FaZe, OG and ENCE advance in IEM Katowice Play-In upper bracket

A second set of exciting opening matches has concluded in Poland.

The opening matches continued at the Pay-In stage of IEM Katowice with FaZe, OG, and ENCE coming out victorious and advancing to the upper bracket quarter-finals, with only one best-of-three standing between them and a place in the main event.

The matchups in the next round will see FaZe — who are playing with Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage standing in for now — face off against MOUZ, while OG will take on ENCE. Meanwhile, Sprout, Entropiq and Renegades will fight for survival over the course of the next two days, trying to make their way through the lower bracket.

FaZe brought the map veto to Overpass, a popular map for their opponents in recent times. Despite this, the heat brought by Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard was too much for Sprout to handle as the duo kept knocking down opponents time and time again during the 12-3 half. After swapping sides, the Rasmus "⁠raalz⁠" Steensborg-led team embarked on a great comeback on the CT side, bringing the game back to a 12-14 scoreline before FaZe stopped the bleeding, winning the last two necessary rounds to close the map 16-12.

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jks to stand in for FaZe at IEM Katowice

Moving to the next match, OG faced off against Renegades on Mirage. The Oceanic squad faced an uphill battle, starting on the defensive side where they quickly suffered at the hands of the Europeans, conceding a 5-10 half as Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså shined. After halftime, Renegades built on a force-buy conversion and slowly began clawing back at the deficit. At 12-11, the Deagles from OG and a 1v2 clutch from Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan temporarily brought the game back into European hands but it was not to last. A chaotic last few rounds resulted in OG needing to force overtime to give themselves another chance. Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković and co. then dropped only one round in extra time, salvaging the map 19-16.

The Russians of Entropiq brought us back to Overpass and quickly gained the upper hand after converting the opening pistol round. The initial skirmishes led way to a very close half where ENCE trailed the Russians until the very end before taking the lead thanks to Tec-9 rush into B on round 13. Despite taking the second pistol round, Entropiq failed to establish themselves in the second half, with ENCE retaking and extending their lead. While Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi had a great game, captain Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer was the standout player for the Europeans as the Dane kept finding impact frags and multi-kills to deliver the game 16-9.