fnatic secure IEM Cologne 2023 groups spot

fnatic have secured the spot for IEM Cologne 2023 groups after taking down 9INE 2-0 in a comfortable fashion.

The opening man of the upper bracket quarter-final saw fnatic starting on the T side of their pick of Ancient and it was 9INE who took the opening pistol but fnatic responded immediately were up 5-2 in no time. Goofy came in with a 1v1 against dexter on the A site, denying the Australian a 1v2 which saw 9INE put up their third. A hades triple saw 9INE make it two in a row and the Poles ended the half with a 5-10 deficit.

9INE picked up the second pistol and converted against the force and eco to go 8-10. afro's triple with the AWP saw fnatic get back on the board as soon as they got the guns out. Both teams kept trading rounds but it was fnatic who picked up map point first and dexter came in with a 1v2 to close the map at 16-12. It was mezii top fragging yet again with 30 kills.

No IGL duties means mezii is back amongst the frags

9INE kicked things off on their pick of Vertigo on the T side picking up the opening pistol but an aggressive call from dexter on the force buy saw afro's Scout come in with a crucial double to tie the game early. 9INE responded with a force on their own and built on that to go 6-1 up. A roeJ quad kill saw fnatic put up their second in round 8 and they made it six in a row to take the lead of the map at 7-6 and ended the half with a 8-7 lead as roeJ closed out the opening half with a 1v2 which was part of an ace from the Dane.

It was a slow start from the Dane on Vertigo but once he got going there was no slowing down

roeJ picked up from where he left off and started the second half with a quad in the pistol. fnatic made it four in a row to go 12-7 as dexter came in with a couple of important multi-kill rounds. A KRIMZ and roeJ full house on the A site saw fnatic continue their T-sided streak. hades' 1v1 against KRIMZ saw 9INE put up their first CT round and a quad from the Polish AWPer in the next round saw 9INE make it two in a row. 9INE made it three in a row to secure their tenth but a triple dexter opener saw fnatic put up their 14th. roeJ closed out the game with a triple that saw him end with 31 kills as fnatic picked up the map 16-10.

IEM Cologne 2023 Play-in

Bo3

fnatic

2 - 0

9INE

All maps

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen	49 - 32	+17	88.8	83.3%	1.46
William 'mezii' Merriman	43 - 34	+9	88.8	79.6%	1.31
Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson	39 - 28	+11	79.0	75.9%	1.25
Aurélien 'afro' Drapier	39 - 31	+8	76.9	79.6%	1.21
Christopher 'dexter' Nong	37 - 34	+3	72.1	66.7%	1.06

9INE	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Olek 'hades' Miskiewicz	43 - 35	+8	70.6	66.7%	1.11
Kamil 'KEi' Pietkun	32 - 45	-13	76.2	53.7%	0.87
Kacper 'Kylar' Walukiewicz	35 - 40	-5	64.1	63.0%	0.83
Krzysztof 'Goofy' Górski	25 - 46	-21	63.6	57.4%	0.71
Wiktor 'mynio' Kruk	23 - 43	-20	59.9	57.4%	0.62