Team Spirit and FaZe Clan moved into the upper-bracket final in Group A with wins the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2024 event in Poland on Sunday and will square off in Monday’s Group A final on Tuesday.
Spirit finished off Complexity Gaming in two maps, while FaZe Clan defeated Eternal Fire in three maps.
Complexity and Eternal Fire drop down to the lower-bracket semifinals for matches on Monday. Complexity will take on Team Falcons, and Eternal Fire faces Natus Vincere.
Also on Sunday, Gamer Legion and MOUZ scored wins in the Group B upper-bracket quarterfinals and will face off on Monday in the semifinals. The other semifinal will pit EMCE against G2 Esports, who advanced on Saturday.
Spirit breezed to their victory with wins on Ancient (13-3) and Overpass (13-5).
Danil “donk” Kryshkovets of Russia led Spirit with 38 kills and a kills-deaths differential of plus-16. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski of the U.S. and Hakon “hallzerk” Fjaerli of Norway posted 20 kills apiece.
FaZe Clan and Eternal Fire split a pair of tight maps that both went to overtime. The Clan won 16-14 on Inferno, and Eternal Fire prevailed 16-13 on Anubis. On Nuke, however, the Clan jumped to a 9-1 lead and coasted to a clinching 13-5 victory.
Helvijs “broky” Saukants of Latvia and Havard “rain” Nygaard of Norway led the winners with 59 kills apiece, and broky had a plus-13 differential, one better than rain. Ali “Wicadia” Haydar Yalcin registered 57 kills and a plus-7 differential for the all-Turkish Fire.
In the Group A lower-bracket quarters, the Falcons and Natus Vincere each scored 2-1 match wins, over Rebels Gaming and Apeks, respectively.
The Falcons took the first map, Vertigo, 13-9, but the Rebels returned the favor 13-9 on Anubis. On Nuke, the Falcons built a 10-6 lead, saw the Rebels pull within 10-9, but scored three of the next four rounds to win 13-10.
Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas of Jordan dominated for the winners with 65 kills and a plus-26 differential. Alan “Flayy” Krupa finished with 59 and plus-17 for the all-Polish team.
Natus Vincere had an even tougher time in the other quarterfinal match. They beat Apeks 13-11 on Ancient, then lost to them on Anubis by the same score. On the deciding map, Mirage, Natus Vincere pulled away from a 7-7 tie to win 13-8.
Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov of Ukraine (54 kills) and Justinas “jL” Lekavicius of Lithuania (plus-14) paced the winners, while Martin “STYKO” Styk of Slovakia had 55 kills and a plus-7 differential for Apeks.
In Group B, Gamer Legion won consecutive maps to finish off Monte. First was a 13-8 win on Overpass, then 13-5 on Ancient. Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand of Denmark posted 41 kills and a plus-19 for the Legion, while Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev of Ukraine finished with 30 kills and a differential of zero, Monte’s only player who did not have a minus figure.
MOUZ and Cloud9 staged quite a battle. It started with a pair of 13-8 maps, Cloud9 winning on Overpass and MOUZ on Mirage. In the hotly contested third map, Ancient, Cloud9 led 11-9 and 12-10, but MOUZ took the last two rounds for force overtime. Cloud9 built a 20-18 lead, but MOUZ won the last four rounds for a 22-20 victory.
Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo of Finland led the winners with 69 kills and a plus-12 differential. Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov of Russia and countryman Denis “electroNic” Sharipov had 63 kills each for Cloud9, and Ax1Le had a plus-7 differential.
The group stage continues Monday with six matches:
–Complexity vs. Team Falcons (Group A lower-bracket semis)
–Eternal Fire vs. Natus Vincere (Group A lower-bracket semis)
–ENCE vs. G2 Esports (Group B upper-bracket semis)
–GamerLegion vs. MOUZ (Group B upper-bracket semis)
–Team Vitality vs. Heroic (Group B lower-bracket quarters)
–Monte vs. Cloud9 (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, Rebels Gaming, Apeks
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