and take the win against ENCE. However, after applying an excellent reverse sweep, the European squad defeated the Poles.

It all started in Vertigo, 9INE’s map pick, where the Polish squad showed absolute dominance by taking a resounding 16-4 victory. Olek “hades” Miskiewicz and Wiktor “mynio” Kruk were 9INE’s best players in this match.

Then, on the second map, Nuke, things started to change, as ENCE started extremely strong on their T-side and achieved a partial victory in the first half by 10-5. Then, at the change of sides, 9INE tried to wake up, but the truth is that it was too late, as they started winning rounds when the score was 15-6. Finally, ENCE evened the series 1-1 thanks to a victory in Nuke by 16-11.

Finally, in Mirage, another heart-stopping match had to be defined in Overtime. 9INE started the map on the right foot on their T-side, as they managed to overcome ENCE’s defense to take a partial first-half win by 9-6. Everything seemed to indicate that 9INE had the game in their hands, but Guy “NertZ” Iluz and Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia took care of avoiding it and managed to lead ENCE to even the score by 15-15 and ultimately take the victory by 19-15.

.@ENCE pull it back into OVERTIME on the final map to reverse sweep @9INEGG! 🔥

4-16 Vertigo
16-11 Nuke
19-15 Mirage #IEM pic.twitter. com/e6nP7w1OH6

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 29, 2023

Header: ESL