Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas are one victory away from the ESL One Cologne playoffs after disposing off FlipSid3 Tactics and OpTic Gaming, respectively.

Group B at ESL One Cologne kicked off with an Eastern European showdown between Natus Vincere and FlipSid3 Tactics. After two very close matches, fans were certainly left disappointed from this contest as Na`Vi dominated proceedings almost from the get-go.

Curiously, it was FlipSid3 Tactics who came out the brighter, courtesy of a quad kill from Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy in an A split in the pistol round. But Na`Vi pulled back right after on a force buy and added four more rounds to their tally to take a significant lead.

It was business as usual for Na`Vi 

With the game looking increasingly lopsided, Georgi "⁠WorldEdit⁠" Yaskin won an important clutch with a trio of kills to keep FlipSid3 in the game, but Na`Vi quickly bounced back and went on another great run to end the half with a 13-2 lead.

FlipSid3 kept their hopes alive by securing the opening five rounds on the CT side, but then Na`Vi strung four rounds together en route to a comfortable 16-7 finish.

ESL One Cologne 2016Best of 1 Natus VincereMatchpage 16 7 5th July 2016 FlipSid3 16Train 7

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	21 - 11	+10	95.8	1.56
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized	20 - 12	+8	80.9	1.46
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	18 - 13	+5	90.6	1.31
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	19 - 14	+5	98.0	1.29
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	18 - 15	+3	73.7	1.06

FlipSid3	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Andrey 'B1ad3' GorodenskiyB1ad3	25 - 19	+6	110.1	1.44
Jan 'wayLander' RahkonenwayLander	15 - 22	-7	68.1	0.85
Georgi 'WorldEdit' YaskinWorldEdit	10 - 18	-8	61.2	0.68
Oleksandr 'Shara' HordieyevShara	7 - 18	-11	51.7	0.62
Yegor 'markeloff' Markelovmarkeloff	8 - 19	-11	42.1	0.44

The following match saw OpTic Gaming take on Ninjas in Pyjamas on Dust2. The Canadian team entered the tournament looking to build on their impressive run at the Major qualifier, but they were taken aback by NiP's strong start as the Swedes cruised to an 8-0 lead.

After calling a timeout to readjust their defense, OpTic got three rounds on the board, but after that NiP were back in the driving seat as they won three of the next four rounds to close out the half with a commanding 11-4 lead.

OpTic sent to the group's Lower Bracket 

More misery was heaped on OpTic in the second half as their mid-B split in the pistol round completely fell apart. Their buy attempt in the fourth round also failed to produce any results, putting NiP on match point. Down 4-15, the Canadian team went on a desperate force buy, which was easily stopped by the Swedes.

ESL One Cologne 2016Best of 1 Ninjas in PyjamasMatchpage 16 4 5th July 2016 OpTic 16Dust2 4

Ninjas in Pyjamas	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvipyth	23 - 8	+15	121.0	1.99
Patrik 'f0rest' Lindbergf0rest	22 - 8	+14	91.2	1.67
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundGeT_RiGhT	19 - 6	+13	92.4	1.60
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt	16 - 9	+7	88.8	1.51
Adam 'friberg' Fribergfriberg	7 - 13	-6	64.1	0.88

OpTic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Oscar 'mixwell' Cañellasmixwell	9 - 18	-9	75.5	0.68
William 'RUSH' WierzbaRUSH	11 - 17	-6	56.8	0.61
Damian 'daps' Steeledaps	9 - 17	-8	58.5	0.52
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	7 - 16	-9	49.0	0.50
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	8 - 19	-11	64.7	0.47