Ridiculous map ruins NRG's dreams of stage two - IEM Cologne Major

BIG came back from 0-12 - yes, 0-12 - on Mirage to send NRG home and stay alive in the Major.

BIG won 16 rounds in a row, 15 of them being CT side rounds, with JDC and faveN combining for 40 kills on the defense, as NRG completely crumbled in the decider.

The Germans were comfortable on Dust 2 and looked set for a simple series, but NRG fired back with an accomplished team performance on Nuke to take us to that ill-fated decider.

Honestly, if you'd told us BIG would won from 0-12 down, in a 2-2 game, map three, at a home Major, we'd have thought you were a weird German bloke dreaming.

It was an entirely surreal map, as nitr0 rolled back the years with an absolutely insane half of Counter-Strike; 17 kills and over 135 ADR. And yet, it still wasn't enough. faveN, JDC and nitr0 were the three people carrying their teams. It doesn't make any sense.

Unless it's a German man's dream.

Liquid were dumped out by FlyQuest in their deciding series to round off an utterly disastrous half year for them.

This was an absolute shellacking as well, with only EliGE managing 20 kills for Liquid and four FlyQuest players cracking 30. Liquid got nine rounds in the BO3. Against FlyQuest.

Just give it up, lads. It ain't working.

Even malbsMd was bad today. It was EliGE vs the world.

What more can we even say? INS went nuclear, and while he's an excellent player who is, in our opinion, misused as a hard support... he's still a hard support. You got owned by him.

TYLOO won the war of China as Lynn Vision folded under the pressure, and JamYoung continued his excellent form.

Zero also will rightfully get his fair share of the credit, but truth be told, Lynn Vision today wouldn't have beaten anyone. The pressure got to them big time, and that's a real problem.

Personally we're glad JamYoung got through, though, as he bloody well deserved it after yesterday's performance.