"[Katowice] has been where I've spent some insane days," said Oliver "⁠OJ Borg⁠" D'Anastasi, who was the stage host for the 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions of IEM Katowice.

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29/0514:58

By MIRAA

apEX: "Glad we won the last one"

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Bad choice

2025-05-29 14:45

14 replies

Spodek is small arena compered to Tauron and Kraków is overall more interesting city

2025-05-29 14:51

2 replies

In order for history to be made, history has to be broken or the past has to be broken, whichever rhymes

2025-05-29 20:09

1 reply

The rhyme broken has to past

2025-05-29 20:45

Katowice was only picked back in the days because it was dirt cheap and now saudi money rules

2025-05-29 14:53

9 replies

it just sucks to lose an institutional venue for the scene, but trampling on heritage and history is all that saudi money knows how to do

2025-05-29 15:08

8 replies

>"Gosh darn Saudi Money moving IEM!" >INTEL Extreme Masters Ah yes, Intel. My favorite Saudi corporation. You guys are so goofy. Always mad about everything even when it makes no sense.

2025-05-29 17:27

7 replies

at least intel is directly linked to pcs and esports and has been cs partner for like 20 years, ofc things like this will always need sponsors but ppl just hate the new ones and those that buy themselves in (hard)

2025-05-29 17:31

I have no problem with any sponsor. To me, any money coming into CS is a good thing. The point I was making is that he's complaining about Saudi money because of a change to IEM, but there is no Saudi money involved in the tournament as far as I know. Mainly Intel with a few smaller European and Taiwanese sponsors.

2025-05-29 17:38

ESL money is owned by Saudi, i think thats why he said that

2025-05-30 09:32

ELS is owned by saudis , inter is just a sponsor guees american mind cant comprehend reading single page of wikipedia

2025-05-29 18:59

3 replies

You have got to be kidding me. I never heard that they got acquired, I thought they were still owned by the original founders, so I didn't even think I needed to look that up. I keep getting myself into these situations somehow lmao. I apologize for my smugness. Looks like the cofounders are CEO and Chairman though, and ESL is one of the only tournament organizers that people aren't constantly complaining about here on HLTV, so surely "Wah wah Wah, Saudis are ruining eSports by moving Katowice 50 miles east " is a still a weak argument, No? Especially when the reason is "Our tournaments are so awesome now that Katowice is too small of a venue."

2025-05-29 21:36

ESL faceit group, (so, ESL, Faceit and Esea) have been aquired by savvy gaming group a Saudi group that by many gaming company (they have part in ea, Capcom, nintendo, take two) so yeah ESL is actually moving with Saudi money

2025-06-01 00:00

shame on cracov for not having an expo for ppl , it was a nice thing to explore before going to watch game/games. Although its a much nicer city to visit, its old capital of poland and much much better for visitors and not like kato an industial city whos whole existence was based bc coal was mined there

2025-06-04 22:15

Very good choice

2025-05-29 15:26

kenny s omg

Thanks for your input, kennyS.

2025-05-29 14:47

+1000 social credit

selloutS

2025-05-29 14:54

I wish they had a crowd in Kato 2020 but ofc restrictions caught up before the playoffs :(

2025-05-29 14:52

Tauron is a spodek on steroids and the city itself is nicer, maybe make it a major in 2027 at 10 years anniversary

2025-05-29 14:55

No way

ahahahah

As much as Katowice has earned this legendary status, Kraków is a perfect city that greatly represents all the best things Poland has to offer. Amazing food scene, very pretty old town, and especially Kazimierz and Stare Podgórze.

2025-05-29 15:13

Krakow Is A Nice City

2025-05-29 15:21

The legacy that has been IEM Kato is no more. Feel like this IEM Krakow will have to build up it’s own story which could be interesting but ultimately sad to see such history come to an end

2025-05-29 15:28

thought man retired or something

2025-05-29 15:31

who is that guy

2025-05-29 15:52

have some respect little kid, u weren't alive back then

2025-05-29 16:18

Some csgo player? Sorry i wasn't old enough to play that game

2025-05-29 16:24

1.6

2025-05-29 18:08

notice how banks's tweet has 20x more interactions, just like how banks is 20x more likeable as a host than fake ass OJ Borg

2025-05-29 15:54

bruh OJ is like the only natural charismatic guy in whole CS talent scene.

