All IEM Katowice 2023 results so far

All IEM Katowice 2023 results so far

6. February 2023 by Andrew Williams

At IEM Katowice, German team BIG was eliminated after losing to Team Spirit. In addition, Heroic won against Complexity and Fnatic prevailed against Outsiders. G2 won against FaZe and Natus Vincere sent Team Liquid to the lower bracket after a 2-1 loss. Underdog IHC provided the second big surprise during the event, winning against Cloud9.

Heroic vs. Complexity

Complexity started well on Inferno and got away to a 3-0, but then Heroic began to use smart buy rounds to tie the match. CoL hung in there however and kept their lead at halftime In the second half, Ricky “floppy” Kemery was able to put his team ahead 11-10. But the Danes broke their opponents with a huge clutch by cadiaN who won a 1v3 and made it 15-11 After that, it was on to Vertigo. Complexity got off to a good start, but Heroic struck back immediately.

Complexity was able to fight back on the T-side with a force buy to continue their way into the 16 rounds. The Danes stepped on the gas again and got to 13 rounds, but eventually failed at the final hurdle. For the decider, it was onto Overpass, but Complexity weakened. Heroic took the map 16-8 and won the game.

Fnatic vs. Outsiders

The match started on Vertigo, and fnatic made two triple kill rounds and eight frags, giving them a 5-2 lead. Outsiders tried to keep up, but by the break it was 12:3 for Fnatic. At the beginning of the second half, Outsiders had more power again and cut the deficit to 8:13. Russians fought their way back, but fnatic was stronger and finished the map with 16-12. It was on to Mirage. Both fnatic and Outsiders engaged in an exchange of blows, with the Russians leading 5-4 at the start.

It wasn’t until a key triple kill from Freddy  “KRIMZ” Johansson in round 10 that fnatic got back into the game, but Outsiders kept the upper hand and finished the map 16-8. Russian captain Dzhami “Jame” Alis was in particularly strong form throughout the map, leading his team with 20 kills and a 1.75 rating.

On Overpass, the Outsiders initially looked stronger, but Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi stepped on the gas for his team and helped Fnatic to a three-run lead at halftime. Suddenly, Aleksandr “KaiR0N-” Anashkin- also had his big moment. The Russian prodigy collected 10 frags in the next six rounds to force overtime. The game remained a neck-and-neck race, but Fnatic ultimately prevailed with a 19-16 on the map to win the match 2-1.

G2 vs. FaZe

G2 and FaZe entered the semi-finals of Group A of IEM Katowice as the second and third best teams in the world, respectively. This time it was G2 who won 2-0 against FaZe (16-14 and 16-7). The match started on Nuke, and FaZe managed to win the pistol round, but G2 hit back immediately and went into halftime with an advantage (9:6). G2 managed to tie it up at 11:11 and after that it was back and forth, but it was a close thing.

Nevertheless, G2 prevailed with a score of 16:14. The match continued on Ancient. There G2 stumbled briefly, but recovered quickly. Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, Justin “jks” Savage and Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač fired on all guns and at halftime it was 10:5.After that FaZe hardly had a chance. They lost with 7:16 and were relegated to the lower bracket.

BIG vs. Spirit

Spirit defeated BIG 2-1 in the first round of lower bracket A, eliminating the German team from IEM Katowice. BIG dominated on Nuke 16-10 but Spirit won Mirage 16-11 and Anubis 10-16. The match started on Nuke with Spirit starting on the T-side. BIG made a pistol win and continued to stay dominant, going 6-9 until halftime. After that, BIG went on the offensive and kept overrunning their  Russian opponents until it finally ended 16-10. BIG closed out the map with a 2vs4 round win. On Mirage, BIG was able to take a 5-0 lead in dominant fashion. However, Spirit stabilized and picked up five straight wins thanks to great work from Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov and Ighor “w0nderful” Zhdanov.

A great clutch by Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz after a weak attack by B brought BIG back into the game, but Spirit regained control and went into the second period with a slim 8-7 lead. Spirit started strong on offense, scoring three points at a time before BIG took the lead on CT. Pavel “s1ren” Ogloblin made it a 15-9 lead for his team. BIG managed to fend off a few more attacks, but ultimately Spirit didn’t let it get them down, and the Russian team finished the map with a 16-1  lead.After that, it was on to Anubis. There, the German team did not have a good time. Josef “faveN” Baumann was able to keep his team alive with an impressive 1vs3 clutch, and BIG built a solid T-side based on several more clutches, but it wasn’t enough to win. Spirit finished the map with a 16-10 score in the end.

Natus Vincere vs. Liquid

On Inferno, Liquid’s first problems showed up right away, as they were barely able to hold off Natus Vincere. NAVI quickly built up a 12-3 lead. After the turn, Liquid could only add one more pistol round before NAVI finished the map with a 16-5 lead. On Anubis, Liquid surged ahead with five rounds. NAVI stopped Liquid’s attack and was able to take a 6-5 lead.

But then Marek’s “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis came in and allowed Liquid to take a 9-6 lead at the break. After the change of sides, Liquid won the second pistol round and extended its lead to 11-6. But then s1mple really got going and brought NAVI back into the race, who eventually prevailed 19-17. Natus Vincere qualified for Spodek Arena after this win.

IHC vs. CLOUD9

IHC has now caused the second big surprise at the IEM Katowice and eliminated Cloud9 from the tournament with a 2-0 win. IHC started Inferno in good form by winning the first pistol round of the series. The Russians quickly fought back and were already close to overtaking the Asian team and by the break the score was 9-6.

Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren and his team then managed to equalize and narrowly overtook their opponents, 16-14. Cloud9 continued to fight on Mirage, but IHC stopped the Russians’ advance with a couple of deagles.Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov finished the half with a score of 1.85.Cloud9 faltered and couldn’t get a foothold. IHC took a 13:11 lead. From that point Cloud9 did not recover and the underdogs IHC fought their way to a 16:14 victory.