Outsiders will join G2 Esports, Natus Vincere, Heroic, Liquid and Team Vitality in the Spodek Arena on the weekend, with G2 Esports and Heroic straight through to the semi-finals awaiting quarter-finals winners.

ALL SIX #IEM KATOWICE 2023 PLAYOFF STAGE TEAMS HAVE BEEN ASSEMBLED @G2esports @heroicgg @natusvincere @TeamVitality @TeamLiquidCS
Outsiders pic.twitter.com/1khyo5Le2P

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 7, 2023

On the last day of the group stage we saw Outsiders knock out OG, Complexity send Fnatic packing, and pre-tournament favourites FaZe Clan going home early after Team Liquid defeated them in a tight three-map series.

Outsiders then booked their place in the playoffs by eliminating Complexity in a three-map thriller, while G2 Esports continued their unbeaten streak of 10 wins when they destroyed Natus Vincere 2-0 to book their semi-final spot.

G2 Esports and Heroic are the two form teams at IEM Katowice 2023, after getting through the group stage unscathed.

Heroic only lost one map during group play, to Complexity in their opening series, and they were quick to despatch Team Vitality 2-0 and book their semi-final place.

The playoffs are now set and below you will find the matches, times, and odds courtesy of GG Bet.

• Natus Vincere @ $1.57 vs Outsiders @ $2.25 | 3:30pm CET on February 10
• Team Liquid @ $2.10 vs Team Vitality @ $1.66 | 7pm CET on February 10
• Heroic vs NaVi/Outsiders winner | 3:30pm CET on February 11
• G2 Esports vs Liquid/Vitality winner | 7pm CET on February 11
• Grand Final @ 4pm CET on February 12

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Cloud9 were impressive in their two play-in games, defeating IHC (16-5) and ENCE (2-1) to qualify for the main event, but that was where the winning stopped the world number 12.

After drawing Natus Vincere as their first opponent of the group stage, they were quickly despatched by the world number six and sent to the lower bracket to face the tournament’s surprise qualifier.

The all-Mongolian squad of IHC had already lost to Cloud9 in the play-in tournament, but since that loss they had sent two of the three Brazilian teams, paiN Gaming and FURIA, packing on their way to the group stage.

With Cloud9 being 24 spots higher than IHC in the CS:GO world rankings, many would be forgiven for thinking that the best-of-three series was a forgone conclusion.

No-one told IHC that, however, as the tournament’s lowest-ranked team took both Inferno and Mirage 16-14 to send Cloud9 packing.

THEY HAVE ACTUALLY DONE IT!!!!!!@ihc_esports ELIMINATE @C9CSGO from #IEM Katowice with a CLEAN 2-0

Inferno | 16-14
Mirage | 16-14 pic.twitter.com/n7kgG6gDyJ

— Intel? Extreme Masters (@IEM) February 5, 2023

As for BIG, their series with Team Spirit was much more competitive as they went to a third and final map.

It wouldn’t have been a massive surprise if either of these teams were knocked out, with Spirit being ranked number 13 and BIG number 16 in the world.

However, with Spirit being led by Igor “w0nderful” Zhdanov, they were able to reverse sweep the series and take it 2-1 after BIG claimed the first map of the series.

After a disappointing performance on map one from the Spirit roster, w0nderful led the charge in maps two and three, topping the scoreboard with a massive +29 kill-death differential and a series-high rating of 1.37.

Spirit and IHC will now move on to the lower-bracket semi-finals, with the Mongols drawing world number three FaZe Clan and Spirit facing world number four Liquid.

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The match was a one-sided affair, with Liquid showcasing their superior skill and strategy throughout the match. Complexity, on the other hand, were unable to keep up with the pace of the game and were outmatched by Liquid in every aspect.

