Preview of IEM Katowice 2020
Ihor MatusGeneral information
Intel Extreme Masters 2020 will be a great switchover from one season to another. IEM Katowice 2020 will start on 24 February and will end up on the first day of spring, 1 March. The prize pool of the event will consist of $500,000, and the winner will obtain $250,000. The division of the money will be done by 16 teams and 7 out of them got direct invitations. The other contestants had to pass regional qualifiers or other championships.
The teams will start from the group stage. There they are seeded into two groups with 8 teams where they will be fighting in the double-elimination bracket. Three best teams from each group will make it to the playoff. The leaders of the groups will pass to the semifinal immediately whereas the contestants taking the 2-3 places in groups will play in the quarterfinal. The other teams will leave the competition.
Group A
Favorites
Astralis (position in the HLTV rating — #1)
Win odds: 3.30
Loss odds: 1.30
The main favorite of passing the group stage and of winning the championship is Astralis for sure. The team has been keeping the status of one of the strongest representatives of the professional CS:GO stage for a long time. Additionally, Astralis has been located on the top of the HLTV world rating for the longest time. Astralis is represented by the best players and the team is managed by the best team. The only thing that may make us doubt about the success of the Danish team is their recent result at BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 where the players went home having had no win at the championship for the first time in 3,5 years. As for the rest, we are sure that the team is to get prepared for the tournament well and show good results. We should mark that Astralis is one of some contestants that has an outcome ‘Will not win the tournament’ and its betting odds are 1,30 which is quite a lot for such an event. On the other hand, paying attention to the fact that Astralis was playing at BLAST Premier, we accept some doubts related to the players’ success in this championship.
Astralis roster and rating of the players:
Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz — 1.15
Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen — 1.09
Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth — 1.02
Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander — 1.05
Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif — 1.15
Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen — coach
FaZe Clan (position in the HLTV rating — #9)
Win odds: 7.00
Loss odds: 1.08
FaZe Clan has been showing great results lately and the team is in a great shape. Now the players have a series of six won matches. At IEM Katowice 2020, the esportsmen managed to pass through the European qualifier having beaten ARCY and ENCE. At the recently completed regular season of BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020, FaZe cruelly defeated their opponents NiP and Team Liquid and made it to BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 Finals. The Europeans beat the latter twice with the score of 2-0. Fighting with Ninjas in Pyjamas, they also lost no map. We treat this team as one of three contenders to make it out of the group. If FaZe keeps on performing with the same success as it happened at BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 Regular Season, the Europeans have a chance to pass to the final and, probably, to win the championship which is less likely.
FaZe Clan roster and rating of the players:
Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard — 1.13
Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač — 1.17
Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer Gustafsson — 1.00
Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David — 1.10
Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants — 1.09
Janko ‘YNk’ Paunović — coach
NAVI (position in the HLTV rating — #6)
Win odds: 8.00
Loss odds: 1.06
After Natus Vincere made a change in their CS:GO roster, the team immediately started to play on an absolutely another level. s1mple’s new role of the main AWP and Perfecto’s move to the rifler position was not in vain and, as a result, NAVI took the second place at ICE Challenge 2020 and became the winners in their group at BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 Regular Season. We should especially mark that at the last battle, they beat Team Vitality twice and also defeated Astralis and Complexity Gaming. We almost have no doubts that Natus Vincere will be able to make it out of the group and keep on fighting in the final stage as there are many teams that may lose against them. At the first battle, by the way, NAVI will fight with one of the favorites, FaZe Clan, and this meeting will be very interesting.
