In the first two matches of the Swiss group stage's second round, SK and fnatic picked up their first victories with comfortable Mirage wins over Virtus.pro and Heroic, respectively.

Two matches of the 0-1 pool kicked off the second round of the Swiss format at ESL One Cologne, with SK facing Virtus.pro and Heroic battling fnatic, both on Mirage.

In the Brazilian-Polish encounter, Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's squad started picking Virtus.pro from the get-go, getting off to a fantastic 7-0 start before Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas's side mustered up a reply. Only two rounds went VP's way, however, as SK took over once again for the next four.

fer's triple with a Tec-9 denied Virtus.pro any hope of a comeback

The last two rounds were exchanged between the two for a 12-3 half in favor of the Brazilians, who also picked up the following pistol round. However, Virtus.pro threw themselves a lifeline with a forcebuy win and slowly began clawing back.

It wasn't until the Poles hit their ninth round that SK clinched map point on the back of Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga's triple in a half-buy situation. That also sent Virtus.pro on low economy, as SK picked up their first win in the group stage at 16-9.

ESL One Cologne 2017 Best of 1 SK Matchpage 16 9 Virtus.pro 16 Mirage 9

In the other Mirage match, Heroic started on the CT side and picked up the first pistol round but found themselves in trouble in the gunrounds, as fnatic won six in a row for a 6-2 lead.

The Danes defended the next attack but couldn't string rounds together thanks to Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist's 1v2 spraydown, leading the Swedes to a 9-3 scoreline.

JW led the way to fnatic's first win in the Swiss format

Heroic managed to clinch two more rounds before the half ended and gave themselves a chance with a pistol round win, but a surprising 2v4 triumph by Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson and Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell in the following forcebuy stopped the Danish side in their tracks.

Much thanks to the duo's heroics, fnatic powered to 13-6 and once more turned around a disadvantageous situation, that time a 3v5, before JW secured the match for his team with two triples in the last two rounds.

ESL One Cologne 2017 Best of 1 fnatic Matchpage 16 6 Heroic 16 Mirage 6

fnatic K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW 25 - 10 +15 91.9 1.77 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister 20 - 13 +7 94.2 1.45 Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha 16 - 16 0 83.1 1.22 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ 14 - 12 +2 82.3 1.12 Dennis 'dennis' Edmandennis 11 - 13 -2 60.4 0.94 Heroic K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensenniko 19 - 18 +1 107.3 1.15 Patrick 'es3tag' Hansenes3tag 13 - 18 -5 81.7 0.90 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferSnappi 15 - 18 -3 72.0 0.86 Jakob 'JUGi' HansenJUGi 11 - 17 -6 43.0 0.56 Andreas 'MODDII' FridhMODDII 6 - 15 -9 30.6 0.47

Here are the current standings of the Swiss group stage: