Apeks eliminate FURIA from IEM Katowice Play-in

Disastrous starts on all three maps left FURIA no room to maneuver in the series.

Apeks have cast FURIA out of IEM Katowice following a 2-1 victory in the Play-in stage, making this the third time the Brazilian side have failed to advance to the group stage of an ESL Championship-tier event after previous losses to The MongolZ (formerly IHC) in the Play-in stages of IEM Cologne and IEM Katowice 2023.

The Brazilian outfit had consistently poor starts to all three first halves in the series and made attempts to recover after each side swap, but could only complete that effort on Mirage while Apeks secured wins on Inferno and Ancient to take the victory.

The European team, for their part, showed composure and recovered well from their embarrassing 0-13 loss to Spirit on the first day of the event, but still looked shaky in the series after letting leads slip and will need to be more composed against BIG if they want to secure a spot in the group stage.

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2024 Play-in
02/02/2024	BIG 20:00 Apeks	Match

Apeks were dominant on their pick of Inferno, going up 10-2 on the T side after consistently finding clean entries onto bombsites while capitalizing on a poor showing from Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo, but needed time to convert that lead into a victory after the Brazilian sniper denied an early win with a 1v3 clutch.

Apeks eventually closed their pick 13-9 and kept that momentum up going into Mirage, with Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson having a flawless half as he mustered a 15-0 K-D to put his team ahead, 10-2. A stellar defense from FURIA completely flipped the script in the second half, however, while Apeks' T side left a lot to be desired as they were slow to group up for hits and had poor utility usage in the late round. FURIA capitalized on that and went on an immense 11-round streak to edge out a win on their map pick, forcing an Ancient decider.

It seemed as if FURIA had found their footing as they tallied three rounds early into the deciding map, beating their best first halves from Mirage and Inferno, but were bullied by Apeks from then on.

Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk's exploitation of Red Room, both to cut off FURIA's rotations but often to also get in their back lines, was key in that effort, with Apeks mustering a 9-3 lead at the break. The European side again found themselves on the back foot after the side swap as FURIA nearly fought back to force overtime, only to fall at the final hurdle in round 24 with insult to injury added when Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos's monitor stopped working in a 2v4 before his team were eliminated.