ENCE have eliminated NiP with a 2-0 victory while Astralis beat Cloud9 with the same scoreline to secure a playoff berth at ESL One Cologne.

One of the first best-of-three games at ESL One Cologne featured NiP and ENCE who squared off for their tournament lives in the Group A lower bracket. The game kicked off on Inferno—ENCE's map pick.

Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila secured the pistol round for his CT-sided team with a quad-kill and ENCE made it 4-0 after winning two anti-ecos and the first weapon round. NiP responded in the fifth round with CZ75s but the Swedes were reset after losing the following round (5-1).

ENCE had an impressive performance against NiP

Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli & company ended the first half with an 11-4 lead and secured the second half pistol round after finding three opening kills. ENCE closed out the first map with a 16-6 victory.

Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg's team started Train on the T-side and won the pistol round. However, ENCE hit back with seven rounds in a row with their strong defense and went on to win the half 13-2.

ENCE won the map 16-2 and took the series 2-0 to stay alive in the tournament. NiP, on the other hand, exited the tournament after winning a total of 11 rounds in three maps.

Astralis faced Cloud9 in the Group A upper bracket semi-final which started on Mirage with Astralis on the CT-side. The Danes picked up the first two rounds but Cloud9's early buy in the third round worked, giving the North Americans their first round of the game (2-1).

Astralis were unfazed, grabbing eleven more rounds in the first half and leading 13-2 at halftime. Cloud9 had a hopeful start to the second half as they secured ten of the first eleven rounds and trailed 14-12. Astralis avoided a possible comeback and won the map 16-12.

Astralis beat Cloud9 in two maps

Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth opened up Overpass with a triple kill in the pistol round, giving the CT-sided Astralis the 1-0 lead. Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz & company made it 4-0 with the first weapon round victory and won a 3vs5 in the fifth round to extend their lead to 5-0.

Astralis had an easy time of it on Overpass which they secured 16-1. After winning the series, they have secured a place in the playoffs. However, the Danes will play one more match in the group against the winner of mousesports vs. G2 to determine which team directly advances to the semis and which one starts from the quarter-finals. On the other hand, Cloud9 has gone down to the lower bracket.