One by one legendary teams fell against new ones at the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice Group Stages. Now, only six teams stand in the Playoff that will be starting on February 9.
The winner of IEM Katowice will secure a spot in three upcoming Counter Strike 2 (CS2) tournaments. These are IEM Cologne 2024, BLAST Premier World Final and Esports World Cup 2024.
End of the line for a few teams
Sadly, few teams like NaVi, Heroic and Team Vitality will be missing out on this year’s IEM Katowice Playoffs. This will also be the first time in a decade, that NaVi has failed to qualify for the IEM Playoffs. Fans believe that the lack of star players might be the reason.
NaVi Vs Team Falcons – After dropping from the upper brackets early, NaVi fought to reach the lower bracket finals. There, the team faced the Falcons, who also made their way to the finals through the lower bracket.
Both teams had similar track records on their journey. However, NaVi faced a 0-2 defeat from the Falcons in the best-of-three group stage lower bracket finals.
Team Vitality Vs Heroic – Vitality tapped out of the tournament even early on. After losing ENCE in the upper brackets, Vitality faced Heroic in the lower bracket and lost with a 1-2 score.
The team did perform great, taking matches to overtime and not giving Heroic any chance. However, they remained short of performance, losing both overtime matches.
Six teams move to the Playoffs
Two teams from the upper bracket of each group and one team each from the lower bracket made it to the playoffs. Winners from the upper bracket gained an advantage of qualifying directly for the semifinals. Losers of the upper bracket on the other hand will face the winner of the lower bracket in the quarterfinals.
Here are the teams qualified for playoffs –
MOUZ
Team Spirit
ENCE
Team Falcons
FaZe Clan
G2 Esports