NAVI roster and rating of the players:
Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilev — 1.02
Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev — 1.27
Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov — 1.24
Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov — 1.10
Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy — 1.02
Andrey ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskiy — coach
Team Vitality (position in the HLTV rating — #7)
Win odds: 9.00
Loss odds: 1.04
The last favorite of the group is Team Vitality for sure. Group A is represented by four strong contestants, so the fact that we treat the representatives of the first quartette as favorites is pretty interesting. But we must include the team with the strongest players in the world according to HLTV. Team Vitality has proven many times that the players are the best on the French arena and in the international battle, the esportsmen surpassed their enemies. At the last tournament the French players participated in, Vitality’s representatives lost. At BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 Regular Season, they beat Natus Vincere, and after that, the players sensationally lost a battle with Complexity Gaming and moved down to the lower bracket. There they were met by NAVI who were glad to win a rematch and passed to the final. Therefore, Vitality could not provide themselves with a slot at the final stage of the spring league of BLAST Premier. This very fact makes us doubt that Team Vitality will pass to the playoff of IEM Katowice 2020. The players got to one group with Natus Vincere and two other strong teams that may beat the French.
Team Vitality roster and rating of the players:
Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire — 1.02
Cédric ‘RpK’ Guipouy — 1.00
Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut — 1.39
Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin — 1.07
Richard ‘shox’ Papillon — 0.90
Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam — coach
Teams that have a chance
Fnatic (position in the HLTV rating — #4)
Win odds: 19.0
Fnatic is a team that may not be considered to be the main favorite of the tournament or the group but we could not also call the Swedish outsiders. Now JW and his teammates holds the fourth position in the world rating created by HLTV but the gaming shape of the team is quite questionable. This is stated at least due to the fact that we have not seen Fnatic fighting since ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals. After that tournament the Swedish pulled themselves out from EPICENTER 2019 to have an anticipatory winter rest. It would be useless to speak about last Fnatic’s results as 2,5 months could bring a drastic good or bad change. In total, we think that Fnatic has chances to pass to the playoff but they are not as high as the favorites’. The recent updates of the maps may held the Swedish to enlarge the array of their tactics and that is why they are likely to be able to surprise their enemies.
Fnatic roster and rating of the players:
Freddy ‘KRiMZ’ Johansson — 1.09
Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell — 1.00
Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin — 1.19
Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist — 1.03
Maikil ‘Golden’ Selim — 0.93
Andreas ‘Samuelsson’ Samuelsson — coach
Outsiders
Ninjas in Pyjamas (position in the HLTV rating — #14)
Win odds: 26.0
Apart from the fact that NiP is a team that has not been able to get into the necessary chape, the collective has recently had reshuffles. On 21 January, f0rest left the roster as he had decided to join his teammates in Team Dignitas. By the way, he had been playing with him in Ninjas in Pyjamas. His place was taken by nawwk, the Swedish esportsman who used to play for various Tier-3 teams. His debut with NiP should be called a failure for sure. At BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 Regular Season, the team performed against FaZe Clan, MiBR, and Team Liquid. In battles with FaZe and Liquid, Ninjas in Pyjamas lost with the score of 2-0, and fighting with MiBR, the players got a difficult win with the result 2-1. NiP got to Group A where they are not to meet easy opposition, so we are sure that the players will not make it to the playoff. Even if they can do it, it will be a sensation to some extent.
Ninjas in Pyjamas roster and rating of the players:
Fredrik ‘REZ’ Sterner — 0.98
Jonas ‘Lekr0’ Olofsson — 0.99
Nicolas ‘Plopski’ Gonzalez Zamora — 0.91
Simon ‘twist’ Eliasson — 0.92
Tim ‘nawwk’ Jonasson — 1.02
Björn ‘THREAT’ Pers — coach
Renegades (position in the HLTV rating — #22)
Win odds: 26.0
In the middle of January, Renegades had a replacement in their roster. DickStacy, who was said to be the face of his roster, left the team to continue his career in another club. His position was taken by Hatz who had played for another Australian team, ORDER. Together with him, the roster managed to pass to IEM Katowice 2020 through the elimination round in the Oceania countries and at DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020, Renegades won the 2 place. It is rather good if we remember the level of the team, but it is not enough to get prepared for what is going to happen with the players at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020.
