IEM Katowice 2023 play-in betting tips – Wednesday, February 1

ESB brings you free Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting picks for four Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2023 play-in stage bouts on Wednesday, February 1. Check out our selections for MiBR vs Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Spirit vs Grayhound Gaming, Fnatic vs Evil Geniuses, and BIG vs Complexity, with esports betting odds courtesy of BetOnline.


MiBR made a roster change in January when the team promoted academy player Felipe “insani” Yuji to replace Jhonatan “JOTA” Willian. They’ve since played just two official matches, against ATK (1-2) and Nouns Esports (2-1), with insani averaging a 0.94 performance rating.

Based on those results, MiBR likely won’t be any better with the 18-year-old, and it’s hard to believe they’ll improve on such short notice. And that is a problem since their opening match of IEM Katowice 2023 is against Ninjas in Pyjamas, who, while in poor form, are still a top-tier team.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have recently crashed out of BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023 with just one win (1-3) against BIG, but they won a map in each of the remaining three series – against Natus Vincere (twice) and Astralis. We don’t expect NiP to do well in Poland, mainly because the roster consists of two new players, Danyyl “headtr1ck” Valitov and stand-in Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke, but they shouldn’t struggle against MiBR.


Team Spirit were last active in December, when they attended ESL Challenger League Season 43 Europe, performed relatively poorly (2-3), and ultimately lost the finals against SAW (1-3). Grayhound Gaming (former ORDER) are in a similar spot, with just four official games over the last two months and just one in January – a 2-1 victory against Rooster.

Both teams will enter this match rusty, which should translate to a scrappy affair, but that often favours the underdogs. Grayhound, on paper, look significantly weaker than Spirit, but the Russian squad haven’t won anything over the last few months.

We saw them beat Team Liquid at the Major, but Spirit have also struggled against weaker teams, including HEET, SAW, and Tricked Esports. They should still win, but Grayhound Gaming, with +6.5 round at -125, is too good to pass on.

Fnatic are still a bit of an enigma. This roster looks like it has the highest ceiling a Fnatic lineup has had in years, but we’ve only seen them compete in a couple of Big Events. They reached playoffs at Rio Major and then won Elisa Masters Espoo 2022 in November, which is promising; however, the Black & Orange still have a lot to prove.

Evil Geniuses enter IEM Katowice 2023 warmed up, having recently completed their run through BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023, where they placed last with a 1-2 record. They won against Heroic in the tournament opener, but that was a fluke as it was established in the rematch.

Evil Geniuses aren’t good enough to compete at the highest level, and it would be a shock to see them win this match. Still, they should take advantage of rusty Fnatic and reach at least 11 rounds, so we’re taking over 26.5 total rounds.


BIG and Complexity have yet to meet with their current lineups, but it’s not hard to understand why the German squad are -227.27 favourite for this fixture. Even though BIG didn’t impress at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023 (1-2), Complexity showed even less, with just one win against Evil Geniuses (1-2).

Complexity had a tougher group with FaZe Clan (0-2) and Team Liquid (0-2), but that’s no excuse for them to collect only 29 rounds across the two bouts. And it’s not the first time Complexity crumbled when faced with top-tier teams.

This is a best-of-one game, and BIG are not particularly strong, so there is a chance that Complexity will edge out a win. However, at even money, BIG to win with at least four rounds to spare sounds is the only right play.


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