A trio of teams in Group A pulled off three-set victories Thursday in the first day of Group Stage play of IEM Katowice 2022 in Katowice, Poland.
Heroic headlined the Group A winners by coming from behind in a 2-1 win over OG, while Team Vitality also bounced MOUZ and Ninjas in Pyjamas bested Gambit Esports in three sets each. The group’s other victors were Virtus.pro, who took down CPH Flames in a 2-0 sweep.
In Group B, FaZe Clan also won in three in comeback fashion in a 2-1 decision over Team Liquid and FURIA Esports cruised 2-0 over Astralis.
The Group Stage began as the second of three stages of IEM Katowice. Following the Play-In stage, which concluded Wednesday, the top eight teams from that stage join eight previously qualified teams in the Group Stage, another double-elimination bracket where all matches are best-of-three. The top three teams from Groups A and B reach the single-elimination Playoff bracket, with the best-of-five grand final set for Feb. 27.
Heroic began their Thursday jumping to a 9-1 lead on Ancient before OG stormed back to take the opening map 16-14. OG went up 6-2 early on Overpass, but Heroic found their footing, using a 12-2 run to take control en route to a 16-12 win to even the match. Heroic briefly blew a 7-1 lead on the deciding map Inferno, but finished strongly in a 16-13 triumph.
Martin “stavn” Lund led the all-Danish Heroic squad with a match-best 77 kills and a plus-26 K-D differential. Israel’s Shahar “flameZ” Shushan starred for OG with 68 kills and a plus-8 K/D differential.
Team Vitality will be next up for Heroic after a grueling win, kicked of by a thrilling 22-19 map win on Vertigo. After MOUZ won 19-17 on Inferno in another overtime map to tie things, Vitality built an insurmountable 14-1 lead in a 16-10 victory on Nuke. France’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut nearly tallied 100 kills on the day with 97, along with a whopping plus-37 K/D mark. All five starters for MOUZ finished with negative K/D differentials.
After an early 11-4 deficit on Ancient, NiP scored a 16-13 comeback win before dropping the second map to Gambit 16-11 on Vertigo. NiP closed out the day with a 16-8 win on Overpass. Hampus “hampus” Poser and Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, both of Sweden, notched 57 kills for Gambit.
Virtus.pro made quick work of CPH Flames, taking Vertigo (16-9) and Inferno (16-10) in succession. Timur “buster” Tulepov of Kazakhstan topped Virtus.pro with 42 kills, with Russia’s Dzhami “jame” Ali sporting a plus-14 K/D differential. Denmark’s Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss had a team-high 38 kills for the Flames.
FaZe started their rally after losing their first map 16-11 on Mirage to Liquid. But FaZe turned the tide quickly, winning 16-6 on Ancient and 16-9 on Inferno to take the three-map victory. Helvijs “broky” Saukants of Latvia had a match-high 70 kills and a dominant plus-33 K/D differential for FaZe, while American Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski posted 56 kills for Liquid.
FURIA advanced in routine fashion by virtue of winning 16-12 on Overpass and 16-11 on Mirage. Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato put up 45 kills and a plus-17 K.D. differential for the all-Brazilian FURIA lineup. Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke led the all-Denmark Astralis crew with 45 kills.
Group Stage play continues Friday with six matches:
Group A: Team Vitality vs. Heroic (upper bracket)
Group A: Virtus.pro vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas (upper bracket)
Group A: MOUZ vs. OG (lower bracket)
Group A: CPH Flames vs. Gambit Esports (lower bracket)
Group B: Natus Vincere vs. ENCE (upper bracket)
Group B: Fnatic vs. G2 Esports (upper bracket)
IEM Katowice 2022 prize pool:
1. TBD — $400,000
2. TBD — $180,000
3-4. TBD — $80,000
5-6. TBD — $40,000
7-8. TBD — $24,000
9-12. TBD — $16,000
13-16. TBD — $10,000
17-20. BIG, GODSENT, Movistar Riders, Entropiq — $4,500
21-24. Wisla Krakow, Sprout, Renegades, MIBR — $2,500
–Field Level Media