Vitality send ENCE packing; BIG eliminate MIBR

Vitality and BIG have progressed in Group B's lower bracket of ESL One Cologne 2019 after beating ENCE and MIBR, respectively, in three-map series.

The second day of ESL One Cologne began with an exciting clash between two top three sides battling for their tournament survival. After a slow start to Overpass, Vitality picked up the pace once they had money in the bank, and were on the front foot for the majority of the half to secure a 9-6 lead.

A near-flawless CT pistol put Vitality on double-digits. The French team rode that momentum to a 14-6 lead and held off a late comeback attempt by ENCE, putting the game to bed in the 25th round with a quad kill by Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut.

Next up was Nuke, where ENCE had come out victorious the last time these two teams had met on the map, back at cs_summit 4. The Finnish giants got off to a dream start to the game, running all over the Vitality defense during the early stages of the game to grab a 5-0 lead. Alex "ALEX" McMeekin's troops responded in kind by winning eight rounds in a row before ENCE picked up the final two rounds to keep the deficit to a minimum.

ENCE capitalized on that late momentum and won the opening four rounds of the second half to bring the scoreline to 11-8. ZywOo and Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt then led Vitality's comeback efforts, but it amounted to nothing as the Nordic side kept their defense very compact and ran out 16-12 victors.

Inferno, the decider map, began with a flying start from Vitality, who cruised to a 9-0 lead with a water-tight defense. After calling a tactical pause, ENCE finally got on the board with a 1v2 clutch in an eco round, but there was no follow-up as the French side continued to add to their lead. Things were starting to look ugly for ENCE, but the Finnish side managed to get the final three rounds of the half to keep their comeback hopes alive.

Jere "sergej" Salo went huge after the break with a quick quad kill in the pistol round, all headshots, with ENCE following that up with both anti-ecos to bring the deficit to 7-11. Dan "apEX" Madesclaire then turned the hero as he set Vitality up for match point with a series of key plays before ALEX hammered the final nail into ENCE's coffin with a quad-kill in an A execute.

Meanwhile, MIBR and BIG played out an exciting three-map series that kicked off on Dust2, where the early stages were played at a rapid pace as neither side was able to stamp their authority on proceedings. But as the half reached the mid-way point, BIG hit their stride, with Fatih "gob b" Dayik leading the charge for his team with the SG en route to a 9-6 score.

MIBR looked a different side after the break and restored parity at 10-10, even looking unfazed after losing an anti-eco round to a quad-kill by Tizian "tiziaN" Feldbusch with a Desert Eagle. It looked like the Brazilians were in control, but then BIG tightened up their defense and kept the Terrorists at bay for the rest of the half - except for a round clutched by Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo - to claim a 16-11 win.

The Brazilian side, who are playing their first event with Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles, responded with an excellent all-round performance on Overpass, where all of the Brazilian players put in 1.30+ ratings. FalleN's side carried that momentum into the final map, racking up 12 rounds on the CT side of Train after a one-sided first half.

BIG came out of the break looking scary and put up a very tight defense, hitting match point without giving up a single round. With their backs against the wall, MIBR finally woke up and bagged the remaining rounds of regulation to take the game to overtime, but it was all for naught as the Germans picked up two rounds in both halves to emerge victorious and leave the Brazilian players frustrated.