The first map of the series, Anubis, began with Liquid in control from the start. Complexity’s choice to pick Anubis, which was their first official match on the map, did not go as planned as they were only able to secure two rounds at the end of their T side. The first half of the map ended with Liquid blowing out COL with a 13-2 statline, largely due to Keith “NAF” Markovic’s extraordinary display.

The Canadian rifler posted 4 kills on the bombsite on defense. He was outstanding on the CT site registering 28 kills with a +14 kill-death differential and a 1.54 rating. Jonathan “ELige” Jablonowski was also crucial to the team’s victory after a three-round winning streak to win the map by 16-2.

Reacting to their choice of Anubis after the game, COL rifler Michael “Grim” Wince stated that Complexity had been performing well on Anubis in their practice rounds and felt confident in their skills on the map heading into the series, but it’s evident that they need to reevaluate and analyze their gameplay using demos to address and improve their mistakes before playing on the map again.

The second map, Overpass, started off with Liquid in a strong position, quickly gaining a lead of 8-1. Complexity managed to run a five-round winning streak to attempt a comeback as they headed into the side swap, ending the half with a 6-9 deficit.

Complexity seemed in control with the potential to force a decider match as they took the second half with more aggressive plays. H?kon “hallzerk” Fj?rli led the charge, recording the most kills and least death on the CT site (12-7), with a 1.27 rating. Despite having the upper hand during gun rounds, Complexity failed to convert their advantages and wasted multiple opportunities, resulting in a defeat on Overpass, a map that could have potentially gone in their favor in the absence of these missed chances.

The game ended with NAF being named the player of the match, having mustered 43 frags and sustained the least deaths (25). Across both maps, the 25-year old garnered a rating of 1.49 with a 94.5 ADR and 91.3% KAST.

With Complexity failing to win the game against Liquid, they have been relegated to the knockout stage of the tournament after consecutive defeats against FaZe and Liquid, resulting in their last-place finish in their group. While the North American franchise are yet to win a single map in the tournament, they will have one last opportunity to qualify for the Spring Final but will be required to win two best-of-three matches, including one against the second-place team from Group C. This will be a challenging endeavor for Complexity, as they will need to make significant improvements in their gameplay if they want to progress to the Spring Finals.

As a result of their victory, Liquid will feature in a rematch against OG, who they lost (0-2) in their opening match of the tournament. The match will surely be a closely contested one, as both teams will be looking to secure a spot in the BLAST Premier Spring Finals. Liquid will be looking to continue their winning ways and make up for their earlier loss, while OG will be looking to prove that their victory over Liquid was no fluke.

GG.BET has Liquid as the preferred winner of the bout with odds of $1.65 and OG set at $2.21. The winner of the match which is scheduled to hold on January 24, will go head to head with FaZe Clan in the Group B Grand Final fixture for a spot at the Spring Finals main event.

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FaZe Clan and OG both triumphed their winners’ matches against Team Liquid and Team Vitality, which will see them go straight through to the semi-finals on Saturday.

As FaZe Clan and OG prepare for their semi-final series, Outsiders and Heroic will be trying to wrap their heads around what went wrong in Abu Dhabi, as the world number one and two were the first two teams eliminated from the World Final.

The IEM Rio Major champions, Outsiders, were embarrassed by G2 Esports in their series, losing their map pick (Mirage) 16-1, sending the Russian organisation home in quick time.

Later in the day we saw the BLAST Premier Fall Final champions, Heroic, clash with Natus Vincere.

In what was a very competitive three-map series, Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev stood up in the clutch moments on Inferno (Map 1) and Nuke (Map 3), helping NaVi win those maps and take the series 2-1.

Heroic entered the BLAST Premier World Final as the third favourite with esports betting sites; however, with the decision to rest their best-rated player, Martin “stavn” Lund, and have Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke stand-in, the world’s top-ranked team was never going to be at its very best in Abu Dhabi.

The quarter-final bracket is now set, with the first match seeing Liquid clash with NaVi and the second featuring Vitality and G2.

