ENCE, 9z complete ESL Challenger Katowice playoff bracket

10-6-2023 22:21

The IEM Dallas champions moved past Party Astronauts to claim the final spot in the knockout stage.

The four-team, single-elimination playoff bracket for ESL Challenger Katowice has been set following the conclusion of the group stage, from which Virtus.pro, FORZE, ENCE, and 9z all advanced.

Virtus.pro, FORZE secure playoff spots at ESL Challenger Katowice

Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali and Andrey "⁠Jerry⁠" Mekhryakov's sides had an easier time of things as they went undefeated through their respective groups with winners' match victories over ENCE and 9z, while both of the teams who lost out managed to recover in their respective group's decider matches.

NertZ topped the board for ENCE in their qualifying series

ENCE had only just missed out on beating Virtus.pro, falling in overtime on Mirage, but made relatively short work of Party Astronauts in a best-of-three series. The North American hopefuls were competitive on their pick of Ancient, pulling ahead by a round on two occasions and recovering from 0-5 and 9-12 deficits, but ultimately proved unable to close out the map before ENCE ran away with the series on Nuke (16-6).

9z had a more contentious path to playoffs as their series against ECSTATIC went the distance. The South American combine took their own pick of Ancient 16-8, but couldn't close things in two maps as they fumbled an 11-4 lead on Anubis to lose the map, requiring a Nuke decider that went down to the wire (16-14).

The bracket for the knockout stage is now set and will play out in its entirety on Sunday. The matchups and schedule for it can be found below: