IEM Katowice group stage matchups set

17-2-2022 00:10

HEROIC taking on OG and Liquid going up against FaZe mark two of the highlight matches of the opening round.

The bracket for the IEM Katowice group stage has been set following the conclusion of the Play-In stage, pitting the eight teams who advanced through the first phase up against the eight teams who received direct invites to the main stage via the ESL Pro Tour ranking.

The top-16 stage of the event will consist exclusively of best-of-three matches, with the teams divided into two, eight-team groups as they vie for three spots in the playoffs each.

The winner of the upper bracket in each group will advance directly to the playoff semi-final, while the loser will proceed to the quarter-final. One more spot in the quarter-final will be available to the teams that emerge from the lower bracket of their respective groups.

FaZe have been drawn against Liquid in the opening round

In Group A, the first matches to play out will see HEROIC face off against OG and Virtus.pro take on Copenhagen Flames on Thursday at 12:30 . Subsequently, the two top seeded teams of the group, Vitality and Gambit, will go up against MOUZ and Ninjas in Pyjamas, respectively, starting from either side of the bracket.

The first two matches of Group B will then follow, with FURIA drawing Astralis and FaZe getting pit up against Liquid. A victory in this series is especially crucial for Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's side if they hope to have a chance of playing in the event with Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, who will remain in quarantine until February 19.

On Friday, the remaining pair of opening series will play out. Natus Vincere will be looking to bounce back after a middling BLAST Premier Spring Groups campaign, in which they stumbled in a handful of matches despite eventually securing a spot at the Spring Final. The CIS side are set to take on ENCE in their opening match, while on the other side of the bracket, G2 will face off against fnatic, Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov's first test with the team on LAN.

The complete schedule for the first round can be found below:

Thursday, February 17

12:30 HEROIC vs. OG
12:30 Virtus.pro vs. Copenhagen Flames
16:00 Vitality vs. MOUZ
16:00 Gambit vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
19:30 FURIA vs. Astralis
19:30 Liquid vs. FaZe

Friday, February 18
12:30 Natus Vincere vs. ENCE
12:30 G2 vs. fnatic

1st

2022-02-17 00:11

4 replies

FaZe win this

2022-02-17 00:14

3 replies

Would be awesome, but i think Vitality or G2 have a good chance tbh.

2022-02-17 01:05

goat

2022-03-06 18:40

1 reply

2022-03-07 02:20

Ez for ?

11 replies

og, vp, vita, gambit, astralis, faze, navi, g2

Sounds about right

2022-02-17 00:15

2-1 OG 2-0 VP 2-1 Vitality 2-0 Gambit 2-1 Astralis (50/50 game tho, neither looks good atm) 2-1 FaZe 2-1 NaVi 2-0 G2

2022-02-17 00:18

NaVi should smash ENCE

2022-02-17 05:22

If it's the typical NaVi game then they start slowly in beginning parts of tournaments meanwhile Ence will feel less pressure being up against the very best, they know they are underdogs. So in that sense I expect one round for Ence.

2022-02-17 16:36

yea astralis game is a coin flip tbh

2022-02-17 08:31

cph flames upset vp. Yes i am from the future.

2022-02-17 00:35

I was thinking about this too but idk

2022-02-17 01:04

2 replies

Lets see... Go Flames 🔥

2022-02-17 01:07

vp play as a unit and trade so no chance for cph to upset realy cph need the other team to be overconfident to upset

2022-02-17 02:11

2022-02-17 14:09

NBK v Vita pog

2022-02-17 00:12

Cph flames will win Katowice 2022.

nice games incoming

2022-02-17 00:16

I swear faze and liquid have been playing each other way too much recently

Agreed, it's like whenever Faze and, Liquid can draw each other it will happen. It just hoped liquid could have gotten another opponent for once

2022-02-17 05:56

Sad for me because I like both teams but liquid always gets eliminated after playing faze first round

2022-02-17 15:34

Nicodoz will have first ace of the day tomorrow. Again.

Grand Final: Navi vs Vitality (Gambit/OG?)

2022-02-17 00:21

ffs astralis again????

2022-02-17 00:17

Astralis are one of the weakest opponents out of all. You should be happy.

2022-02-17 00:31

True

2022-02-17 00:36

Damn that's a rough draw for Fnatic

2022-02-17 00:22

Am I the only one who thinks Mouz will somehow win against Vitality?

2022-02-17 00:30

2022-02-17 00:32

I'm excited to see how torszi and JDC perform vs a top team, especially when zywoo is the opposing awper for torszi. Not an impossible upset in my mind, but I'd still be very surprised.

2022-02-17 00:55