The fourth day of ESL One Cologne has concluded as all four quarter-final matches came to an end.
The fourth day of the tournament was the quarter-finals day. All eight quarter-finalists have already secured their spot on the next major by making it out of the group stage and as a result of it, earning legend status. The matchups between those teams were as follows:
Virtus.pro vs Astralis 12:3, 3:12, 4:2 (19:17); 4:11, 11:4, 4:0 (19:15)
Winner: Virtus.pro
Maps: de_Overpass, de_Train
MVP: Jaros?aw "pashaBiceps" Jarz?bkowski
The first quarter-final match of ESL One Cologne 2016 was a very emotional one. The Danish side on this matchup, Astralis, were already lacking Markus "kjaerbye" Kjærbye at the major due to his appearance with Team Dignitas at the main qualifiers. The unexpected health problem of Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann on the second day of the group stage meant Astralis had to use a second standin in the most prestigious Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event. Danny "zonic" Sørensen immediately took Rothmann's place and with him, Astralis managed to reach the quarter-finals. But once they were in the quarter-finals, things got more serious. Virtus.pro were waiting for them with full power.
With two stand-ins and a couple of unfortunate days behind, Astralis started the first map terribly. At the half time, they were nine rounds down and the hopes for a comeback were slim. Then a superstar stepped in, went crazy and dropped a 30-bomb. Overpass' second half hero was Nicolai "device" Reedtz. Under his leadership, Astralis almost secured the map but Polish fan-favourite Jarz?bkowski's quad kill blocked the Danish victory. The overtime was close but in the end, Virtus.pro took the map by a margin of just two rounds.
Train was a reversed version of Overpass. This time around, Astralis were the team with a huge lead at the half-time. Before Virtus.pro winning the 30th round, Astralis had four map points. Unfortunately for them, none of those rounds were ended with a victory roar. The overtime started with VP's domination and Astralis couldn't find a way to stop their opponents.
There's nothing more important than health and we wish Rothmann recovers as soon as possible.
SK Gaming vs FlipSid3 Tactics 12:3, 4:4 (16:7); 9:6, 6:9, 4:2 (19:17)
Winner: SK Gaming
Maps: de_Mirage, de_Nuke
MVP: Lincoln "fnx" Lau
The title holders SK Gaming took on FlipSid3 in the second match of the quarter-finals. Unlike the previous one, this match was anticipated to be one sided from the beginning. The predictions seemed to be right at first as SK completely crushed FlipSid3 at the first half of the first map. It's hard to find out what FlipSid3 members talked about during the half-time break but after it, they fought head-to-head against the world's best. Using primarily Yegor "markeloff" Markelov's experience at the majors and Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin's AWP skills, they won exactly same amount of rounds until the overtime of the second map which was Nuke. Even the overtime of that map was close but the best team in the world advanced one more stage, aiming to win back-to-back majors.
Natus Vincere vs Team Liquid 5:10, 11:1 (16:11); 8:7, 4:9 (12:16); 2:13, 4:3 (6:16)
Winner: Team Liquid
Maps: de_Train, de_Nuke, de_Cobblestone
MVP: Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev's one man stand against Team Liquid deserves to be mentioned before anything else. His teammates did their best but he was a complete CS god with positive K/D differences on every map, even on Cobblestone where Na'Vi won just six rounds. Unluckily for the Ukrainians and Natus Vincere, Team Liquid played like champions. The MVP of this quarter-final matchup, Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, made it hard for Liquid to drop him after the major as planned. He was one of the main reasons of Liquid's run for the semis at the previous major, MLG Columbus 2016, and three months later he contributed again. After back to back terrible majors from North American teams, Team Liquid is the new American dream as they've proven their MLG Columbus performance wasn't by chance.
Gambit vs fnatic 4:11, 1:5 (5:16); 3:12, 0:4 (3:16)
Winner: fnatic
Maps: de_Train, de_Cache
MVP: Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer
The last quarter-final match of ESL One Cologne 2016 ended in a blink of an eye as fnatic destroyed Gambit quickly on both maps. Even on Train which was chosen by Gambit as the opening map, fnatic were far better than their CIS opponents. Gambit's performance versus fnatic was nowhere near their performance on the group stage where they've topped their group by besting Astralis and Dignitas. On the other hand, fnatic's amazing level of CS on the quarter-finals may be the sign of their will to regain the number 1 spot in the world rankings and of course, to lift the major trophy.
Frontpage photo courtesy of Adela Sznajder - ESL
