IEM Cologne 2021 Semifinal Odds, Preview and Picks – G2 Esports vs Astralis & Natus Vincere vs FaZe Clan

• The semifinals of IEM Cologne take place on July 17th
• The winners will advance to the finals for a shot at the $400,000 USD grand prize
• G2 Esports and Natus Vincere are the favorites in their semifinal matches – see who we like below

IEM Cologne is down to the final four teams and the semifinals take place on July 17th. The Grand Final takes place the very next day with $400,000 USD awaiting the first place finisher.

Gambit entered as the favorites to win IEM Cologne, however with their elimination, NAVI and G2 Esports are favored to win their respective semifinal matchups.

IEM Cologne 2021 Semifinal Odds

Odds as of July 16th.

G2 Esports vs Astralis

Over the last few months, G2 Esports has been a model of consistency. Over their past few tournaments, including DreamHack Masters Spring and IEM Summer, G2 has finished no lower than fourth.

Now at IEM Cologne, they’ll keep that streak alive with a good shot at a top two finish. G2 ended up winning Group A with wins over Complexity, BIG, and the current #1 CS:GO team in the world, Gambit.

In that intense match against Gambit, there was a lot to like from the G2 side. Most importantly, they showed that they can handle high intensity situations and clutch it out against the best CS:GO teams out there.

The third map against Gambit went down to the wire but NiKo won the 30th round on Inferno to send G2 straight to the semis.

Overtime was fractions of a second away but instead, G2 may have shown that they’re the team to beat at this tournament. Before they have a shot for first, they’ll have to get by Astralis.

Prior to IEM Cologne, Astralis hadn’t had a top-4 finish since January. However, they just took down Virtus.pro in the quarterfinals and have already accrued wins over Heroic and FaZe Clan. Their one loss so far this tournament was to Natus Vincere, who find themselves on the other side of the playoff bracket.

Astralis might finally be finding their form without ‘dev1ce’ in the lineup, but G2 is still the pick for the first semifinal.

Pick: G2 Esports (-165)

FaZe Clan vs Natus Vincere

The current number 1 team in the world, Gambit has been on an incredible run. They’ve won the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, IEM Summer and the BLAST Premier Spring Finals.

But just like that, FaZe Clan has put an end to Gambit’s run after a crazy match that went all three maps. FaZe won the opening map, and then after dropping the second in double OT, they bounced back to out Gambit on Inferno.

Faze’s run at IEM Cologne has been remarkable. They’ve overcome Team Spirit, Vitality, Heroic, and now Gambit on the way to the semis. Their starting roster has been a revolving door, but they’ve finally found success with this iteration of the FaZe team.

Faze has struggled in 2021 and regardless of what happens during the semifinals, this is already their best result of the year. Even though FaZe took down the titans that are Gambit, their next obstacle might be even tougher.

Natus Vincere won Group B thanks to wins over Renegade, Vitality and Astralis. Although all of those matches went to three maps, the majority of maps that NAVI won were extremely one-sided.

For the semifinals of IEM Cologne, I’ll take the hot hand of NAVI. The way S1mple is playing, I’m not sure anyone will be able to slow down NAVI. In their match against Astralis, S1mple had a +41 KD across all three games.

Pick: Natus Vincere (-260)