Two days of IEM Katowice 2019 are behind us. We saw many shocking displays, several great matches and a couple of surprising outcomes. Renegades and NRG have already secured their spots in the Legends Stage. On the other hand, some favorites like Fnatic and Cloud9 are on the edge of dropping out of the CS:GO IEM Katowice event.
Renegades’ and NRG’s Great Performance
Although Renegades and NRG were a picks for next Stage, not many CS:GO fans thought they would go on an unbeaten streak. Nevertheless, that was exactly what happened after two days of competing. Many CS:GO experts and former players expected to see Fnatic and some other team in that role, but the results turned out to be completely different.
Renegades had a pretty tough task at the beginning against AVANGAR. At least, everyone assumed AVANGAR was going to a difficult opponent on Train. Regardless, the Australian team had a pretty easy win against the Kazakh squad. AZR led his team to 16-8 win with 24 kills, 9 assists and 116 damage per round. AVANGAR still had a decent chance on half-time (9-6 in Renegades’ favor), but then won only two rounds in the second half.
Two nasty outsiders
Meanwhile, NRG had to face much easier teams, at least on paper. In the first round, they confronted Winstrike Team. Russian team didn’t stand a chance against the winner of Americas Minor on Nuke. The final score was convincing 16-9 in NRG’s favor, as expected.
In the next round, American squad played against a team who stopped North from getting to Katowice this year. Interestingly, it was second out of two NRG’s opponents that reached the main event through 3rd Place Play-In. NRG demonstrated pure power against the Asian team on Overpass. The final score was 16-6, and NRG joined Renegades, ENCE, and TYLOO in Round 3 High CS:GO IEM Katowice matches.
Renegades dismantled ENCE on Nuke
After the first day of competition, four teams had a chance to secure their places in the New Legends Stage. Renegades confronted ENCE, and NRG battled against TYLOO. By the way, ENCE defeated Team Spirit (16-10), and G2 (16-6), and TYLOO beat Vitality (16-8) and destroyed Cloud9 on Overpass (16-3). Therefore, they were part of Round 3 High Matches.
Renegades and ENCE opened the match on Nuke. It was very clear on half-time that ENCE was hardly going to make any damage to Renegades. In the end, they lost that map with final score 16-7. Players then moved on Mirage, where ENCE was much closer to triumph. After the 23rd round, ENCE was leading 13-10 and needed “only” another three round to take the match to the final map. Anyway, Liazz’s triple-kill gave momentum to Renegades, and they rode on that momentum up to the end winning 5 round in a row. ENCE’s one round won was enough to end Renegades’ winning streak but not to win the match.
The close match between NRG and TYLOO
In the other High Match, NRG and TYLOO kicked off on Inferno. After not so good start, TYLOO managed to punch back and to get to a 9-6 advantage on Half-Time. However, Asian time again started slowly after pistol round, losing five rounds in a row, but this time that cost them much more, as NRG won that map.
As a result, both Renegades and NRG finished their job and proceeded to Legends Stage without losing a single match. On the other hand, ENCE and TYLOO will have to go after one more win against Winstrike and AVANGAR in Round 4. Two remaining teams that fight for the third win are Team Vitality and ViCi Gaming at the CS:GO IEM Katowice.
With @NRGgg on to the legends stage we’ve caught up with @The_nahtE to hear what he thinks about their performance so far 🎥#IEM pic.twitter.com/fR9Ogwba2l
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 14, 2019
Fnatic, Cloud9, and G2 are on the edge of finishing their journey in the CS:GO IEM Katowice
Who thought that Fnatic, Cloud9, and G2 would be so close to dropping out after only three rounds. Fnatic started the tournament in a pretty bad way. Their first opponent was ViCi Gamin, and Swedes were absolute favorites. Anyway, Fnatic had a very hard time trying to justify that. ViCi just outplayed them on Overpass, and as a final blow, advent performed quad-kill with his AK-47 in the last round. The Asian team shocked everyone, including, of course, Fnatic at the CS:GO IEM Katowice.
The Swedish team then faced Winstrike, another team from 3rd Play-In. It was supposed to be an easy match for JW and company, too. Nevertheless, Fnatic slipped again and fell very hard. Winstrike beat them on Train 16-11, and suddenly Fnatic got in a situation to play every following match under pressure at the CS:GO IEM Katowice.
Fortunately for them, Grayhound didn’t manage to beat another team who succeed in upsetting Fnatic. Fnatic knocked out Grayhound out of the tournament on Inferno (16-9), and Overpass (16-11). Their next opponent is G2, and one of these two have to finish their path in Katowice in Round 4.
G2 had a rough time in the first round against Vega Squadron, as well. Vega was constantly in the lead, but Frenchmen figured out how to win at the end of the match. They beat Vega on Cache 16-14. But they lost to ENCE (16-6), and AVANGAR (16-10), so they now have to fight against Fnatic for staying in the competition.
ViCi is on fire
Although ViCi was considered to be a complete underdog before the tournament, they are proving everyone was wrong. First of all, they stopped North in 3rd Place Play-In, and now they are slaying Top teams like that is the easiest job ever. As said, they beat Fnatic in the first round. Truly, they lost to NRG in the second round, but then made another big surprise in the third round.
Namely, their opponent, Cloud9 had 1-1 score after the first two rounds. The NA team defeated Grayhound Gaming but got humiliated by TYLOO (16-3) on Overpass. Obviously, they didn’t sleep well after such a devastating loss, so that reflected on their game. Cloud9 met ViCi Gaming on Inferno and experienced another harsh loss.
We can see how bad whole Cloud9 squad played from fact that only flusha had a rating above 1. RUSH, for example, had only five kills and 21 deaths. His rating was so poor at 0.35. Consequently, we will watch ViCi Gaming playing for next Stage, and Cloud9 playing for the continuation of the tournament.
Grayhound and Team Spirit are out of the CS:GO IEM Katowice
Among other important results, we must mention that Grayhound and Team Spirit didn’t manage to win a single match. Grayhound lost to Cloud9, Team Vitality, and Fnatic. On the other hand, Team Spirit couldn’t stand a chance against ENCE, Vega, and FURIA. Here are current standings after Round 3:
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