IEM Cologne 2024 is gaining momentum and the matches are getting more and more exciting. This time, the meeting between NAVI and Astralis was not just an important victory, but also a ticket to the tournament playoffs. The final games will be played at the legendary LANXESS Arena, which has witnessed many historic matches and triumphs.
Pre-match facts
The teams have already met this year at BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024, where NAVI won and Astralis had a chance to avenge their defeat. In addition to this interesting fact is that at the last IEM Cologne, it was Astralis who did not let NAVI into the arena.
But since then, Astralis has only two players left, device and Staehr, while he has 4. In place of s1mple, came w0nderful. But despite this, NAVI have started to play much better and show incredible results, winning PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 and Esports World Cup 2024.
READ MORE: Brollan: "Our goal is to win Cologne"
Match Details
The first map of the match was Ancient, the choice of Astralis who had 3 losses in 7 maps played. NAVI had worse stats, only 2 wins out of 5 maps played. But despite this, NAVI started well, winning 8 rounds in the first half. In the second half, NAVI continued to crush their opponent and did not give up a single round, finishing the map with a score of 13-4.
The second map was NAVI's crowning Mirage, where they have a 91% win rate in 11 maps, where they lost just 1 time against HEROIC at IEM Dallas. The first half ended identically to the last map 8-4 in favor of NAVI. In the second half, Astralis tried to get back in the game but they were unsuccessful, eventually NAVI won 13-7.
With the win on the second map, it was NAVI's 11th straight win on Mirage, which is pretty cool. Perhaps they will be able to repeat the legendary record of Astralis, who did not lose to Nuke 31 times.
Best Player of the Match and interesting fact
The title of the best player of the match went to Mihai "iM" Ivan, who is having a great tournament, showing a high individual level. His rating for today's match was 8.2, which is not uncommon.
Also thanks to this victory and the playoffs of the tournament NAVI for the first time with an international squad entered the playoffs from the series of IEM tournaments. Prior to that, the team had maximized their 7th-8th place finishes at IEM Sydney 2023 and IEM Dallas 2024.
Next matchup
With the win, NAVI secured a playoff spot in the tournament, but will play against the winner of the SAW/The MongolZ pairing for seeding. Astralis, in turn, fall to the bottom set, where they need to win two matches to advance to the arena.
Comments