Renegades roster and rating of the players:
Chris ‘dexter’ Nong — 1.17
Liam ‘malta’ Schembri — 0.96
Simon ‘Sico’ Williams — 1.14
Joshua ‘INS’ Potter — 1.16
Jordan ‘Hatz’ Bajic — 1.06
Cloud9 (position in the HLTV rating — #20)
Win odds: 34.0
Last time when Cloud9, as well as Renegades, appeared at the official match happened at DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020. Unlike the Australians, C9 did not take the second place at the tournament but the 5-6 position. There they lost a match against Renegades, and the battle with Virtus.pro resulted in a win for the players. Despite the fact the esportsmen representing the tag Cloud9 have been playing with each other for a long time, they still cannot get into an optimal shape. Taking this fact and their recent performance into account, we reach an easy conclusion that C9 is one of the main outsiders of the tournament. In our opinion, the players have no chance to surprise the audience and JT with his teammates will be one of the first to leave the tournament.
Cloud9 roster and rating of the players:
Johnny ‘JT’ Theodosiou — 0.92
Ian ‘motm’ Hardy — 1.17
Joshua ‘oSee’ Ohm — 1.14
Ricky ‘floppy’ Kemery — 1.19
Aran ‘Sonic’ Groesbeek — 1.10
Tiaan ‘T.c.’ Coertzen — coach
Group B
Favorites
mousesports (position in the HLTV rating — #2)
Win odds: 7.00
Loss odds: 1.08
mousesports is one of the strongest CS:GO teams at the moment, and maybe even the strongest. They had a great end last year. The team won three LAN finals in a row and took the second place at EPICENTER 2019 where the players were close to the victory. 2020 started with a win at ICE Challenge 2020 for mousesports and a prize of $125,000 which was quite good. Considering their gaming shape that the team shows themselves great in a long run, we believe that mouz is the main contender to the victory. mousesports are to make it to the playoff and the grand final.
mousesports roster and rating of the players:
Chris ‘chrisJ’ de Jong — 1.03
Robin ‘ropz’ Kool — 1.20
Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen — 0.95
Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker — 1.13
David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský — 1.17
Allan ‘Rejin’ Petersen — coach
Team Liquid (position in the HLTV rating — #3)
Win odds: 9.00
Loss odds: 1.04
After the end of the previous season of BLAST Pro Series where Team Liquid at Global Final took the second place, the team had a rest for half a month. As Liquid took the 4-6 place at BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 Regular Season, the rest was not very productive. There the players beat MiBR and Ninjas in Pyjamas, but lost the battle with FaZe Clan twice with the score of 0-2. We are sure that Twistzz and his teammates will pass to the final stage of the championship easily, but we doubt about seeing the Americans in the grand final.
Team Liquid roster and rating of the players:
Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella — 0.88
Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski — 1.13
Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken — 1.03
Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic — 1.12
Jake ‘Stewie2K’ Yip — 1.03
Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag — coach
Teams that have a chance
Evil Geniuses (position in the HLTV rating— #5)
Win odds: 13.0
Evil Geniuses is not in the best gaming shape that the players have ever been into. The last six championships they participated in could be called unsuccessful for EG. Five out of them resulted in the 5-6 or 3-4 places. BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 became a true failure for the Americans. There the team took the 7-9 place. At the spring BLAST Premier league, the esportsmen beat 100 Thieves, but lost the battle with OG twice. Evil Geniuses are on the fifth position in the world rating that was made by HLTV and due to this reason, the roster could hardly be called one of the favorites in Group B but we did not do it as EG could surprise us in a bad sense of the word.
Evil Geniuses roster and rating of the players:
Vincent ‘Brehze’ Cayonte — 1.04
Cvetelin ‘CeRq’ Dimitrov — 1.06
Ethan ‘Ethan’ Arnold — 1.04
Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik — 0.92
Peter ‘stanislaw’ Jarguz — 0.92
Chet ‘ImAPet’ Singh — coach
G2 Esports (position in the HLTV rating — #8)
Win odds: 21.0
Judging the way the French performed at BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 Regular Season, G2 Esports is now in a good gaming shape. At first, they beat 100 Thieves with the score of 2-0 there, after that, they had the same results when they triumphed in a fight with OG. The third battle ended up with a win over OG, but the score was 2-1. G2 has been playing with the same roster for a long time. The last changes on the roster happened at the end of September when shox and Lucky left the team and their places were taken by the former players of CR4ZY, huNter- and nexa. Now G2 holds the 8 place in the world rating and the upcoming Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020 can help them to climb even higher. We think that G2’s chance to make it to the playoff is pretty good and they can outdo Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid.
