ESL Challenger Katowice 2024SAW lift first international LAN trophy at ESL Challenger Katowice
B8 stood no chance in the final as the Portuguese team completed a honeymoon run to the title.
SAW have been crowned champions of ESL Challenger Katowice after a domineering 2-0 victory over B8 in the grand final, romping to wins on Ancient (13-3) and Nuke (13-5) to lift their first international LAN trophy in their offline debut with André "Ag1l" Gil.
The Ukrainian team stood no chance in the series as Ricardo "roman" Oliveira's exceptional tournament form carried through to the final, although it wasn't a solo effort with the entirety of SAW outclassing B8 from the start of the series.
The Portuguese team arrived in Poland hamstrung after losing Rafael "arrozdoce" Wing and coach Danny "BERRY" Krüger two weeks prior; shocking changes that happened in the wake of SAW's Cinderella run to the semi-final of IEM Cologne, jump up the world rankings into the top 10, and ahead of the Perfect World Shanghai Major Europe RMRs.
Cracks within the team had started to show at ESL Challenger Atlanta, where SAW were favorites for the title but went out in the semi-finals with a loss to BIG. arrozdoce was benched soon after, having expressed an interest in leaving the team at the end of the year, with Ag1l arriving as a replacement.
"In Atlanta our team was kinda destroyed inside," Christopher "MUTiRiS" Fernandes explained in a pre-recorded interview on broadcast. "People don't see that because they are not inside the team, but the mood was not really good. Right now I think we're bouncing back from back then, day by day people seem more happy, we are improving on the days that we have practices, and that is really important for our confidence.
"When I say that we need time, it is really what we need because we are growing, but of course you can't find the solutions all the time. Sometimes you're struggling on some maps and that is what is happening to us. I don't want to change a lot because Ag1l is here for two or three weeks and if we come to a tournament, we do a game with a lot of anti-strats, it isn't going to feel comfortable. So we're going to try and find our game; if we play with confidence, we have a chance."
Confidence was indeed key in SAW's romp through the final, with a masterclass 11-1 CT effort allowing them to ease to a map victory despite Andrii "npl" Kukharskyi's heroics in the second pistol round.
roman went 5:0 in opening duels — 13:3 overall for SAW — on the map, and his reign of terror continued on Nuke as SAW didn't allow B8 to tally consecutive round wins on the defense for an 8-4 lead. A pistol victory for B8 did little to stem the bleed after a force-buy from SAW took back control, and victory followed soon after, 13-5.
  SAW |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 - 15 | +9.03% | 91.9 | 79.4% | 1.56 | |
| 31 - 15 | +1.34% | 93.3 | 79.4% | 1.46 | |
| 30 - 18 | +4.69% | 93.1 | 85.3% | 1.45 | |
| 21 - 18 | +3.18% | 66.8 | 76.5% | 1.18 | |
| 20 - 17 | +2.86% | 69.4 | 73.5% | 1.05 |
  B8 |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 - 27 | -2.16% | 78.1 | 70.6% | 0.93 | |
| 19 - 27 | -4.86% | 71.9 | 64.7% | 0.81 | |
| 18 - 24 | -2.30% | 67.7 | 52.9% | 0.74 | |
| 15 - 27 | -4.21% | 47.6 | 55.9% | 0.57 | |
| 10 - 28 | -7.56% | 42.9 | 47.1% | 0.44 |
ESL Challenger Katowice final standings:
1.
SAW -$50,000 + ESL Pro League S21 spot
2.B8 -$20,000
3-4.paiN -$10,000
3-4.Monte -$10,000
5-6.Eternal Fire -$3,000
5-6.
7-8.Falcons -$2,000
7-8.
Ivan 'maddened' Iordanidi
Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi
Alexander 'kakafu' Szymanczyk
Christopher 'MUTiRiS' Fernandes
Pavle 'Maden' Bošković
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