Following the second day of competition at the most recent CS: GO Major, the four teams qualifying to playoffs at ESL One Cologne have been named. After an incredibly busy two days of competition, NRG, NIP, Astralis and Team Liquid will be fighting for a spot further in the tournament. With all playoff games taking place later today, the winning teams will find themselves with a spot in the semi-finals, whereas losers will fall back and take a crack at the quarterfinals in hopes to get themselves back in for a shot at winning.
The first playoff game will take place between two North American rivals in NRG and Team Liquid at 2:30pm GMT (9:30am EST). After both teams stormed through the group stage, taking out big names in FaZe Clan and NAVI, the playoff match between the two teams should be explosive. As the official CS: GO standings say, Team Liquid is currently rated higher than NRG however Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte of NRG looks to change that, especially after securing a hefty 47 kill game against FaZe.
On the other side of the bracket will be the matchup between Astralis and NIP. The two teams will be facing off at 6:00pm GMT (1:00 EST), where once again the winner will head to the semis, whereas the loser will head to quarters. As for how the teams stand against each other, Astralis was once the most dominant team in CS: GO, losing very few games, however, the team hasn't been performing to that level lately but are working to get back to their former strength. NIP, on the other hand, is having a great tournament, considering they made a roster change shortly before and are sitting at fourteenth in the standings. Whether this new-found success will see them take out the fourth highest ranked team now in Astralis is a big ask.
To watch the tournament, simply head to the ESL CS: GO Twitch channel, or alternatively, you can watch the games on YouTube.
Who do you think will be advancing to playoffs?
