Two big organizations with a huge CS history kicked off the day on Saturday. Both teams brought three players who had won either the first ever CS:GO major or the last Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in CS 1.6, which definitely gave this match some additional brisance. Inferno, Dust2 and a possible decider on Nuke were the settings for the action...

Inferno: A big back and forth

Inferno saw Na’Vi to start on the favored CT side but Fnatic were still able to take the first pistol round of the day, with JW managing to secure a superb triple kill. Once again, the CZ75 brought an eco round to a positive result for the pistol round losers. Na’Vi stood strong on B, putting down four Fnatic players to even the score to 1-1 and taking the following three rounds before Fnatic had another equipped one. However, Na’Vi took the DreamHack champion down once again to bring their run to five rounds in a row after losing the pistol round. Fnatic managed to get the bomb planted in the following rounds but Na’Vi kept up an impressive fight, pushing the score more and more into their favor. A 9-1 Fnatic found a way to not only get a plant but take the round. It was crucial for the Swedes to not lose the following round to keep their eco alive, and they were able to do so. Picking up the following rounds brought the score to a pretty decent 9-6 in favor of Na’Vi after one hell of a start.

The second half was opened up by Fnatic taking another round, making it six and seven rounds in a row before Na’Vi took the momentum to score their tenth. However, now the Swedes came back with another great CZ75 play, surprising Na’Vi and forcing the round down to their account as well as the follow-up to bring the score to an even 10-10. After another round to Fnatic, Na’Vi had an important buy round, taking the B spot and winning the round to equalize the score once again. Fnatic came back to take two rounds in a row before Na’Vi opted in to a half buy round to turn the map in their favor again. It didn’t work out, however, the map going to Fnatic as Na’Vi had a broken economy and were not able to stop the Swedes from gaining the match points. Another timed push from Na’Vi looked good but didn’t work out, resulting in Fnatic gaining four match points. However, only one of those was needed for the Swedes to win Inferno 16-11.

Dust2: Taking the series in GuardiaN’s living room?

Fnatic had a chance to close the series early on, but saw Na’Vi taking the pistol round as well as the two following rounds with Fnatic saving the money. The fourth round saw Edward stand tall on B spot, getting four kills when Fnatic tried a push on it. The sixth round was the first for Fnatic to get some crucial kills early on in, decimating Na’Vi in the important positions to take the round and set the score at 5-1 for Na’Vi. But Na’Vi, playing a bit more defensively after an early push, were able to stop Fnatic once again. The ninth round saw Fnatic picking up their second round only to see Na’Vi take the following in a 1on1 between flusha and GuardiaN. 9-2 was the score, with Na’Vi kicking off another defensive streak. Another 1on1 for flusha didn’t work out well for Fnatic, while Na’Vi kept picking up round after round. In the last round of the first half, Fnatic were able to win their third round to make the score 12-3 in favor of Na’Vi.

Starting off their potential comeback, Fnatic went very offensive on both long and mid, only to see Zeus make a 1on3 a 1on1 before pronax was able to score the pistol round for the Swedes as well as the two follow-ups. The 19th round saw GuardiaN going strong, pushing a lost round to a plant and 1on1 against olofm, where both teams’ snipers fought hard but the better end being for Fnatic, who picked up the fifth round in a row. Na’Vi came back to break Fnatic’s economy with a fast-played round followed by a solid anti-eco as well as a very stable round, taking the scoreline to 15-7. Fnatic was out of money and had only a limited set of weapons, but brought the game to a 1on1 of GuardiaN and KRiMZ. However, the better end went to Na’Vi, who took Dust2 16-7.

Nuke: A big back and forth to find the winner

Starting as CT, Natus Vincere was able to turn a good Fnatic pistol round around to not only score the first round but to put Fnatic more and more under pressure. While Na’Vi were able to turn the following two rounds into their own, the Swedes’ first equipped round gave them the first point as well as the follow-up, with the Ukrainian powerhouse looking a bit lost as they already struggled a little during Fnatic’s eco rounds. While Na’Vi were able to stop Fnatic in the sixth round, the seventh saw KRiMZ and his mates once again keeping the score pretty close despite playing the weaker T side first. After equalizing the score, JW was able to clutch a 1on3 to bring Fnatic into a lead as T, extending it to 7-4 afterwards. A timeout for Na’Vi didn’t do any good right away as Fnatic were able to extend their lead to 9-4 before Na’Vi got lucky on the outside, taking down the Swedes one by one. The final round saw Fnatic taking down Na’Vi one by one again to bring the first half, on T side for them, home 10-5.

A very strange and hectic pistol round went from Fnatic’s hands to Na’Vi’s - a good start to their potential comeback. However, two very well-played eco rounds from Fnatic did not work out in the end, and so Na’Vi closed the gap to 10-8 in favor of the Swedes. Despite this, their first equipped round saw Fnatic coming back to take the first round as CT as well as the follow-up. However, Na’Vi found a way to decimate Fnatic and enable Edward to win a big 1on1 against pronax to keep his team in the competition. Fnatic took a time-out and was able to take the round after due to KRiMZ living up to to team and fans’ expectations once more. A half buy for Na’Vi made the 24th round a very crucial one, putting their eco at stake for the sake of a potential round win. A bomb plant followed by great play from GuardiaN once again brought them back to 11-13. Fnatic had to have an eco, taking away only one weapon from Na’Vi, which led to another eco round and a potential evened out game yet again. A crucial moment followed, with Fnatic only having money for one more equipped round after seeing Fnatic push Na’Vi down to being two rounds away from victory. Back and forth the following round went, with Na’Vi equalizing the score once more. The Swedes were able to score the 15th round including a team kill, seeing that Na’Vi only had two rifles in the final round. Despite this, Na’Vi had Edward take down three players to keep the hope of an overtime alive. However, flusha, once again making himself a name for clutching, turned a 1on3 around to secure the win for Fnatic.

Natus Vincere made it to the playoffs this time but had a very unlucky outcome.Nuke especially hurt them a lot, but Edward in particular showed why their team is an unpleasant opponent. Now they can prepare for the challenges ahead and work on reviving their former glory.

All ESL One Cologne wrap-ups so far:

• Two big teams fall once more in the groups C and D of ESL One Cologne
• French Friday for ESL One Cologne's groups A and B
• Did groups C and D go according to plan at ESL One Cologne?
• The first surprises in groups A and B of ESL One Cologne
• More CS:GO on ESLGaming.com

Check the ESL One homepage for all the results as well as our ongoing wrap-ups and more. What was your highlight of the match? Let us know in the comments below!