G2 and Astralis start lower bracket runs with victories

Liquid and ENCE go home after back-to-back defeats in Group B.

Astralis and G2 will continue their lower bracket run at IEM Katowice 2022 after defeating ENCE and Liquid, respectively. The winners have advanced to the next round of Group B's lower bracket and will wait for the results of the upper semis to find out their opponents.

Despite showing good form, ENCE were unable to continue their adventure in Poland, giving Natus Vincere a run for their money in the opening series of the group stage before being sent home after a hard-fought match against Astralis.

Meanwhile, the new-look Liquid go home counting only one map to their name, earned during the 1-2 defeat against FaZe. Unfortunately for the North Americans, G2's opening loss to fnatic meant that they would be facing the European squad to give themselves a chance to reach the Spodek Arena.

The main stream saw Astralis and ENCE fight for tournament survival, starting off on the European's pick of Mirage. ENCE played a great T side, with newcomer Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković creating some quality moments during the 9-6 half. With Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz also playing in top form after switching to the defense, ENCE were able to claim map point at 15-12 before a late Danish comeback forced the match into overtime. Extra time turned out to just be delaying the inevitable as ENCE moved to gain series advantage with a 19-16 victory.

Facing elimination, Astralis got to work on the T side of Overpass, but it was not an easy fight. Despite Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's team taking the opening pistol to gain a 4-0 lead, the half remained competitive until the very end, with Astralis barely claiming a 8-7 lead thanks to Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's incredible performance. The rifler did not slow down for a second as he led his team through a tough CT half, closing the map 16-12 with a 30-15 K-D and 112.0 ADR.

ENCE started off the series decider on Ancient in great form, claiming an early 3-0 advantage before very quickly going very flat. Once the rifles started coming out, Astralis began their resurgence on the CT side as Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke, Philip "⁠Lucky⁠" Ewald, and blameF started taking over the game. The Danes strung together a six-round winning streak before closing the half 9-6 ahead.

A sloppy start to the second half saw the two teams constantly exchange rounds before ENCE were able to establish themselves in the game with a four-round winning streak. Despite Maden and hades playing at the top of their level, it was not enough for the Europeans to retake the lead, collapsing in the last round of play to give Astralis the map 16-13 and a hard-fought 2-1 series victory.

The second elimination match got started on Liquid's pick of Vertigo, but it was G2 that easily gained the upper hand thanks to an incredible performance from Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač. The Bosnian superstar shut down Liquid on ramp time and time again, denying the chance for the North Americans to make their way into A. Despite Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski's best efforts, Liquid were only able to grab a few sporadic rounds, going into the break trailing 5-10 behind.

Moving to the CT side, the North Americans had seemingly found another lifeline after winning the pistol round but G2 wasted no time in putting those hopes down, converting the following force buy. From there, the Europeans would only concede two rounds as they cruised to seal a 16-8 scoreline. Alongside NiKo, Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov also turned up to play, ending the map with a 28-11 K-D and 112.7 ADR.

Liquid's early pistol round did not lead to much as G2 once again converted the force buy, immediately putting Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and co. on the back foot. The cousins NiKo and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač really tried their best to not repeat the mistakes from their previous series, steamrolling the North Americans with a combined 39 frags in the 11-4 offensive half. Switching sides felt like groundhog day, with Liquid taking the pistol and G2 responding in spectacular fashion with another force buy victory. From there, the match was in the hands of the Europeans, easily sailing to a 16-5 victory and completing the 2-0 stomp.