FaZe Clan and G2 Esports pulled off upsets in the semifinals of the Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Katowice on Saturday, knocking out the event’s top two playoff seeds in Katowice, Poland.
FaZe swept Heroic, the Group A champion in an earlier stage of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event, by a 2-0 score. G2 topped Group B champion Natus Vincere 2-0.
The playoffs are the last of three tournament’s stages. The top eight teams from the play-in stage joined eight previously qualified teams for the group stage, a double-elimination bracket.
All matches had been best-of-three to date, but the Sunday grand final between FaZe and G2 will be best-of-five. The winner will earn $400,000, while the runner-up will receive $180,000.
FaZe got past Heroic 16-11 on Inferno and 16-5 on Nuke. Latvia’s Helvijs “broky” Saukants paced FaZe with 46 kills and a plus-29 kill-death differential. Rene “TeSeS” Madsen led Heroic’s all-Danish squad with 34 kills and a minus-6 K-D differential.
G2 downed Natus Vincere 16-12 on Inferno and 16-13 on Mirage. Bosnia’s Nemanja “huNter-” Kovac recorded 47 kills and a plus-13 K-D differential for G2. Natus Vincere got 48 kills and a plus-11 K-D differential from Ukraine’s Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev.
IEM Katowice 2022 prize pool:
1. TBD — $400,000
2. TBD — $180,000
3-4. Heroic, Natus Vincere — $80,000
5-6. Gambit Esports, Virtus.pro — $40,000
7-8. Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis — $24,000
9-12. MOUZ, Team Vitality, Fnatic, FURIA Esports — $16,000
13-16. OG, Copenhagen Flames, Team Liquid, ENCE — $10,000
17-20. BIG, GODSENT, Movistar Riders, Entropiq — $4,500
21-24. Wisla Krakow, Sprout, Renegades, MIBR — $2,500
–Field Level Media