Movistar Riders through to LANXESS Arena after besting Vitality

Movistar Riders are through to the playoffs of IEM Cologne after coming out on top of an upper bracket match against Vitality, the teams trading each other’s map picks in dominant fashion before Alejandro “⁠alex⁠” Masanet‘s side proved to be the better team on the Nuke decider.

The victory adds to a hot streak of results for the Riders, who came into Cologne after lifting the trophy on home soil in Valencia over MIBR, Sprout, and Outsiders. Despite having momentum from that victory on their side, it was thought that the Spaniards would struggle more against some of the top tier opposition in Germany, but they looked just as comfortable when play got underway in Cologne as they cast G2 down to the lower bracket in their opening match, and now beat Vitality to advance to the playoffs.

To make things even better, Movistar Riders now have the chance to book a spot directly in the semi-finals, but easily their hardest opponent stands between them and that goal. A NAVI that looks to be in almost unbeatable form — one that has “the certainty that [they] can fuck” — are standing on that line, with the victor of that match to be determined on Sunday at 16:00 . Vitality, meanwhile, still have the chance to make the playoffs, but face a much more difficult road now as they need to first beat MOUZ, and then the winner of the other lower bracket match between NIP and G2 in order to advance.

As far as the actual match between Movistar Riders and Vitality was concerned, the first two maps offered little in the way of thrilling Counter-Strike as they each ended in blowout fashion, each seeing the CT side dominate.

Vitality‘s pick of Mirage looked everything other than that, a 3-0 start for the French Danish combine quickly giving way as Alvaro “⁠SunPayus⁠” Garcia and Alejandro “⁠mopoz⁠” Fernández-Quejo Cano helped their side assert supreme authority on the proceedings as they won 16 of the next 17 rounds en route to closing out the map 16-4. The Spaniards were equally dismal on their own map pick, Vertigo, with Vitality‘s stalwart defense leading to a 12-3 scoreline at halftime before they closed things out with four in a row following the side swap.

Nuke was a closer affair with a few more highlight moments, the teams trading blows for much of the first half. It was the Riders who only just came out ahead by the break, edging out an 8-7 lead, and they extended that slightly following the side swap with a pistol round win and subsequent conversion. It seemed like Vitality would steal away that momentum as they began to find footing on the CT side, pulling ahead by one round, but back to back double kill rounds from mopoz put a halt to Vitality‘s comeback effort and helped Movistar Riders seize control as they closed out the map, 16-12.