Heroic eliminate GamerLegion to keep playoff dream alive

The newly assembled squad is one win away from the Spodek.

HEROIC have continued their IEM Katowice run after they outlasted GamerLegion in a three-map series (Overpass 5-13, Mirage 13-4, Nuke 13-8). Their group-stage campaign up to this point featured a win against Vitality and a loss against G2 in the opening round, with Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski and company set to face off against the reigning IEM Katowice champions once again in the lower-bracket final.

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2024
06/02/2024	HEROIC 19:30 G2	Match

"We had an idea that it was going to be G2. We should have won last time if not for m0NESY's life game, and he shouldn't have a game like that again," said Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck about their incoming battle against G2, where the winner will secure a spot in the IEM Katowice playoffs.

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For GamerLegion, this is a disappointing end to an otherwise encouraging tournament. They will no doubt rue their Nuke T half after being up 8-4, and Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski will need to wait for his Spodek return a while longer.

GamerLegion picked their home map of Overpass to start the series, and it quickly became apparent why. They started on the T side and breezed to a 7-2 lead by outmaneuvering the HEROIC defense, who were left scratching their heads in multiple rounds. They recovered slightly and found four at the half, but that was far from enough to put together a comeback attempt. GamerLegion won the second-half pistol and ran away with the map after that, closing out a 13-5 victory after a couple of great sequences from their individuals.

"On Overpass, we weren't really on the same page. We had so many ideas on what to do, and we didn't act on any of them. It was really clear what went wrong," reflected sjuush in a post-match interview.

HEROIC went for Mirage, a map where GamerLegion's last victory dates back all the way to August of 2023. Snax and company made it close at the beginning of their CT side but were soon left without a reply to HEROIC's shenanigans, who secured an 8-4 lead at the half despite losing the pistol.

The second half was all one-way traffic for HEROIC, as the newly assembled squad strung together five CT rounds to secure a dominant 13-4 win and force the Nuke decider. Snax finished the map as GamerLegion's top fragger on eight kills, which tells its own story about the map's one-sided nature.

Nuke began with a back-and-forth affair that ended with GamerLegion getting the upper hand in the economy game, which helped them take a 5-2 lead. HEROIC fought back and made almost every round close but could only post four at the half.

Once the sides switched, so did the game's momentum. HEROIC put up a wall on the CT side, and their flawless nine-round streak ended the map and kept them alive at IEM Katowice. They will face off against G2 later in the day, with the winner set to secure a playoff spot in the Spodek.