Who will be the teams going into the semi-finals to meet Team Liquid and Spirit?
IEM Katowice has seen countless surprises as Vitality dropped out in the group stage, Team Liquid’s new roster has exceeded expectations, and the CIS region have made multiple statements games across their four teams. This wave of upsets have carried into the quarter-finals as two tournament favorites, Astralis and Navi both fell.
Gambit, a team that had largely flown under the radar until now, beat Navi in an impressive fashion. In their first game on Overpass, Gambit overcame a 6 – 2 deficit and managed to carry this momentum into a 2 – 0 series win. Led by veteran IGL Abay “Hobbit” Khasenov, Gambit managed to keep Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev to an even 35 – 35 record across both games. Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov proved an incredible asset on the AWP as he garnered 40 frags across both games. Looking forward to the semi-finals as they face Spirit in a CIS grudge match for a finals spot.
In a much tighter game, Virtus.pro edged out Astralis in a 2 -1 win. VP had been on the upswing ever since winning Flashpoint 2 in November with main AWPer Dzhami “Jame” Ali leading the charge. However, in this series, Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis had one of his best performances by dropping 75 kills through the three games. Their next match is against the only non-CIS team left in IEM Katowice, Team Liquid.
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No matter what, we are guaranteed to see a CIS team in the finals with a team outside the top three in the HLTV global rankings winning it all.
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