Things we learned at IEM Katowice

Intel Extreme Masters Katowice boasted nine out of ten world’s best teams where we saw Astralis prevail and take yet another title this year. With so many different storylines surrounding the competitive scene, we took out a few that marked the event in Spodek Arena.

Astralis is the best team in the world

Even if there were any questions coming into Katowice, the Danes made sure they got answered. In the current year, Astralis won the most prestigious title at the E-LEAGUE Major in Atlanta, overcoming Virtus.Pro and showing that their issues regarding match closure was long-forgotten history. Same two opponents met in Las Vegas at the Dreamhack Masters, but the Polish team came out on top with 2-1 scoreline.

The fact that worried Astralis fans wasn’t that they lost against their arch rivals, it was the way it happened - even though they did secure a win on overpass, they got completely blown out of the server on both nuke and train, securing only seven rounds in the process (3-16 ; 4-16).

At IEM, individual performances from dupreeh and Xyp9x (who was named the MVP) show how much versatility there is in Rossander’s hands leading up to future events. Katowice were the final nail in the coffin of people who doubted Astralis and they will surely be the team to fear in all coming events.

Astralis is the team to beat going forwards (courtesy of ESL)

Best-of-one, round-robin is a streaky system

IEM Katowice group format featured six teams in both groups, playing one map against each opponent. The team that placed first in the group secured a direct spot in the semi-finals, while teams who place second and third advanced to quarter-finals.

This format was introduced way back in Counter Strike 1.6 where some of the major tournaments used the same rules. The main concern behind it is that all group matches are played on the same day, which eliminates the period for teams to cool down, recuperate or even allow them to have an off-day in terms of performance.

Even though some of the matchups provided a perfect viewing experience in terms of upsets, some of them might have been caused by the fact that underdog teams can play a best-of-one game on a map they can foresee even before the veto phase even starts.

The first example that comes to mind is Heroic’s miraculous run where in one instance they could’ve been eliminated for the tournament with a loss against Virtus.Pro (they won 16-14 on nuke), yet they managed to secure a direct spot in the playoffs, which proves how flawed the format can be.

Another situation that took place in group A displayed having three-way-tie between FaZe, Astralis and Immortals where they had to face each other in tiebreaker matches in order to determine the playoff spots. Having a situation like that does enhance the viewer’s experience as mentioned before, but it creates an unnecessary procedure that doesn’t happen in Swiss or GSL systems, for example.

FaZe might become a top contender

Ever since signing Finn “karrigan” Andersen back in October, FaZe Clan have been gradually improving their performance over the months. For a team that ached for strategical guidance, Andersen is exactly a type of leader that has the power to unite all the fragging power and combine them in a working system.

With their final acquisition in former mousesports star Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, the team does look like a force to be reckoned with, especially considering the lack of practice coming into the event. In the past few months, NiKo was both the star player and in-game leader of mouz, which damaged his performance in latter stages. If we take the historical context into consideration, Kovač did show his best individual performances at events like Gaming Paradise qualifier where he stood in for Team Kinguin or in the early day of mouz under Fatih “gob b” Dayik.

He finally joined a team where the whole game can be worked around him and there is no doubt that he can flourish in that system. It might be too early to predict, but the overall performance displayed from FaZe did raise a few eyebrows, in a positive way.

Fnatic needs more time

One of the most successful lineups in the history of Counter Strike: Global Offensive re-joined back together following a weak overall performance at Atlanta Major and the events leading up to it. Admittedly, fnatic did place top four at E-LEAGUE, but their performance didn’t encourage too many people that they can become a dominant force once again.

Back in 2015, when the squad got dennis or board and did the famous run and win straight six events, they were known for amazing firepower and there weren’t too many teams that could match them in that field.

With JW and flusha re-uniting with olofmeister, dennis and KRiMZ it seemed that all the differences were put aside and they are ready to reclaim the throne.

Following all the recent shuffles, teams like G2, FaZe and Na’Vi all signed players who enhance their fragging potential to another level, now there is a big task ahead of fnatic’s coach Jumpy to find a balance between having potentially strong aimers and implementing them into the strategical approach that he’s known for.

So far we did see glimpses of what this team can do, but they ended up being eliminated in groupstages of both Dreamhack Masters and IEM Katowice. In a recent stream clip, Wecksell did stress out that he believes that the roster has potential to become even stronger than before, I still feel that it’s inevitable for them to take things slow and bring back the chemistry that made them win consecutive titles before.

Fnatic can pose a threat in the future (courtesy of ESL)

Immortals will profit from fnx’s experience

In the past year, Immortals was a kind of team that cruised around top ten rankings and having decent placings in general, but they were always known for not being a team that can connect consecutive series wins over top tier competition, always missing one piece of the puzzle to succeed.

Their short spell with former Luminosity coach Wilton “Zews” Prado didn’t turn out to be a successful one and after losing their young star Joao 'felps' Vasconcellos to SK gaming, it seemed that the team might be drifting away from the placing they desired.

With a direct swap between two organisations, Immortals secured the services of veteran player Lincoln “fnx” Lau. After falling short to qualify for Dreamhack Masters with zakk as a stand-in, even losing to compLexity, second-best Brazilian team lacked having a consistent rifler who can fill a different role within the team.

In Katowice, fnx showed that he be the constant figure on Counter-Terrorist side, but his T side flexibility and composure in clutch situations gave them an even bigger edge in closing matches that go further in rounds. Admittedly, Lau is a kind of player that can experience occasional lacks of motivation, but I feel that a move like this exactly what he needed to revive his individual game.

fnx is adapting to a new role within Immortals (credit to HLTV.org)

Na’Vi have problems winning series

Past few event have shown a clear problem for the CIS-based team in winning series over top teams. Considering that Natus Vincere have advanced from group stage phase in all three events this year sounds impressive, but if you take into consideration that they lost all three matches in quarter-finals proves that they still have few issues to fix.

Mitigating fact might be that finally we saw GuardiaN delivering performances with the AWP, even though he still hasn’t reached the accuracy that made him join the context of being the best player of the world. Individual performances have launched Na’Vi into playoffs, but they need to use the following few events to improve their weak sides and evaluate if this mixture of players can be a competitor, or they really lack strategical in-game leadership they had with Zeus.

Na’Vi need more strategical balance (credit to HLTV.org)

CS:GO has never been so unpredictable

Heroic advancing to semi-finals with ten days of practice with JUGi, Virtus.Pro eliminated in groups after losing on their three strongest maps, support players winning MVP awards.

Facts like this do make you wonder whether this tournament was just a big combination of weird circumstances or that the game has moved to another sphere where on any given day, everyone can cause upsets.

It has to be confessed, upsets did occur in a best-of-one format and can happen on a certain day, but the general situation within the scene generates so many questions regarding the future events.

Can Astralis keep their current form and maintain dominance?

Is Faze the real deal or this was just a one-off?

What can we expect from G2?

How strong can SK become if Fallen retains his consistency?

Where does fnatic fit once they get back together?

Future holds answers to all of these questions, but it’s certain that we are in for a treat with another competitive year of Counter Strike:Global Offensive.

by Toni “anakintm” Milicevic, featured writer for GG.bet. You can reach him on twitter.com/anak1ntm