In the first round of the lower group stage grid at IEM Cologne 2024, Team Falcons and Virtus Pro played. The match is of great importance for Falcons' coach, zonic, because in his nine-year career, he has had many big trophies, but it is the victory in Cologne that he does not have.

Pre-match details

For the teams, this will be the third meeting in the last six months where the teams have won once each. Since then, the teams have not made substitutions and know how everyone plays.

At the map selection stage, it happened that the teams chose the same maps as last time, only there was one. The deciding map was Dust 2, which wasn't there last time.

READ MORE: Liquid secured their place in the semifinals of the lower Group B of IEM Cologne.

Match Details

The first map was Vertigo, the pick of the Falcons, who played a poor defense, finishing 9-3 not in their favor. But starting from the pistol round won, they did the unbelievable, where first they took a series of 5, but gave away two rounds. And later they won the second series of 5 rounds and won the main event with a score of 13-11.

The second map was Mirage, where Falcons continued to destroy their opponent, ending the half 8-4. And that seemed to be it, but Virtus Pro did something incredible, coming back into the game, playing a clean half, not losing a round, winning with a score of 13-8.

On the last map, the game was more interesting, and the first half ended with a close 7-5 score in favor of Falcons. Despite this, the second half went one way, Falcons showed good play and managed to finish the map with a score of 13-8, thus winning the match.

Best Player of the Match

The title of best player of the match went to Pavle "maden" Bošković, who had a great series. He finished the match with a rating of 6.9 and a statistic of 51-50 against KD.

Also of note was Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer, who in his 34 years showed a great game and this while he is still the captain of the team. His rating for the match was 6.7, which is a little less than the twenty-five year old madeni.

READ MORE: Staehr reflects on Astralis' loss to NAVI at IEM Cologne 2024

Next match

In the next match of the tournament, Falcons will play the loser of the FaZ/Vitality pairing for a spot in the tournament playoffs. In turn, Virtus Pro unexpectedly leave the tournament in last place, having earned $10,000.