- The European team defeated EG in the lower bracket of the event
- With a score of 0-2, Evil Geniuses has to leave IEM Katowice
- Sprout will now have to face Spirit for a place in the event’s group stage
Sprout triumphed over their North American opponents Evil Geniuses on two nail-bitingly close maps that could have gone either way.
Sprout Defeats Evil Geniuses
Another day, another team gets eliminated from the IEM Katowice. Sprout dominated Evil Geniuses 2-0, sending them packing home. What’s more impressive is that the European team managed to defeat the North Americans on Ancient despite it being where Sanzhar “neaLaN” Iskhakov’s men dominated Heroic during the BLAST Premier Spring Groups.
Sprout chose Ancient on attack and immediately started applying pressure on their opponents. But despite getting two rounds, the European roster was not able to continue the same inertia, allowing Evil geniuses to get away with a 9-6 first half. This was largely due to Jerric “wiz” Jiang’s work on the AWP, something that should be expected, considering he is the second-highest-rated player on his team with a 1.20 behind only neaLaN.
However, the player was not able to replicate the same gameplay in the second half, where Sprout picked up momentum again in the mid-rounds. Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss won a crucial 1vs2 as the map went down to the wire, allowing Sprout to bounce back from a 12-14 to take victory in the last round.
By the start of the second map, Mirage, EG were more than eager to beat their European opponents. The team managed to quickly win a T-side pistol round, but their momentum was quickly shut down by a forcebuy, which allowed Sprout to get five consecutive rounds after that. EG were shaken up by this and responded with a fierce attack, ending the first half of Mirage with a 10-5 score.
The second half saw more one-sided plays, but this time from Sprout, who managed to bring a 12-6 deficit into a tie before EG could retaliate. With just a couple of rounds left to decide if the match is going to go to the third and final map, Inferno, which would decide who will proceed to IEM Katowice’s group stage, or go home, Sprout managed to pull through. With all their players shifting to the highest gear, the European team closed off Mirage 16-13 to win the match 2-0.”Even though we lost, I’m happy about our performance,” said EG’s Timothy “autimatic” Ta after the match. “Obviously we wish we would have gotten a better result, but we can learn a lot from this match.” And as EG is left to reconsider their future strategies, Sprout is going to face Spirit in a battle to win a spot in the tournament’s group stage.