2025-05-29 16:41

Because OJ Borg only hosts IEM Katowice(he mainly works for the BBC), while Banks hosts x20 times more tournaments.

2025-05-29 17:32

ahh this explains why OJ has always been an underwhelming host; he's not bad tbf i put it too harshly but as a host he feels like such an outsider Like the way he hosts just feels very generic because he doesn't know the context behind the tournament matches, unlike banks who actually has relationships with the players and understands the storylines

2025-05-29 18:14

2025-05-29 15:59

In Germany we say: Alles Gute, hat mal ein Ende

2025-05-29 16:38

in Poland same

2025-05-29 17:06

One night and one more time Thanks for the memories, even though they weren't so Great, "He tastes like you, only sweeter" One night, yeah, and one more time Thanks for the memories, thanks for the memories "See, he tastes like you, only sweeter"

2025-05-29 17:07

ESL moved Krakow to block PGL. Now PGL reverse stab Katowice is good move.

god allu

2025-05-29 17:26

it's ok bro you kicked aleksi so you went from 2nd place to no place

2025-05-29 17:46

I don't know where that rumour came from but he recently said that Sergej is to blame for that.

2025-05-30 14:48

6 replies

it's easy to blame the guy that left the internet completely now that he can't defend himself. why would allu listen to some kid if he didn't share his opinion? besides, didn't allu basically say something like "yeah we didn't need aleksi because I was also kind of calling we just need more firepower" when adding sunny? on top of that, I remember vividly Niko saying they approached Aleksi to join Faze back when they kicked Karrigan and were in this Niko IGL phase but some people from the inside told him to stay away from Aleksi because he's basically a fraud. do you really think Niko went to sergej and not allu himself? lol

2025-05-30 17:13

5 replies

I was considering writing a serious reply but I'm gonna need a source on that claim from Niko. That alleged fraud AleksiB won a major against Karrigan, one of the very best IGLs, just last year. Saw it live with my own eyes.

2025-05-31 00:29

4 replies

foggy memory about him being a fraud because I watched it live on his stream back when pro streams were worth watching (6 years ago mind you) but I did find an article about it dotesports.com/counter-strike/news/niko-.. “I mean there was one obvious choice in Aleksib, but we have asked around to see if he would fit our team and we basically decided he isn’t the right fit for us so we will not be getting Aleksib nor have we even been close to talking to him about it.”

2025-05-31 00:45

Ok so a very different message than the one you claimed.

2025-05-31 18:22

yeah but this was from an official interview not something he answered on stream to a random chatter/dono, it was 6 years ago bruh. he might've worded it differently. either way, aleksi would've been really good for faze at the time, honestly we can only speculate at what niko had heard, might've just been the micromanaging aspect but we'll never know. either way, a mistake for not getting him considering how shit faze had been with niko igling

2025-05-31 23:17

Niko just can't handle strong voices besides him, guy wanna be IGL so bad while still fragging.

2025-06-01 08:45

allu polish pride

2025-05-29 17:47

2025-05-29 17:53

Carmac is best troll if i act like that i would get banned from google.com

Nicee!!

2025-05-29 18:34

Ofc it will be better, Katowice is soulless and dull city compared to Krakow

2025-05-29 18:36

what xD you've probably never been in Katowice or in the most important places one of the best cities for night life and club party in Poland

2025-05-29 22:24

>best cities for night life and club party Yeah. Soulless NPCs. Krakow beautiful and histocial. Btw, I have lived in Poland for 6 months, been everywhere and all over.

2025-05-29 22:58

Kraków is gr8 too. But Katowice has its own vibe aswell. It's not souless as you say. Not only partying but very important city as historical for Poland too.

2025-05-30 23:49

Nice nice bro. Still Krakow clears compared to Katowice /end of the discussion

2025-05-30 23:52

delulu, Katowice was ranked the 3rd best city for earnings versus cost of living, better than Kraków that stagnated, Kraków has its own vibe, so does Kato, I know ppl who’ve moved from Kraków to Kato and they’re liking it more. Kraków is great tourism-wise, but you have no idea how much Kato has glowed up and you’re comparing 3x bigger city lol /close

2025-05-31 12:20