FaZe Clan and Eternal Fire rolled to sweeps in the upper bracket quarterfinals of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2024 event in Poland on Saturday and will square off in Sunday’s Group A semifinals.
FaZe and Eternal are joined in the Group A semis by Team Spirit and Complexity. Meanwhile, ENCE and G2 Esports advanced to the Group B semifinals on the opening day of group play.
FaZe Clan swept Rebels Gaming 13-9 on Nuke and 13-7 on Ancient to advance. Eternal swept Team Falcons 13-9 on Vertigo and 13-6 on Nuke in the other Group A quarterfinal.
Team Spirit beat Natus Vincere 2-1 to advance. Spirit won 13-7 on Ancient, lost Anubis 13-11 and clinched on Mirage, 13-4. Complexity cruised past Apeks, 13-9 on Vertigo and 13-11 on Overpass.
The Falcons, Rebels, Na’Vi and Apeks all remain alive in the lower bracket quarterfinals.
In Group B, ENCE defeated Team Vitality 2-1. ENCE opened with a 13-6 win on Vertigo before dropping a 13-4 decision on Anubis. ENCE clinched on Nuke, 13-8. G2 opened with a 16-13 win on Overpass but dropped a 16-13 decision on Anubis. G2 clinched with a 13-6 win over Heroic in the Group B quarters.
Monte, GamerLegion, Cloud9 and MOUZ all remain alive in the lower bracket quarterfinals.
Twenty-four teams are competing for a share of the $1 million prize pool, the first $1 million prize pool in Europe since Counter-Strike 2 launched in September.
The group stage continues Sunday with six matches:
FaZe Clan vs. Eternal Fire (Group A semis)
Team Spirit vs. Complexity (Group A semis)
Rebels Gaming vs. Team Falcons (Group A lower bracket quarters)
Natus Vincere vs. Apeks (Group A lower bracket quarters)
Monte vs. GamerLegion (Group B lower bracket quarters)
Cloud9 vs. MOUZ (Group B lower bracket quarters)
PRIZE POOL
1. $400,000, 3,000 BLAST Premier points (Qualifies to IEM Cologne 2024, BLAST Premier World Final)
2. $180,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $80,000, 1,200 BLAST Premier points
5-6. $40,000, 500 BLAST Premier points
7-8. $24,000, 300 BLAST Premier points
9-12. $16,000
13-16. $10,000
17-20. $4,500 — Virtus.pro, The MongolZ, BIG, M80
21-24. $2,500 — BetBoom Team, Astralis, FURIA Esports, Rooster
The event will be broadcast live on the ESL Counter-Strike Twitch and YouTube channels, with all matches also available on-demand on YouTube.
IEM Katowice will also include a $500,000 standalone Starcraft II competition, with $150,000 going to the winners. The 24-team event will again feature the IEM Expo from Feb. 8-11.
–Field Level Media