Cologne is where people come to win, but in saying that, it means someone has to lose. Let’s look at the teams that haven’t quite been up to scratch:

NAVI. Where do we start… They’ve only played 2 maps so far BUT it was in a BO3 against MOUZ that they lost 0-2. When you have the GOAT on your team you should be beating new teams like MOUZ.

It’s not all bad though. They have another chance to lose tomorrow as they meet OG. Let’s hope this extra day is time for JL and iM to settle in a little more. It’s been said to be the strangest roster move of the player break.

Coming off the back of a Major victory it’s not surprising that Vitality hammered OG 2-0. We’ve seen glimpses of OG’s brilliance but it looks like it’ll take a bit more time before it sticks. Regali has been an impressive addition but it’s not enough when facing ZywOo who’s just on another level. It’s a little bit unfair to judge them given they have faced the best team in the world right now – let’s see how they fair against NAVI.

Astralis losing and device being the only positive player? Nooooo… Wait. It’s normally BlameF who baits for stats. At least they took the first map against before losing 1-2 to G2.

Anyway, they aren’t going home yet but facing a strong-looking NIP tomorrow doesn’t bode well for them after that performance. It wasn’t that G2 did anything particularly amazing (except for m0NESY with that deagle, keep reading) they simply just shot better in the end.

All the losers mentioned live to fight another day in lower bracket, but over in Group B we’ve already got our first real losers.

9INE is going home. BUT they’ve looked good. Maybe not what people would have wanted but they did push both ENCE and a weaker Cloud9 to a 3-map affair. Individually they look great but there’s just something lacking as a team.

Lastly we have the The Mongolz. Although they shouldn’t be here, they won in everyone’s heart…

ENCE look fantastic.

Having started slow against a belligerent 9INE, ENCE woke the hell up to sneak that series in three, before slicing through a fnatic team who have looked very solid ‘til this point.

What’s most exciting about them is that for a team with a hell of a lot of firepower, it’s their T sides that have impressed more than their CT ones. There’s still a bit of room for them to get stronger, but each of their stars has had halves where they’ve taken over.

dycha has been snappy, Snappi looks like a star (at least on Nuke), Maden is reliable as ever, NertZ an assassin and SunPayus as domineering as he was on Movistar.

So far, at least.

MOUZ too have looked superb. We mentioned torzsi’s uptick in form, but it was frozen who looked phenomenal against NAVI. They play today against Team Vitality, who rolled OG up and smoked them. flameZ was the best player in the server.

They might be really scary. Like, unstoppable scary.

G2 were unconvincing in victory, and face FaZe Clan who were fashionably unconvincing in victory. It’s the FaZe brand, at this point. We might be embellishing somewhat - they stomped NIP on Overpass and Nuke, they just lost on Mirage. It happens.

G2 vs FaZe is at 3pm CEST. We would drop whatever you’re doing to watch it. Call in sick. Put the kids in a kennel. Whatever you have to do.

The last team we’d like to mention is Monte, who have been surprisingly robust. br0 looks… well, nothing like BOROS, but in genuinely good ways. He’s more disciplined, if not as explosive, but looks like a terrific player.

They lost to Heroic, but ran them close, and made the GamerLegion game essentially a non-event. Look out for ‘em.

Cologne has been a whirlwind. If you’ve not had time to tune in, it’s getting wild for the next two days. Get yourself on those damn streams!