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In the IEM Katowice 2024 Play-In stage, Team Spirit showcased their prowess, securing a spot in the group stage with a 2-0 (13-2, 16-14) victory over TheMongolz.
While they dominated on Mirage, experiencing a smooth win, the battle on Ancient proved challenging as TheMongolz staged a comeback from 12-8 down, only to fall short in overtime.
Boris “magixx” Vorobiev, reflecting on the match, expressed mixed feelings due to some shaky moments.
Despite beating Apeks and TheMongolz, magixx acknowledged tougher challenges ahead but remained confident, stating that replicating their practice game performance would make facing stronger Counter-Strike rosters in the group stage manageable.
.@Team__Spirit manage to fend off the @MongolzCs in OVERTIME to close out the series 2-0 🙌
13-2 Mirage
16-14 Ancient#IEM pic.twitter.com/Ww6AboBNdq— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) February 1, 2024
In another matchup, Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski’s strategic brilliance propelled GamerLegion to a 2-1 (13-3, 5-13, 13-9) victory over Virtus.pro.
Sebastian “volt” Maloș credited a well-prepared game plan, Snax’s exceptional calling, and Frederik ‘acoR’ Gyldstrand’s AWP prowess for their success.
Virtus.pro faced difficulties on Vertigo, with GamerLegion dominating and securing a convincing victory.
Despite Virtus.pro’s comeback on Inferno, GamerLegion closed out the series with victory on Overpass, advancing to the group stage in Katowice.
.@GamerLegion close out the series against @virtuspro 2-1 and advance to the #IEM Katowice 2024 Group Stage! 👏
13-3 Vertigo
5-13 Inferno
13-9 Overpass pic.twitter.com/0IE6xxoI7v— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) February 1, 2024
M80 asserted their dominance against Rooster in a 2-0 (13-3, 13-7) victory.
Head coach Rory “dephh” Jackson, filling in for in-game leader Marcus “maNkz” Kjeldsen, showcased improved performance.
M80’s strategic prowess and individual displays led to victories on Inferno and Vertigo, earning them a chance to qualify for the IEM Katowice group stage and ultimately eliminating Rooster from the Play-In stage.
Cloud9 faced a challenging battle against BetBoom, recovering from a quadruple overtime loss on Overpass to secure a 2-1 (22-25, 13-6, 13-7) victory.
Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov’s improved AWP performance played a crucial role.
Cloud9’s resilience and strategic developments were evident on Anubis and Ancient, securing comfortable victories.
After two underwhelming performances from BetBoom Team, they have found themselves eliminated from the IEM Katowice in 13-16th place.
In a highly anticipated showdown, ENCE delivered a decisive 2-0 (13-10, 13-4) victory over Astralis, eliminating the Danish superteam from IEM Katowice early in the tournament.
The matchup held extra significance as Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander faced his former teammates, including Nicolai “device” Reedtz.
The Finnish squad showcased their prowess on Vertigo, outplaying Astralis with superior mid-rounding.
Krzysztof “Goofy” Górski and Paweł “dycha” Dycha provided crucial individual moments, securing ENCE’s victory on the first map.
The real standout performance came from gla1ve on Ancient, where he delivered a rare carry performance with an exceptional 2.25 rating.
His dominance haunted Astralis throughout the map, leaving the Danish squad seemingly broken.
With this victory, ENCE keeps their hopes alive for advancing to the main event.
Apeks triumphed over FURIA with a 2-1 (13-9, 10-13, 13-11) victory in the Play-In stage.
Dominating on Inferno with a 10-2 lead, Apeks eventually closed the map 13-9.
Mirage saw a stellar performance from Tim ‘nawwk’ Jonasson, but FURIA mounted a comeback, winning 11 rounds in a row.
The series concluded on Ancient, with Apeks securing a 9-3 lead at the break and ultimately eliminating FURIA.
With one day left in the IEM Katowice Play-In stage, four series will take place on Friday, where the winner of each will advance to the group stage and the loser will be eliminated.
Friday’s IEM Katowice Play-In matches
- Virtus.pro (-163.93) vs Cloud9 (+120) @ 4:30pm CET
- TheMongolz (+150) vs ENCE (-200) @ 4:30pm CET
- BIG (-166.67) vs Apeks (+130) @ 7:30pm CET
- Rebels Gaming (+190) vs M80 (-263.16) @ 7:30pm CET
