B8 advance to IEM Cologne Stage 2 after 2-0 win over M80

B8 advanced to Stage 2 of the IEM Cologne Major after a 2-0 win over North American side M80, taking Ancient 13-11 and Inferno 22-20 in overtime at the Cologne event.

On Ancient, B8 opened 5-1, including an all-headshot AK-47 ace by Artem ‘kensizor’ Kapran, but M80 led 7-5 at halftime after rounds won by Fritz ‘slaxz-‘ Dietrich and multi-kills from Michael ‘Swisher’ Schmid. After the side switch, B8 won the pistol round and converted a 5v3 to pull ahead 12-8. Josh ‘JBa’ Barutt hit a triple in a 3v5 to narrow the gap, but B8 closed the map 13-11.

Inferno featured multiple momentum swings. Swisher helped M80 build an early lead, then B8 took five rounds before the break. Dmytro ‘esenthial’ Tsvir made a 1v3 clutch after halftime to deny a force-buy win. An aggressive push through smoke by Alexey ‘alex666’ Yarmoshchuk in a 4v3 allowed JBa to trigger a recovery for M80, who won five straight rounds and reached map point.

Alex666 then produced two triple-kill holds on the B site to force overtime. In overtime, opening duels favored M80 on Inferno (25-17), but B8 won six of eight 1vX rounds. Danylo ‘s1zzi’ Vinnyk won a 1v3 to deny M80 map point and finished the match with a 1v2 in the final round to seal the 22-20 victory.

Individual statistics showed alex666 at 52-42 with an 84.9 average damage per round (ADR) and a 1.44 rating, and s1zzi at 50-41 with a 1.08 rating. For M80, Mason ‘Lake’ Sanderson posted 54-44 and a 1.19 rating while Swisher finished 49-51 with a 1.15 rating.

Alex666 reflected to Tres ‘stunna’ Saranthus: “We were playing for fun in the end. We had no stress, I was saying for maybe 15 rounds on the T side, ‘let’s do this round,’ but we were still giving entries and other stuff and still didn’t end how we wanted. But yeah, it was like… clash of trash (laughs).”

B8 reached Stage 2 after a 3-0 record in Stage 1. They will play their next matches in Cologne as the tournament field advances.