From February 13 to March 3, Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Katowice Major 2019 is being held in Poland. 24 teams are competing for a million dollars and eight slots in the playoff tournament, which will allow you to start the next major from the main stage.
From 13 to 17 February, new Challengers Stage was held IEM Katowice Major 2019 where eight regional Minor and six teams that previously secured a slot in FACEIT Major – London 2018, qualified. The last two slots were played in an exclusive tournament for the teams that took third places in the minors.
16 participants were placed in one group, where they played according to the Swiss system with matches in BO1 format. Only eight teams then went on ahead to the next stage of the competition, The New Legends Stage. From 20 to 24 February New Legends stage was played. Here, the top 8 teams of the previous major were invited: Astralis, MIBR, Natus Vincere, BIG, Team Liquid, compLexity Gaming, HellRaisers and FaZe Clan. 16 teams competed for eight slots in the playoffs.
Playoffs stage will take place from February 28 to March 3. Matches will take place at the prestigious Spodek Arena. Participants will be placed in the single-elimination bracket with games being played in the BO3 format. The champion will receive $ 500 thousand.
The reason we have picked this match for you is that it is the match of Team Liquid, in one of the biggest competitions in the world. The team in the past couple of months has shown serious form, which includes beating the best team in the world, Astralis to lift a title. Therefore, it will a great practice to analyze how this side has risen in ranks in a matter of months.
Team Liquid
Just over a month ago, the Liquid side was victorious in the iBUYPOWER Masters IV. The side showed solid form since the start of the competition. They initially beat the Brazilian side of Luminosity Gaming, after that they came out victorious against Ghost Gaming, ending their group stage phase without dropping a single game. In the Playoffs, the side had an easy encounter against Fnatic, winning 16-6 on Cache and 16-9 on Dust II. In the final against Astralis, the team didn’t have the best of starts, since they lost the first map, Inferno 16-4. However, the team was not crushed by the pressure and won on Overpass and Dust II 16-11, claiming their first title of the year. In the process, the side also got the redemption of the 1-3 defeat inflicted by Astralis in the final of ESL Pro League Season 8 – Finals
Brutal Liquid
After winning the iBUYPOWER Masters IV, the side of CS: GO took second place in the team ranking of HLTV.org dropping Na’Vi to third place. NAF Keith Markovich from Team Liquid was named the best player of iBUYPOWER Masters IV according to statistics of HLTV.org. In almost all tournament matches, the overall NAF rating was higher than one, and he showed the best game during a meeting with Ghost Gaming at Inferno. This is the fourth MVP medal in the NAF career. He received the past three for the StarLadder i-League Invitational # 2, cs_summit 2 and SuperNova Malta 2018 tournaments. Markovic was also ranked sixth in the ranking of the best players in 2018 according to the ranking of HLTV.org.
IEM Katowice Campaign
A couple of days ago, Team Liquid defeated Natus Vincere in the third round of the IEM Katowice Major 2019 main stage in CS: GO and qualified for the playoffs of the tournament. The meeting ended with a score of 2-0 – 16:14 on Mirage and 16: 9 on Dust II.
The side of Team Liquid looks like the main contender for the second slot in the final. The main stage of the composition completed with statistics 3: 0. In the decisive match for reaching the playoffs, the team coped with Natus Vincere. The side also previously defeated the AVANGAR and Ninjas in Pyjamas to set themselves off to a perfect start to the Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII campaign. All these series of impressive results was after the arrival of Jake “Stewie2k” Yip and coach Eric “adreN” Haag. Eric “adreN” Haag took the position of coach for Team Liquid at the end of December. He was the replacement for Wilton “zews” Prado, who moved in MIBR with Epitacio “TACO” de Melo.
AdreN the man
AdreN represented Team Liquid from January 2015 to June 2016. Haag was the main sniper and captain of the CS: GO squad. With the team, he took 3-4 place in the MLG Major Championship: Columbus. Before signing, adreN, and Stewie2k, Team Liquid became the champion of SuperNova Malta 2018. In the grand finals, they beat NRG Esports with a score of 2-0. Kit “NAF” Markovic became the MVP of SuperNova Malta 2018. The star of Team Liquid finished the tournament with an average rating of 1.31. NAF showed the best game in the final against NRG Esports – on the Inferno map, his rating was 1.64. So it looks like Team liquid is had been improving since last November 2018. However, the arrival of a new duo has just asserted the dominance of the team.
The best team in North America is only changing its game; Natus Vincere needs to prepare as best as possible for a potential meeting with the side i.e. Na’Vi will have to fight FaZe first. The lineup will have several days for this – the semi-final will be held on March 2. However, before thinking about Na’Vi, they need to see off ENCE eSports, which really shouldn’t be such a tough job.
Ence have been impressive nonetheless, they have made its way from the New Challengers Stage and just survived the New Legends phase with 3-2 and will be lucky to get a game against the team in hot form, Liquid.
Final Verdict
Team Liquid Victory
Odds on bookmakers
| Bookmakers | Team Liquid Odds | Ence Esports Odds | ||
| European | American | European | American | |
| GG.bet | 1.30 | -333.33 | 3.47 | +247.00 |
| 1Xbet | 1.13 | -769.23 | 3.58 | +258.00 |
| Bet365 | 1.30 | -333.33 | 3.40 | +240.00 |
| Betway | 1.30 | -333.33 | 3.20 | +220.00 |
Shehryar is a professional eSports analyst with a particular affinity for CS:GO, LoL, and DOTA. He covers major eSports events across the world for WagerBop.
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