IEM Katowice Major: Top stories from day two

Day two of IEM Katowice Major is behind us and much like yesterday, we had many upsets. The Challenger stage keeps rolling as today two teams have been eliminated with a 0-3 score and two advanced to the Legends stage with a fantastic result of 3-0. Here are our picks for today’s most interesting and exciting matchups.

Renegades beat ENCE; first team to reach Legends stage

Perhaps one of the less favored teams to go 3-0 has silenced the doubters. Not only that, Renegades have successfully overcome ENCE with a 2-0 score in a best-of-three matchup.

The first map, Nuke, was just a formality for Renegades. The Australian team ran rampant on both the counter-terrorism and terrorist side with Jay “Liazz” Tegillgas and Justin “jks” Savage leading the charge. Despite Nuke being picked by ENCE, it looked like Renegades prepared much better and, as a result, closed out the map with ease. The half ended 11-4 in favor of Renegades with the match coming to a close 16-7. ENCE were facing trouble after losing their initial map pick.

Mirage, on the other hand, would come out to be a much tighter matchup. We finally saw some proper action from ENCE players especially Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen and the young star Jere “sergej” Salo. With an intense half going marginally in favor of ENCE 8-7, the road ahead would not be easy for either of the teams. ENCE continued their stride on t-side after half-switch by getting the first three rounds. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be enough to continue rolling as Renegades soon found their stride once more. This time, we saw Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai along with jks again lead the Renegades counter-terrorist wall. The Australian side eventually strung five rounds in a row bringing the map to a 15-13 score in their favor. ENCE then fell after Aleksi “allu” Jalli was left helpless in a 1v2 situation. Renegades advance to the Legends stage with a clean sheet. ENCE goes 2-1 and gets two more chances to advance.

YEAH THE BOYS! 🇦🇺 For the FIRST time ever, #RNGCS have gone 3-0 in the Swiss Style format and now have become the first team to make it through to the #IEMKatowice New Legends Stage for 2019! 🥳

Thanks to everyone for all the support ❤️ pic.twitter.com/3ijV1XvJ4E

— Renegades (@Renegades) February 14, 2019

ViCi stuns Cloud9; goes 2-1

ViCi, perhaps the lowest seeded team, surprises us again on day two. After successfully defeating fnatic yesterday but falling short against NRG, the Asian side had no trouble against Cloud9.

ViCi dismantled Cloud9 in the best-of-one matchup on Inferno. Despite Andrew “Kaze” Khong and co. playing surprisingly well, Robin “flusha” Rönnquist was the only player to put up a fight. His teammates underperformed, having 10 frags or less each. It is safe to say that after yesterday’s loss to TYLOO, Cloud9 does not fancy playing against Asian teams. The match finished 16-6 for ViCi, putting them up 2-1 while Cloud9 has to fight for survival by going down to 1-2. Fortunately for Cloud9, there aren’t any more Chinese teams left at the current stage of IEM Katowice.

1-2#C9CSGO fall to @ViCi_Gaming in the third match of the #IEM Katowice 2019 Main Qualifier. #GGWP pic.twitter.com/2R5xRG8roF

— Cloud9 (@Cloud9) February 14, 2019

fnatic recover as they eliminate Grayhound

After an extremely rough day one, fnatic joined the 1-2 pool while Grayhound has become the first team to be eliminated with a 0-3 score.

fnatic started showing dominance on t-side of the first map, Inferno. After losing the pistol and the subsequent round, the Swedish side went on a 13-round streak before half-switch. Richard ‘Xizt’ Landström led his team in what seemed to be a formality for his side. Euan ‘sterling’ Moore and his team attempted to pursue a comeback on their own t-side after winning another pistol round. The Australian side brought things back to 14-9 but fnatic swiftly tied things up at that point, ending the first map 16-9 in favor of the Swedish side.

The second map brought us to Overpass. This time, Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin along with the fnatic veteran Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson showed skill. Grayhound picked up the first pistol once again and a fairly close match emerged with neither side getting the upper hand at the half which went 9-6 in favor of fnatic. On t-side, fnatic finally pulled ahead to 15-10 and sealed the deal with a 16-11 scoreline and winning the best-of-three 2-0. The Swedes are now 1-2 and must be perfect from here on. Grayhound are the first team to be eliminated without picking up a win at the IEM Katowice Major. Make sure to get your controversial Ollie “DickStacy” Tierney stickers while you can!

Hard to say goodbye to such a charismatic team but it has to be done for us to move on. We ❤️️ @grayhoundgaming!#IEM pic.twitter.com/JUCQnLpmZv

— Intel®ExtremeMasters (@IEM) February 14, 2019

Vitality decimate Vega Squadron

Vitality didn’t have as good as a start to IEM Katowice as a lot of people thought they would. However, the best-of-one matchup on Overpass against Vega Squadron today showed Vitality’s true colors.

Nathan “NBK” Schmitt turned the map into a deathmatch playground. NBK finished the match with 23 frags and only 3 deaths. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut followed with 17 frags and 4 deaths and the rest were not far behind either. Vega Squadron looked lost while Vitality was bursting with confidence. The French side quickly picked up the pistol and only let Vega Squadron get one round, meaning that the half went 14-1 in favor of Vitality. Moreover, Vega Squadron would not even be allowed to show anything on ct-side of their own. Vitality won the pistol round again and closed out the match quickly by getting the following round as well. Sheer domination emerged, which we have not yet witnessed at IEM Katowice this year. Vitality goes 2-1 while Vega Squadron falls to 1-2 and faces elimination.

What a statement from the CSGO squad!

We take a clean 16-1 win against @VegaSquadron to go 2-1 in the Challengers Stage #VforVictory pic.twitter.com/yPY6C8CfSb

— Team Vitality (@TeamVitality) February 14, 2019

Here are the full results of today’s matches at IEM Katowice: