The push for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive IEM Katowice playoffs has finished. Eight teams have punched their ticket to the Champions Stage, and a Spodek full of fans awaits them.





Plenty of pick ‘ems were punished, and plenty more were still holding on as far into the Legends Stage as the very last series, as we saw a couple of favorites falter and some sleepers put doubters to rest. In this article we’re going to take a short look at the performances of the teams who have advanced, ahead of a playoffs preview piece set to come out before the quarterfinals begin.





Astralis









Only a drop of blood was spilled as the defending champions made their way back to Champions Stage. ﻿Astralis﻿ made quick work of ﻿compLexity Gaming﻿ in the opening round, and then made even quicker work of ﻿Cloud9 ﻿ with a resounding 16-0 on Train. Despite losing the first map of their qualification series to ﻿Renegades﻿ in overtime, the great Danes responded with two straight maps to secure the popular 3-0 pick ‘em.





Nicolai "﻿device﻿" Reedtz was mighty impressive throughout the stage, with a 1.40 HLTV rating throughout that led all players. Even more impressive is that, according to the players, the whole team is under the weather, with Lukas "﻿gla1ve﻿" Rossande and coach Danny "﻿Zonic﻿" Sørensen saying they’ve never felt more sick. Their gameplay has certainly been sick for the entirety of 2018, so they should be used to this.





Liquid





﻿Team Liquid﻿ was the more impressive 3-0 team, based on the higher caliber of talent they faced alone. This is not to say that Liquid is better than Astralis, but with no losses against teams like ﻿Ninjas In Pyjamas﻿ and ﻿Natus Vincere﻿, Liquid definitely had a smoother drive on what should’ve been a bumpier road. Liquid hasn’t even reached their highest gear yet, as Jake “﻿Stewie2k﻿” Yip has yet to really break out and return to superstar form, finishing the stage with an equal K/D ratio. If Stewie wakes up and partners his usual stellar play with Russel "﻿Twistzz﻿" Van Dulken and Nicholas "﻿nitr0﻿" Cannella, who were both awesome on this stage, Liquid will be poised to make a deep, deep playoff run.





MiBR









To negate a cold start, sometimes you need a cold finish. Following a shocking 16-3 loss to Cloud9 to open the Legends Stage, Marcelo "﻿coldzera﻿" David is off to an early start on his goal of becoming the best player in the world. Coldzera was terrific in the matchups against compLexity and NiP, but his true standout performance was against ﻿G2 Esports﻿ on Inferno, posting a 35/18 K/D ratio with two clutch triples late in the map. One of the them was to open up the B site with the Deagle, and then holding off an A retake to secure map point. We also witnessed a return to form for Fernando "﻿fer﻿" Alvarenga, who had been struggling as of late, but if ﻿Made in Brazil﻿ is going to stand a chance in playoffs, the returning Epitácio "﻿TACO﻿" de Melo and João "﻿felps﻿" Vasconcellos are both going to have to step up soon.





Na’Vi





Like I said in the Legends Stage preview piece: welcome to the ﻿s1mple﻿ show. Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev played like a star yet again, as it’s clear he doesn’t think “best player in the world” is more than just a one year gig. S1mple finished near the top in both K/D differential and rating amongst all players, just behind coldzera and dev1ce. In the overtime map against ﻿Team Vitality﻿, s1mple notched 42 kills and pulled off a massive AWP triple in round 36 to force the second of eventually three overtimes.





But the star does not shine alone, Egor "﻿flamie﻿" Vasilyev has been terrific as well throughout Legends Stage, and he even pulled off his own late-game triple against Vitality. With two young guns running wild, Na’Vi are looking very dangerous heading into Champions Stage. Na’Vi has the most major grand finals appearances without a win themselves, with three, and flamie and Ioann "﻿Edward﻿" Sukhariev have been there for all of them (Danylo "﻿Zeus ﻿" Teslenko has as well, but he has a major championship win with ﻿Gambit Esports﻿ at PGL Krakow 2017). The journey won’t be easy, but the long wait may be over soon for Na’Vi.





Renegades

Never miss a moment in esports. Match notifications, latest esports news, and more. Get the Upcomer app now.









The boys from Australia have done it again. After a surprising 3-0 performance in the Challengers Stage, ﻿Renegades﻿ had all the momentum heading into Legends, as well as recent experience holding their own against top tier teams despite relatively new additions. I think someone tried to warn people about how dangerous Renegades have been, but it seems like their competition didn’t listen. After a close win against ﻿ENCE eSports﻿ to open group play, it got even closer against the juggernauts of ﻿Faze Clan﻿. But Renegades would surprise FaZe throughout the whole map, including resetting FaZe after both pistol rounds, two huge shifts in momentum that would be vital in a very narrow 16-14 victory.





After one juggernaut came another in Astralis, but the boys proved that even gods can bleed, taking map one in overtime, handing Astralis their first loss on Mirage since the beginning of December. Did that only make Astralis angry? It seemingly did, as they rolled over the Aussies in the next two maps to secure top seed and extra time spent pounding flu medicine. But Renegades wouldn’t let their brawl with the best get them down, as they took it to Vitality in the next series, dominating game one on Dust2 and playing off a stellar 31 kill performance from Justin “﻿jks-﻿” Savage on map three while holding off a potential comeback. Renegades are Legends. All together now: yeah the boys.





ENCE





The first to qualify in the final day, and boy, oh boy, did ENCE have a massive hole to climb out of just to get there. At one point, ENCE were down 14-10 on Train on map two of a series they were losing to BIG while also in the 0-2 bracket. Had BIG won two more rounds, ENCE would have been eliminated 0-3. But ENCE strung together six rounds in a row to survive map two, including rounds they really had no business winning. Finally with a Legends Stage map win under their belts, they woke up on Overpass with four of their five players getting 20+ kills to make it into the next round of group stage play.





They carried their momentum into their series against G2, where Aleksi "﻿Aleksib﻿" Virolainen terrorized the French like it was 1793, with 63 kills across two maps. He had more kills on Mirage (32) than on Dust2 (31), and Dust2 was the map that went to overtime! New papa Aleksi "﻿allu﻿" Jalli saw the playoffs on the horizon, his first since Katowice 2015 with NiP, and went to work against ﻿Avangar﻿, collecting 45 kills across two maps to secure the Champions Stage spot. At one point they were two rounds away from an 0-3 exit, but instead they won six straight maps to establish themselves as Legends. Don’t call it a comeback, call it the comeback.





Ninjas in Pyjamas









I have never been so happy about being wrong. I love NiP. I got my start writing with NiP. But the hope in my heart wavered after how shaky they looked in the Challengers Stage, limping into the Legends Stage with a 3-2 record. But the longest road can only be travelled by the worthiest legends, and a true legend in Dennis "﻿dennis﻿" Edman finally arrived in the pivotal final series against Vitality, after he had struggled throughout most of the stage.





Patrik "﻿f0rest﻿" Lindberg and Jonas "﻿Lekr0﻿" Olofsson were solid throughout the whole stage, but the late emergence of dennis was the difference in the last series, as his play led to a 14-1 halftime lead on the final map, before NiP would eventually close it out. The Ninjas are back in the major playoffs for the first time in nearly three years (MLG Columbus 2016). Welcome back, boys.





FaZe Clan





It’s amazing but also really strange to see such a talented team limp its away across the finish line. This was one of my top five teams that I had the utmost confidence in just before the stage began. The other four (Astralis, Liquid, MiBR, and Na’Vi) all qualified with either 3-0 or 3-1 records. But FaZe faltered in the middle of their Legends run with a three map loss streak, to ﻿Hellraisers﻿ and AVANGAR in rounds two and three, and then a stunning first map loss to compLexity to put them at risk of elimination.





Not only did they squeak past compLexity with a 16-14 win on the final map, but in the first map against Cloud9, they had a 15-4 lead and let C9 get 10 rounds in a row before finally waking up and again escaping with a 16-14. FaZe advanced to the playoffs after a win on Dust2 over a depleted C9, despite the impressive efforts of Timothy “﻿autimatic﻿autimatic﻿” Ta, but this team has a lot more work to do before the Spodek stage. It can’t all be placed on the shoulders of Nikola "﻿NiKo﻿" Kovač, established veterans such as Olof "﻿Olofmeister﻿" Kajbjer Gustafsson need to step up, as he’s been almost silent throughout the Legends stage with the exception of the near collapse map against Cloud9. Let’s hope it’s just a phaze.





Photos via ESL





Who impressed you in the Legends Stage? Who ruined your pick ‘ems? Let us know in the comments.