Vitality outlast fnatic, Heroic knock out BIG

Group B's lower bracket semi-finals have come to a close as Vitality eliminated fnatic in a closely-contested series (Mirage 19-16, Overpass 19-17), while Heroic knocked out BIG 2-0 (Inferno 16-13, Nuke 16-7).

The third day of play at ESL One Cologne began with the two lower bracket semi-final series in Group B, as Vitality faced fnatic and BIG went up against Heroic.

The former matchup began on Mirage, with the two teams exchanging the first eight rounds, as the Swedes won the pistol round while Vitality came out on top of the two of the first three gunrounds. The two sides went on to battle for economy with each side having to eco once over the next five rounds, but the Frenchmen ended up on top with the last five going their way, securing a 9-6 half as Terrorists.

fnatic succeeded in the second pistol round on the back of Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell's 1v1 clutch on A to close the gap and retake the lead, with Vitality struggling to defend until it was 14-11. Big plays from Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy and Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut helped them survive and push the match to overtime, where Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin's 1v2 and more individual heroics from the 18-year-old secured the map for the favorites.

The close affair continued on Overpass, where Vitality found their first successful pistol round in the series, while fnatic looked like the stronger side when both sides had full weaponry. A great defensive streak gave the Swedes an 8-4 lead before Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt's squad secured two more rounds at the end of the half.

fnatic kept their advantage early on in the second half, rallying to a 13-9 lead on the back of a pistol round victory and JW's huge quad-kill, but once again they struggled to close out the map. Vitality held on, yet again reaching match point first before the second map went to overtime. There, the Swedes looked in the driving seat as they grabbed the first two rounds, but 1v4 heroics from ZywOo denied them match point and allowed the French side to finish off the series at 19-17, 2-0.

On the other side of the bracket, BIG and Heroic went back and forth at the beginning of Inferno as Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund put up individual plays for their teams. The Danes pulled away on the CT side with five in a row, but Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik's side responded with four out of the last five to stay within one round from their opponents.

BIG won their second pistol of the match and reached double digits first, but their lead quickly disappeared when Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's quad-kill set off a streak for Heroic, whose successful offense saw them gain a 14-11 lead. An ace from tabseN kept the German squad in the game, but a mistake in the 29th round cost them a chance to push it to overtime as they couldn't find the bomb in time despite a successful retake.

Nuke followed with Heroic mounting a solid offense. On the back of a second-round break, blameF's men clinched five rounds in a row and kept control despite BIG finding some success late in the half, switching over to the CTs with a 9-6 lead.

With Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen clutching a 1v2 in the second pistol round, Heroic mounted a near-perfect defense, which only saw them lose a single round as they went on to eliminate BIG at 16-7, 2-0.