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About our IEM Cologne news
Latest news on IEM Cologne, a CS:GO tournament that is part of the ESL Pro Tour and the Intel Grand Slam. IEM Cologne 2023 was the last edition of the event to feature CS:GO as the esport is poised to make a slow transition to Counter-Strike 2, which will be released sometime in the summer.
The Playoffs were a single-elimination bracket with six teams: G2, ENCE, Astralis, Vitality, FaZe, and NAVI. G2 and ENCE had a bye to the semi-finals as they finished first in their respective groups. G2 defeated Astralis 2-0 and ENCE beat Vitality 2-1 to reach the grand final, while FaZe and NAVI were eliminated in the quarter-finals.
The grand final was a best-of-five series between G2 and ENCE, two teams that had never won a Major title in CS:GO. G2 took the first map, Dust2, with a dominant 16-6 scoreline, but ENCE bounced back on Nuke with a 16-13 victory. G2 regained control on Inferno, winning 16-10, and then closed out the series on Mirage with a 16-12 score. G2's star player Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač was named the MVP of the tournament, averaging a 1.32 rating over 15 maps.
G2 became the third team in history to win Katowice and Cologne in the same year, after Fnatic (2015) and FaZe (2022). They also claimed their first Intel Grand Slam title, earning $1 million USD for winning four out of ten eligible events. ENCE, on the other hand, had their best result since their runner-up finish at the Katowice Major in 2019, proving that they are still a force to be reckoned with in the scene.