- G2 seems to be the top favorite
- Liquid and Vitality will fight for the chance to go up against the favorites
- Heroic will go up against the winner of the NaVi/Outsiders matchup
CS:GO fans should mark this Saturday on their calendars as the IEM Katowice playoffs will start with the two highest-ranked teams in the world, G2 and Heroic, starting on opposite sides.
The Brackets Are Set
IEM Katowice’s group stage is coming to a close it has become clear which teams will face each other in the event’s playoffs. The six teams will duke it out in front of a packed audience in the Spodek Arena in the host city. The two top teams during this event are Heroic and G2, both of whom will start their respective runs on the semi-finals stage this Saturday.
The IEM Katowice’s playoffs will also see two quarterfinal matchups, the first of which will be between Vitality and Liquid, the latter of which most recently eliminated Spirit from the competition. Meanwhile, Vitality comes t the quarterfinals following an easier group after they defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic. Now Vitality has a chance of taking revenge on Heroic after they were trounced by them in the final group stage match.
The second will see Natus Vincere, who entered the playoffs after defeating Liquid, take on Rio Major champions Outsiders. The Ukrainian team didn’t start their IEM Katowice run in great shape but showed significant improvement throughout the tournament. They took down Cloud9 and Liquid without losing a map to secure the playoff berth. Their momentum was only stopped by G2 in the upper-bracket final.
NaVi’s future opponents, Outsiders, had a much more difficult road to the playoffs. At the beginning of their IEM Katowice run, Outsiders seemed to still be reeling from their disastrous performance at BLAST Finals in December when they dropped out after a shocking 16-1 defeat to G2. As if not fully recovered from that defeat, Outsiders suffered a loss from Fnatic, who sent them to the lower bracket at the start of EIM Katowice.
But the team eventually picked up the pace, defeating Ninjas in Pyjamas and even managing to take revenge on G2 before winning a marathon three-map series against Complexity. This secured the team a spot in the Spodek Arena
The IEM Katowice tournament is entering its final stage and its winner will receive the grand prize of $400 000 as well as a berth in IEM Cologne.
