GamerLegion beats BIG 2-0 to reach IEM Cologne Stage 2

GamerLegion beat BIG 2-0 (16-14 on Overpass, 13-11 on Ancient) in 2-1 pool play at the IEM Cologne Major, earning a place in Stage 2. The series took place in Cologne and decided the final Stage 2 slot from the pool.

On Overpass, BIG’s map pick, GamerLegion opened a 6-0 lead driven by repeated retakes and defensive stops. BIG won four rounds to reduce the deficit, but GamerLegion closed the first half 10-4 after converting an unconventional Short stack on the second pistol. In the second half, Gleb “gr1ks” Gazin and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer produced multi-kill rounds as BIG mounted an eight-round run and reached match point, including a 2v4 smoke defuse. GamerLegion won two late regulation rounds to force overtime, then recovered from a 3v5 in overtime to finish 16-14.

On Ancient, GamerLegion again survived early disadvantages and opened 4-0 after Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski won a 1v3. BIG responded with several high-impact multi-kills from Josef “faveN” Baumann and led 7-5 at halftime. After the swap, Sebastian “Tauson” Lindelof tied the score with a quad-kill using Dualies. BIG moved toward forcing a third map, but at 8-10 GamerLegion won a largely pistol-based force-buy, landing key headshots on aggressive peeks and stitching together the remaining rounds to close 13-11.

Individual statistics from the match show Snax with a 45-37 K-D and a 1.32 rating, Oldřich “PR” Nový at 43-35 and a 1.20 rating, and Fredrik “REZ” Sterner at 41-37 with a 1.09 rating. For BIG, gr1ks finished 50-34 with a 1.29 rating while blameF went 40-38 with a 1.03 rating; Johannes “tabseN,” Jon “JDC” de Castro and faveN posted lower ratings across the two maps.

GamerLegion advances to Stage 2 of the IEM Cologne Major. BIG leaves the pool without a Stage 2 slot.