Esports Betting / Esports Betting News / NiKo and m0NESY join forces to take down ENCE and get the IEM Cologne 2023 title!

NiKo and m0NESY join forces to take down ENCE and get the IEM Cologne 2023 title!

Andrew Boggs

Sports Writer

Publish Date: 07/08/2023

Fact checked by: James Leeland

After a long wait, IEM Cologne 2023 came to an end. Being one of the most prestigious tournaments in the CSGO scene, this was definitely one of the most important wins for G2.

CSGO players

Let’s dive deeper into this Final to see where G2 found an edge on ENCE to make this 3x1 Bo5 happen the way it did.

The Game

Unlike Major Finals, this match was played in the form of a best of 5. The end result was a rather comfortable 3x1 in favor of G2. Let’s see which maps were picked and played during this Final.

Maps Picks

ENCE started the map picks by banning Inferno, with Overpass being banned by G2 right after. Then, ENCE picked Nuke and G2 picked Mirage. Being a Bo5, both teams had one more pick before the decider was left over. So, ENCE picked Anubis and G2 picked Ancient. With that, Vertigo would be the decider.

Nuke – G2 won by 16x4

Nuke was the most controlled map in the series, that’s a fact. With ratings of 1.40 and above, G2 was clearly comfortable – especially NiKo, who received a 1.87 Rating. We should also mention that Nuke was picked by ENCE, so we can only imagine that this dominance was a shock for them.

Mirage – G2 won by 16x10

Despite a much closer scoreboard, G2 was also very dominant in their first map pick. On the CT side, ENCE actually finished the first half in the lead (8x7). After that was where things went south for them. With a 9x2 for G2 on the CT side, the map came to a close. MVP for Mirage? m0NESY, for sure. We can’t argue with the stats showing him as the highest damage dealer (92.6 ADR), the highest fragger (27 kills), and the best rating in the server (1.60)

Anubis – ENCE won by 16x13

Anubis was where ENCE actually got to show some good plays and, from what we knew at the time, it could be the start of a legendary comeback. Despite that, G2 was also eager to close the series, and this map was not given whatsoever. Names for this map? Snappi, SunPayus, and dycha. Also, NiKo was, believe it or not, the best-rated player on the server (1.30 rating).

Ancient – G2 won by 16x9

Even though they didn’t know it at the time, Ancient would be the decider for this Final. Not much to say about this map rather than giving props to m0NESY for his best performance in the series. His 1.72 Rating, 29/12 KD (+17), and 111.4 ADR were the differential that G2 needed to close out the map and get the last IEM Cologne title for CSGO