FaZe Clan will await the winner of Team Vitality vs G2 Esports, and OG will play the winner of Team Liquid vs Natus Vincere.

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The two teams have now locked up two of the final three spots available via the BLAST Leaderboard, which is a points ranking based on teams’ placing at top-tier events throughout the year.

Now OG have been knocked out of the BLAST Premier Fall Final in last place, it means that G2 and Heroic cannot be displaced from the top six on the BLAST Leaderboard.

There are only two more spots left to determine, one going to the BLAST Premier Fall Final winner and the other reserved for the BLAST Leaderboard.

However, an extra spot from the BLAST Leaderboard will be given if Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, Heroic, or G2 are victorious in Denmark, as they have already qualified for the World Final.

The three teams that are fighting for those last two remaining spots are OG, Team Liquid, and Ninjas in Pyjamas. OG are the highest-placed team, but they cannot gain any more points after their early exit from the Fall Final.

Liquid are next in line, having reached the semis, which means Ninjas in Pyjamas now need to win the tournament in order to qualify.

So far six teams have qualified for the BLAST Premier World Final, leaving two spots up for grabs, with the showpiece event to get underway on December 14 in Abu Dhabi.

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Natus Vincere and Fluxo will kick off Group B with their very first meeting. NaVi are ranked no.3 in the world, while Fluxo are no.28.

Natus Vincere will be looking to defend their BLAST Premier Fall Final title, having defeated Team Vitality 2-1 in the grand final last year. NaVi have won the last three BLAST Premier finals in a row, as they also took out the BLAST Premier World Final last December and the BLAST Premier Spring Final in June this year. At their last two international events, IEM Rio Major and ESL Pro League 16, NaVi finished fifth-eighth in both, getting knocked out in the quarter-finals. Their in-game leader, Denis “electroNic” Sahripov, and the player that many regard as the greatest of all time, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, haven’t been performing anywhere near their best of late. For NaVi to take out this event, they will need to lift their game.

Fluxo have been climbing the ESL world rankings for the last 12 months. Since this time last year they have improved their ranking from 56 to 28 in the world. Over the last two months Fluxo have competed in six events, winning five of them, including a victory in the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown for North America, which gained them a spot in the Fall Final. The Brazilians are on a three-match win streak after taking out the Fall Showdown.

NaVi come into this series as very short favourites to take out this series, and there is no doubt in our mind that they will be the victor in this series. Therefore, we will be taking them at the rounds line of -12.5.

The best series on the opening day will be saved to last. The world no.9, Team Liquid, will take on G2 Esports (no.13) once again after they met three months ago in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, where Liquid won the best-of-one series 16-12.

Liquid were in very good form before they got to the IEM Rio Major, winning their IEM Road to Rio 2022 Americas RMR and finishing second in ESL Pro League Season 16. At the Major, Liquid were knocked out on the final day of the Legends Stage after they lost in a very competitive series against Team Spirit. The one thing that seems to hold Liquid back at these big events is that they haven’t won an S-Tier tournament since ESL Pro League Season 11 North America in April of 2020, which is one of the longest droughts for any team inside the top 10 of the world rankings. This Liquid roster have shown glimpses of form that could see them win an event, but they don’t have the quality to finish teams off and win the big series.

G2 Esports have also struggled with consistency over the last 12 months, with the lowest of the lows coming last month when they didn’t qualify for the IEM Rio Major. G2 finished third-fourth at the BLAST Premier Spring Final and ESL Pro League Season 16, showing they can perform at the big events, while they have beaten the best teams in the world many times. G2 will enter this event off the back of a six-week break from all competitive Counter-Strike, which will have given them plenty of time to get ready for possibly their last event of the year. Their newest additions, Justin “jks” Savage and Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen, have been with the organisation for just over three months, and these last six weeks will have given them time to mesh with their new team.

This game is a tough one to pick, and the esports betting sites agree. We will be taking the overs in the total maps market as this series looks destined to go the distance.

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