G2 Esports Wins IEM Cologne 2023
IEM Cologne 2023 finished up yesterday with G2 Esports defeating ENCE in a best of five, 3-1. Nikola “NiKo” Kovac took home the HLTV and 1XBET MVP trophy for the event after putting on a masterclass performance throughout the entire event.
G2 adds to their 2023 collection of trophies with now having won both IEM Katowice 2023 and IEM Cologne 2023.
The grand finals were overall an entertaining series with great plays coming from all players involved with the best performances coming from maden and NertZ on ENCE, and m0nesy and NiKo on G2.
G2 finally played up to expectations showing that they made the right choice not changing their roster at all during the offseason.
Heroic and Cloud9 were both eliminated in the semifinals being swept by Astralis and Vitality who both would go on to lose in the semifinals.
The teams that most impressed this event were Astralis, Cloud9 and Natus Vincere who continued to show promise with their new roster.
IEM Cologne 2023 is the last major tournament that will take place with Counter-Strike Global Offensive being the game played.
The next two events on the schedule are Gamers8 held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and ESL Pro League Season 18 held in Malta.
While their respective prize pools are one million dollars with Gamers8 and 850,000 dollars for ESL Pro League which are both large amounts of money and will have top tier teams playing at them.
IEM Cologne is the last event that has had long standing significance in the pro scene with the results having implications for later events during this year and next year.
Gamers8 will start in nine days on Aug. 16, and going on until Aug. 20, with a total of 16 teams attending the event.
ESL Pro League will start in 23 days on Aug. 30 and last over a month ending on Oct. 1 with a total of 32 teams participating in the event.
No one in the scene knows for sure when Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) will be released so any of these upcoming events could be the first played with CS2.
The next IEM event will be IEM Sydney taking place in 70 days starting on Oct. 16 and running until Oct. 22 with a prize pool of 250,000 dollars that will be up for grabs for the 16 teams competing.
