Our Clients:

Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

Jan 30, 2025 4:24 pm

Three teams secure advancement at IEM Katowice

gaming keyboard

Eternal Fire, 3DMAX and GamerLegion nabbed the first three play-in berths into the group stage of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice event on Thursday in Poland.

Eternal Fire defeated HEROIC, 3DMAX beat MIBR and GamerLegion knocked off paiN Gaming — all by 2-0 scores — in the second round of the play-in stage upper bracket. Also Thursday, the first three teams were eliminated via the lower bracket: FlyQuest, SAW and Imperial Female.

Sixteen teams are competing in the double-elimination play-in bracket, chasing eight spots in the group stage of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. All play-in matches are best-of-three.

Eight teams — G2 Esports, Team Spirit, The MongolZ, Team Vitality, FaZe Clan, MOUZ, Natus Vincere and Team Falcons — already are through to the group stage based on their global standing early this month.

Group play will see the 16 teams split into two double-elimination brackets, with all matches best-of-three. The two group-phase winners will advance directly to the semifinals, the two group-phase runners-up will move to the quarterfinals as high seeds, and the two third-place teams will make the quarterfinals as low seeds.

The playoff will be single elimination, with best-of-three matches for the quarterfinals and semifinals ahead of a best-of-five grand final on Feb. 9. The champion will earn $400,000.

On Thursday, Eternal Fire edged HEROIC 13-11 on Nuke and 16-14 in overtime on Anubis. The all-Turkish winning side was led by Ali “Wicadia” Haydar Yalcin (46 kills, plus-8 K-D differential), Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dortkardes (46 kills, plus-9) and Ozgur “woxic” Eker (45 kills, plus-11).

3DMAX went into overtime to beat MIBR 19-16 on Inferno before finishing the job 13-5 on Nuke. Bryan “Maka” Canda and Pierre “Ex3rcice” Bulinge posted matching lines of 40 kills and plus-8 differentials for 3DMAX.

GamerLegion trounced paiN 13-3 on Inferno and 13-5 on Mirage. Fredrik “REZ” Sterner of Sweden led the winners with 35 kills and a plus-16.

Down in the lower bracket, in the only match of the day that went to three maps, Astralis beat FlyQuest 2-1. They first dropped a 13-5 decision on Train before winning 13-7 on Ancient and 13-11 on Inferno. Nicolai “device” Reedtz of Denmark had 47 kills and a plus-5 for Astralis.

Virtus.pro blew past SAW 13-4 on Dust II and 13-3 on Inferno. Russian Petr “fame” Bolyshev paced VP with 37 kills and a plus-23.

BIG took down Imperial Female 13-4 on Inferno and 13-5 on Ancient, with Karim “Krimbo” Moussa leading the all-German outfit with 34 kills and a plus-19.

The Friday schedule:
–Upper-bracket Round 2: Wildcard vs. FURIA Esports
–Lower-bracket Round 1: Team Liquid vs. Complexity
–Lower-bracket Round 2: Two teams TBD
–Lower-bracket Round 2: paiN Gaming vs. Astralis
–Lower-bracket Round 2: MIBR vs. Virtus.pro
–Lower-bracket Round 2: HEROIC vs. BIG

Intel Extreme Masters Katowice prize pool
1. $400,000
2. $180,000
3-4. $80,000
5-6. $40,000
7-8. $24,000
9-12. $16,000
13-16. $10,000
17-20. $4,500
21-24. $2,500 — FlyQuest, SAW, Imperial Female, one team TBD

–Field Level Media

You may also like

keyboard backlit
Feb 22, 2025 2:15 am

Trio of sweeps kicks off Stage 2 Major qualifying Week 2

It was a day of blowouts at the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major on Friday, as all three matches to open Week 2 saw 3-0 sweeps. Two of…

league of legends, fans
Feb 22, 2025 1:53 am

NTMR, Timeless keep pace at OWCS NA Stage 1

NTMR and Timeless each earned a victory on Friday, and they share first place in North American Stage 1 of the Overwatch Champions Series. Timeless (5-1) dropped the first map…

T1 DRX
Feb 22, 2025 1:13 am

Team Tundra, PARAVISION earn sweeps at DreamLeague Season 25

Team Tundra and PARAVISION opened Group Stage 2 on Friday with sweeps at the DreamLeague Season 25 event. BetBoom Team and Chimera Esports also picked up Group Stage 2 victories….

More Esports News

keyboard backlit
Feb 22, 2025 2:15 am

Trio of sweeps kicks off Stage 2 Major qualifying Week 2

It was a day of blowouts at the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major on Friday, as all three matches to open Week 2 saw 3-0 sweeps. Two of…

league of legends, fans
Feb 22, 2025 1:53 am

NTMR, Timeless keep pace at OWCS NA Stage 1

T1 DRX
Feb 22, 2025 1:13 am

Team Tundra, PARAVISION earn sweeps at DreamLeague Season 25

esports fans
Feb 21, 2025 6:17 pm

FaZe, Falcons, MOUZ, Astralis head to PGL Cluj-Napoca semis

Team Liquid
Feb 20, 2025 3:32 pm

Team Liquid advance at DreamLeague Season 25

Read all
fb-post
advertisment
title-icon

Upcoming events

See all odds