Upcoming Katowice IEM 2023

[PupperChan]

IEM Katowice is coming back for another year this February! During January 31 - February 12, there will be online tournaments for qualifying teams to compete for a spot at THE legendary esports & gaming event in Poland. The ICONIC Spodek Stadium will host the world's best CS:GO teams for the 3rd time now where 16 of those teams will fight it out for a $1M prize pool a GUARANTEED position in the next BIG INTEL MAJOR. 

With the recent controversy between Poland and Russia, entry barriers will be temporarily lifted exclusively for those players.

[steveo]

cool ! man thanks for the heads up 

[PupperChan]

Free Expo Tickets?!

Finally, for 3 years, the expo has finally been opened up for visitors who want to watch the tournament COMPLETELY FOR FREE!
There will be extra tournaments like the StarCraft II EPT Championship, and ESL Impact, the all women's CS:GO competition.
All sorts of activities will be available including a dedicated area where you can play games yourself, exclusive showcases about the latest gaming technology and you can even win free gaming ware in special events.  
 

Edited December 18, 2022 by PupperChan

[PupperChan]

It’s incredibly limited and despite the picture making it seem small.. the place is actually huge!

[PupperChan]

I had a friend who went there so I can vouch!

You’ll have to wait in a REALLY long line to get in. Perhaps they changed it for this year but who knows yet. It’s still getting developed

[steveo]

thats super cool man u should go 

[PupperChan]

Nah, its only katowice

[PupperChan]

Ill consider going for the real majors when stakes are high

[PupperChan]

So far only 3 teams are guaranteed a spot.

Outsiders

FaZe

Vitality

The others will have to work their way there in the upcoming mini katowice selection tournaments

[PupperChan]

I miss majors like these when all the OG teams get together and all the promotions hosted by casinos🥲

Won’t be seeing them till April

[steveo]

oh i get it still alot spots left 

[steveo]

seem like it would be fun to go tho

[PupperChan]

Not worth the hassle / money. I’d rather not visit Poland

[PupperChan]

Since this is a much larger event than Blast, we should be expecting dozens of additional rewards to be added on the 500 promotion.

 

[PupperChan]

Im talking minimum 2 rewards per match with rewards $10 to even $35!

[PupperChan]

Blast only had 80k people watching on stream and a couple hundreds in the stadium (dead crowd)

[PupperChan]

ASTRALIS DREAMS OF GETTING INTO IEM KATOWICE IN JEOPARDY

After the return of the legendary Nicolai 'device' Reedtz  4 time major winner (2x mvp) into Astralis - One of the core members from when the team was at their peak from 2016-2021, the bars were set really high as fans anticipate their return to change the esports scene yet again but dreams are on the verge of getting destroyed after suffering a defeat from Copenhagen Flames in the final of CCT Central Europe Series 4. This is the 4th time CPH has won these EU series preventing Astralis from qualifying for IEM Katowice...

It was a close game that could have gone either way although odds were heavily in favor of Astralis winning. Their failure to win this ONE event has most likely knocked them out of contention to qualify for the FINAL SPOT of IEM Katowice 2023 Play-In which is the smaller event to get the best teams into the main Katowice.

It was a tough battle with Evil Geniuses and paiN for the final ESL world ranking spots, what's even more is that they're at a huge disadvantage before device joined so it was a really tight schedule to win any tournaments at all. 

\

[PupperChan]

Device left Astralis in early 2021 and his reason was:

Device requested the organization for him to be transferred over to Ninjas in Pyjamas, as he wished to “work out of Stockholm and still be able to have a team and organization close to him”.

But later rejoined back because his time in NiP was full of terrible runs. 

Device has replaced Farlig to boost Astralis's firepower

[PupperChan]

Based on what I'm seeing, ASTRALIS is definitely the better team than CPH despites stats saying otherwise. CPH Regali as the awper for his team is the main reason why they're winning so much in the first place. A team full of talents that can keep up with this man's skill. 

But because Astralis broke off the contract with K0nfig, a long time member and stand-in for Heroic at BLAST is what caused the team to spiral downwards. Replacing him with Mistr from Australis Talents was a huge mistake and the close game between CPH could've been over with a 2-0 for Astralis...

[PupperChan]

LIKE cmon... 27 Kills in 3 MAPS

This was the worst performance by him thus far and costed his team a position. I can't even imagine device's fustration right now. Poor guy can't catch a break from his lackluster teammates. We need to see him back in a major!

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by PupperChan

[PupperChan]

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT.

THESE ARE THE 24 TEAMS INVITED TO KATOWICE. LETS GO PRINT SOME $.

Will G2 keep up the momentum from the last tournament and claim another MAJOR?

Can't wait to find out this February 😄 

[PupperChan]

So now it's confirmed ASTRALIS will not be joining but instead watch from the sidelines.. rip device career. The org's fault for booting a prominent member like k0nfig. GG Astralis. Played yourself.

[PupperChan]

For this Tournament and current map pools, I doubt NaVi will make it very far. Dust2 was their best map and for that to be removed is a huge slap in the face.
Anubis is looking to be like anybody’s taking right now

Edited December 20, 2022 by PupperChan

[PupperChan]

For the KATOWICE play-ins - 

FURIA, OG and C9 has a really high chance of reaching finals. High hopes on OG for what they did at BLAST. 

[PupperChan]

8 Teams from Play-Ins that could reach the main event:

- OG

- C9

- FURIA

- Complexity

- ENCE

- SPIRIT 

- FNATIC

- NiP

Spirit and Fnatic on rough grounds. Might get upset by Sprout or BiG might claim their spot. Just how am feelin

Edited December 21, 2022 by PupperChan