As IEM Katowice draws closer, four new teams have qualified for the tournament next month. FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, Cloud9, and MAD Lions have made it through their online brackets and earned a spot at the main event.
The four teams from North America and Europe have been decided for IEM Katowice. (Photo courtesy IEM)
G2 struggled early on against the Polish AGO side, but were able to clean up the series in three maps to move on. In the qualifier match, G2 faced off against MAD Lions (formerly Tricked Esport). This match was even closer than the first for G2. Map one went into double overtime, which MAD Lions clutched out. G2 went on to reverse sweep the series with 16-14 and 16-13 wins.
FaZe took care of business with a 2-0 match win against ARCY (formerly Aristocracy), right off the bat. Against ENCE in the qualifier match the teams both won each others’ map, sending the series to a tiebreaker. The final map was neck and neck, until Brazilian star Marcelo “coldzera” David pulled off a 1v5 ace on the attacking ENCE team. FaZe then cleaned up the map and won the series.
In the final qualifier spot from Europe, MAD Lions had to go through a gauntlet. They started out by beating Heroic cleanly, then lost a close series to G2. The Danish squad then had to go against Illuminar Gaming in the losers’ bracket. After barely escaping a three-map series with an overtime win, MAD Lions faced off against ENCE for the final spot. The Lions pulled off a convincing 2-0 series upset to secure their spot at the main event.
Across the pond, Cloud9’s run through the North American qualifier started off easy. The former ATK roster 2-0’d Riot Squad and INTZ without letting either reach double digit rounds. In the upper bracket finals, Complexity managed to go 1-1 against C9. However, the final map was a 16-3 roll which sent C9 to finals.
In the best-of-five, Cloud9 started with a free map win which their opponents in MIBR quickly equalized. As C9 went on match point, MIBR tried to fight back on Inferno. A near ace from Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo promised to keep them in the game. But Josh “oSee” Ohm clutched out a 1v3 to steal all the momentum. C9 closed out the map and booked their ticket to Katowice.
These four teams join the already announced teams at IEM Katowice. Only one spot remains, and it will go to the winner of the Oceanic qualifier next week. Teams will have over a month to prepare their best Counter-Strike for the first big tournament of 2020. Check back at Hotspawn for more CS:GO coverage leading up to IEM Katowice.
