IEM Cologne is gearing up for its final eight teams. Can FURIA book their spot in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike?
A poor showing lately notwithstanding FURIA eliminated Outsiders from IEM Cologne 2022. The South American squad finally showed up when it mattered the most, with a dominant performance on Inferno and Vertigo. Outsiders, for their part, looked woefully lost in today’s series and are now out of the million-dollar tournament.
FURIA and Outsiders have played each other quite a few times recently, in different tournaments. The familiarity of each others; playsytle definitely helped FURIA to find their groove against Outsiders in this elimination match sais arT.
I think we are losing a lot of maps in a row and when we are facing any opponents, they are going to play more aggressive towards us. So we were expecting more aggression and more loose plays by them. So I think that's kind of the mindset and we know that's something they like to do. And that is like some metagame behind it cause we just faced them some weeks ago and we saw them play the same maps over and over again. So there are somethings behind but usually we just play our own game.
Map 1 Inferno - Yuurih and kscerato on fire
Outsiders won the first three rounds on Inferno taking a silid lead in the map. However, FURIA’s defense and in particular their retakes were exceptional, highlighting their synergy and coordination as a team.
Despite their strong showing on the CT side, the first half ended with a 8-7 finish in favor of FURIA. Outsiders started with five rounds in the second half on their CT side. However, FURIA’s offense took roots soon after and they ran away with the game, focusing on their aggression and dismantling the Outsiders CT defense.
Yuurih and KSCERATO were the two most impactful players on FURIA, however, we saw several impact fags by saffee and art as well. FURIA took an early lead in the series, and were one map away from eliminating Outsiders at this stage.
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Near perfect CT side Vertigo by FURIA
Much like the first, the second map also began with both teams taking a string of rounds. FURIA won the pistol and the subsequent round before Outsiders had a string of five rounds on the CT. Ultimately, the first half ended in a 8-7 score, again in favor of FURIA.
However, once we switched sides, Outsiders seemed to have no answer to the FURIA defense. They would often fail to check corners and would be caught unawares by lurking FURIA members. Vertigo was a map that had seen poor preparation from Outsiders or so it seemed.
The FURIA players would specifically target the B bombsite and that was evident in their strategies and movements. When asked if this was a deliberate attempt to to target one particular player, FURIA arT explained their thought process behind the same.
The first map, Inferno, I don't recall doing that. I think that was just how it went. Vertigo, definitely this was going on. Just because we killed him two times the same way through the boost. So I kind of expected he would be playing a bit more passive and a bit worried. It's always hard to play CS when you have 5 kills on the T side and you lose two in a row , the third time is going to be very tense for you. Not against Fame, just because we found some success there. It's easier to enter.
With this victory, FURIA players will now move on to the next part of the bracket at IEM Cologne. As for Outsiders, this marks the end of their season and they head into the Summer break.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS: GO news and updates and check out our live score thread here.
Featured Image Credit: ESL.
