MOUZ, Natus Vincere reach IEM Cologne semifinals

MOUZ and Natus Vincere reached the final four of the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne playoffs by winning tightly contested quarterfinal matches on Friday in Germany.

MOUZ overcame FURIA 2-1 in one quarterfinal showdown, while Natus Vincere pulled out a 2-0 victory over The MongolZ in the other. MOUZ advanced to face Team Vitality in Saturday's semifinals, while NaVi will take on Team Spirit.

The single-elimination playoffs are the third and final stage of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. Playoff matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five final on Sunday.

A play-in stage allowed eight teams to advance to the group stage, joining eight teams that directly qualified into the groups. The group stage at IEM Cologne consisted of two double-elimination groups contesting best-of-three matches. The two group winners advanced directly to the semifinals, the two runners-up moved to the quarterfinals as high seeds, and the two third-place teams headed to the quarterfinals as low seeds.

The winning team Sunday will receive $400,000 and the runner-up will get $180,000.

On Friday, MOUZ opened with a 19-16 double-overtime win over FURIA on Train. FURIA countered with a 13-10 win on Mirage, but MOUZ pulled out a 13-11 result on the final map, Inferno. Lotan "Spinx" Giladi of Israel led MOUZ with 67 kills on a plus-9 kills-to-deaths differential, while teammate Hungary's Adam "torzsi" Torzsas had 63 kills on a plus-24.

NaVi didn't need to go three maps to beat The MongolZ, but the first map, Inferno, required plenty of extra time before they broke out of a tie for a 22-18 win. NaVi finished the job with a 13-6 triumph on Ancient.

Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov of Ukraine (51 kills, plus-17) and Drin "makazze" Shaqiri of Kosovo (51 kills, plus-12) paced NaVi.

The tournament continues Saturday with the two semifinal matches:

--Team Vitality vs. MOUZ

--Team Spirit vs. Natus Vincere

Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool:

1. $400,000

2. $180,000

3-4. $80,000

5-6. $40,000 -- FURIA, The MongolZ

7-8. $24,000 -- G2 Esports, FaZe Clan

9-12. $16,000 -- Team Falcons, 3DMAX, Aurora Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas

13-16. $10,000 -- Astralis, GamerLegion, Team Liquid, HEROIC

17-20. $4,500 -- paiN Gaming, Virtus.pro, TYLOO, FlyQuest

21-24. $2,500 -- BIG, MIBR, Complexity, B8