BetBoom Team and 9z Team continued their torrid runs at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major, joined by FURIA and Team Spirit in winning their Round 2 High matches on Friday in Germany.

BetBoom — who’ve battled all the way from Stage 1 to make it this far — upset Team Falcons 2-0, and 9z Team, who entered the tournament in Stage 2, beat Team Vitality 2-1.

BetBoom’s next opponent will be FURIA, who outlasted MOUZ 2-1 on Friday, while 9z will take on Team Spirit, who rallied 2-1 over Aurora Gaming.

Sixteen teams are still standing at the Counter-Strike 2 tournament that began with 32 entrants, competing for their share of a $1.25 million prize pool with the grand final scheduled for June 21. The champion receives $500,000.

Stage 3 utilizes a Swiss System format and all matches are best-of-three. The top eight finishers will proceed to the playoffs next week.

On Friday, BetBoom scored the only 2-0 win of the High matches by gritting out a 13-11 victory on Nuke and a 13-10 result on Ancient to stymie the Falcons. Kirill “Magnojez” Rodnov paced the all-Russian BetBoom squad with 47 kills and a 1.80 match rating.

Meanwhile, 9z lost to Vitality 13-4 on Inferno before bouncing back 13-9 on Mirage and 13-11 on Dust II. Ignacio “meyern” Meyer of Argentina carried 9z with 46 kills and the team’s only positive kills-deaths differential (46-39).

FURIA sandwiched a 13-5 victory on Nuke and a 13-7 win on Overpass around MOUZ’s 13-5 result on Inferno. FURIA relied on a match-high 56 kills from Kazakhstan’s Danil “molodoy” Golubenko.

Spirit fell 13-9 to Aurora on Dust II before drubbing their opponents 13-4 on Anubis and 13-5 on Nuke. Russian Danil “donk” Kryshkovets (46 kills), Belarusian Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich (44) and Russian Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov (43) led a balanced Spirit attack.

The four winners of the Round 2 Low matches move into the Mid matches for Round 3, while the losers will have to play win-or-go-home Round 3 Low matches.

The MongolZ blanked B8 2-0, Natus Vincere did the same against Legacy, Monte charged back to beat PARIVISION 2-1 and G2 Esports defeated FUT Esports 2-1.

Stage 3 continues Saturday with eight matches:

Round 3 High matches

–Team Spirit vs. 9z Team

–BetBoom Team vs. FURIA

Round 3 Mid matches

–Natus Vincere vs. The MongolZ

–Team Falcons vs. Monte

–Aurora Gaming vs. G2 Esports

–Team Vitality vs. MOUZ

Round 3 Low matches

–B8 vs. FUT Esports

–PARIVISION vs. Legacy

Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major prize pool

1. $500,000

2. $170,000

3-4. $80,000

5-8. $45,000

9-11. $15,000

12-14. $15,000

15-16. $15,000

17-19. $10,000 — paiN Gaming, TYLOO, BIG

20-22. $10,000 — MIBR, M80, Astralis

23-24. $10,000 — GamerLegion, FlyQuest

25-27. $5,000 — Lynn Vision Gaming, NRG, Team Liquid

28-30. $5,000 — THUNDERdOWNUNDER, Sharks Esports, HEROIC

31-32. $5,000 — Gaimin Gladiators, SINNERS Esports

–Field Level Media

Although Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts downplayed the severity of the left knee inflammation that caused Shohei Ohtani to be removed from Thursday’s game, the Dodgers star is missing from the lineup for Friday’s series opener at the Chicago White Sox.

Ohtani, who homered and reached four times in four plate appearances in Thursday’s 8-6 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, was removed in the seventh inning after he experienced pain in his left knee/hamstring area on a stolen base attempt that was negated by a foul ball.

After the game, Roberts said the removal was precautionary and that his level of concern was “not high.”

“We tried to be smart about it and get him out of the game,” Roberts said after the game. “He told the trainer that he felt a little something behind his knee, and I just didn’t see any sense in risking it.”

Roberts also said Thursday that he felt good about the likelihood of Ohtani being in the lineup on Friday. But the Dodgers penciled in Santiago Espinal as their designated hitter for the Chicago opener.

Ohtani, 31, is hitting .305 with 13 homers and 40 RBIs this season, with a 6-2 record and a 1.06 ERA in 11 starts on the mound.

The four-time MVP (including each of the last three seasons) has a career .283 batting average with 293 homers and 709 RBIs across 1,081 games with the Los Angeles Angels (2018-23) and Dodgers (2024-26).

–Field Level Media

Cyle Larin scored in the 78th minute as Canada salvaged a 1-1 draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina in their opening match in Group B play Friday in Toronto.

Jovo Lukic scored in the 21st minute for Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were playing their first World Cup match since being eliminated from group play in the 2014 event at Brazil.

Maxime Crepeau had two saves for Canada, who entered the match with an 0-6-0 record in two World Cup appearances (1986, 2022).

Nikola Vasilj had one save for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Switzerland and Qatar, who are also in Group B, open against each other on Saturday afternoon. Either team could move atop the group with a win after Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina each secured one point.

Bosnia and Herzegovina took the lead off a left-footed corner kick from Ivan Basic, which he fired to the goal mouth.

Sead Kolasinac flicked a header on for the 6-foot-4 Lukic, who was checked from behind by a smaller defender as he headed his shot from 2 yards out for the first goal of his international career.

To that point, Bosnia and Herzegovina had controlled the play with their size and physicality. But as the match wore on, the quicker Canadiens appeared better suited to the heat.

Canada had the better of the play for the rest of the first half but had difficulty putting shots on frame and creating quality chances.

Early in the second half, both teams had excellent chances to score. Canada’s opportunity came first as Stephen Eustaquio fed Richie Laryea, who was free on the left side of the box.

Laryea’s right-footed shot beat a diving Vasilj, but Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Kolasinac kicked the ball in desperation. It went off the crossbar and caromed high to safety.

Less than a minute later, Ermedin Demirovic broke free and ran down a throughball, but Crepeau bolted from the goal area and disrupted Demirovic’s attempt with an aggressive slide.

Canada got the equalizer as Promise David flicked a pass forward to Larin, who was just inside the middle of the box.

Larin, who had been subbed on just two minutes earlier, spun and fired a right-footed blast into the lower-right corner.

In the final minute of stoppage time, Canada got one last try as Laryea found Larin in the middle of the box but as he shot, defender Tarik Muharemovic smothered the attempt and cleared it from the box.

–Field Level Media