Check out the qualified CSGO teams for the IEM Cologne 2021 playoffs

The group stage of the IEM Cologne 2021, the world tournament of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, ended in early July. 

The group stage brought together 16 teams spread throughout the world, which were divided into two groups with eight teams each. Only six teams are set to remain, ready to compete in the playoffs and battle for the title of the competition. 

With help from esports expert Evelyn Balyton, who watched live all of the tournament so far, we have some valuable insight about the teams competing in the upcoming IEM Cologne tournament. Check out more about Balyton here. [no link was provided]

Below, you can check the ranked teams, the details of the group stage and the playoffs for the IEM Cologne 2021, which starts [date here].  

Remembering that the competition is being broadcast live on the official ESL channels on Twitch TV.

Group A

North American Team Liquid kicked things off against traditional Ninja in Pajamas. 

Liquid started with a win on the map after an extra hour but ended up conceding the win on subsequent maps, being defeated 2-1 by the Swedish team and getting dropped to a lower bracket. 

Later on, Liquid beat Mousesports and made sure they would reach the final round alive, just to see German team BIG to impose a 2-0 defeat to end Liquid’s ambitions.

Group A ended with G2 Esports in first place after a victory against Gambit Esports, which guaranteed its presence in the semifinal stage of the playoffs. 

Gambit, in second place, and Virtus.pro, who was in third place after beating BIG, also advanced to the next phase, but will start their campaigns in the quarter finals.

Group B

FURIA Esports began their work in Group B against Team Vitality, who hosted the current world best Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. 

Team Vitality had no difficulties in beating FURIA by 2-0. However, they ended up not making it to the knockout stages, as well as FURIA.

At the end of Group B, FaZe Clan qualified in third place after beating Heroic. In the decision for the leadership, Natus Vincere did better against Astralis and got a spot in the group for the semifinals, while the Danish team will be in the quarterfinals.

Playoffs

That’s where things get exciting and a mere slip could mean elimination. Final prize can literally change one’s lives and although most of us won’t ever be able to touch this money, we can still put some money at stake through betting. 

Odds are usually higher for these playoff matches and you can get to know the best CSGO betting sites by checking this link.

For the playoffs, the format adopted will be the single elimination, in which a defeat means a team elimination. 

All matches will be played in best-of-three series. The exception is the grand final, which will be decided by a best of five matches. The duels were defined based on the placement of each team in Groups A and B.

The first placed in each group will automatically be in the semifinals. 

The quarterfinals phase will have duels between the second place of Group A and the third place of Group B, and the second place of Group B against the third place of Group A. 

You can check out the schedule for all matches below:

IEM Cologne 2021 Playoffs

Wednesdays of Finals (Friday, July 16) 

• Virtus.pro vs Astralis 
• Gambit Esports vs FaZe Clan 

Semi-finals (Saturday, July 17)

• G2 Esports vs Virtus.pro or Astralis 
• Natus Vincere vs Gambit Esports or FaZe Clan 

Grand Final (Sunday, July 18)

• Winner of Semifinal 1 vs Winner of Semifinal 2

Major tournaments like IEM are always hard to predict, as virtually every team has chances to some extent to bring the trophy home. 

However, fans seem to be backing FaZe Clan and Astralis the most to make it to the final, which should be really exciting. 

CSGO is one of the games that are responsible for the so-called esport rise. After all, most of us didn’t even dream of the possibility of becoming a pro player of any video game, let’s say, twenty years ago. 

Nowadays it’s possible, and by the looks of it, things seem to be heading for the esports scenario to take over traditional sports, as even famous athletes are often linked to live streaming platforms showing off their skills at online games.