G2 Esports roster and rating of the players:
Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub — 1.14
Audric ‘JaCkz’ Jug — 1.07
François ‘AmaNEk’ Delaunay — 1.04
Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isaković — 1.09
Nemanja ‘huNter-’ Kovač — 1.27
Damien ‘maLeK’ Marcel — coach
100 Thieves (position in the HLTV rating — #10)
Win odds: 21.0
The Australian team is now seen in Ten Best Teams in the world according to HLTV. In fact, the team is not in the most optimal shape. At BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020, the roster was placed on the 10-12 place out of twelve possible ones. 100 Thieves lost a battle in a fight with G2 Esports and Evil Geniuses and the team was the first to leave the competition. At the first battle at IEM Katowice 2020, the Australians will have to fight with G2 Esports. This is not the worst option as 100 Thieves were not able to defeat the French at the spring BLAST Premier series, the Australians will keep on playing in the first lower bracket. If our supposition is true, 100 Thieves’ performance will be confined to 2-3 matches. We do not agree with the opinion that the experts from sportsbook companies shaped the win odd for 100T as 21.0 as well as in the case with G2 Esports.
100 Thieves roster and rating of the players:
Aaron ‘AZR’ Ward — 1.04
Justin ‘jks’ Savage — 0.95
Joakim ‘jkaem’ Myrbostad — 0.98
Jay ‘Liazz’ Tregillgas — 1.04
Sean ‘Gratisfaction’ Kaiwai — 1.00
Aleksandar ‘kassad’ Trifunović — coach
MAD Lions (position in the HLTV rating — #12)
Win odds: 24.0
MAD Lions’ game strategy at the tournament is pretty simple. The Danish come to the championship not as favorites and caught their opponents flat-footed. Thanks to this, MAD Lions made it to Four Best at such tournaments as DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 and ICE Challenge 2020 twice. Now MAD Lions almost joined Ten Best. Only ENCE and 100 Thieves separated them from the tenth position: the former will meet this championship and the latter may play worse than MAD Lions. HUNDEN and his teammates may be well-motivated to pass to the playoff, so we do not ignore the chance for the Danish to make it to the final stage. The likelihood of this outcome is not as high as they would want it to be, but we are looking forward to seeing MAD Lions’ performance at IEM Katowice 2020.
MAD Lions roster and rating of the players:
Nicolai ‘HUNDEN’ Petersen — 0.81
Frederik ‘acoR’ Gyldstrand — 1.17
Rasmus ‘Sjuush’ Beck — 1.10
Lucas ‘Bubzkji’ Andersen — 1.14
Fredrik ‘roeJ’ Jørgensen — 1.17
Luis ‘peacemaker’ Tadeu — coach
Outsiders
Virtus.pro (position in the HLTV rating — #18)
Win odds: 67.0
After the player from AVANGAR moved to Virtus.pro, the Kazakh roster started to lose again and again. Having come to EPICENTER 2019 in Moscow where the roster had been expected on a good level, the team disappointed their fans and became one of two contestants that left the championship after the group stage. At DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020, where they did not have good competition, VP again took the 7-8 place out of 8 possible ones. At ICE Challenge 2020, the players expected to have the same results. At the moment we do not see any premises for Virtus.pro to surprise the audience and reach at least Top 12. It will be a great surprise for us if ‘Bears’ can make it to Top Eight, but we doubt it.
Virtus.pro roster and rating of the players:
Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov — 1.01
Alexey ‘qikert’ Golubev — 1.10
Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali — 1.06
Sanjar ‘SANJI’ Kuliev — 0.84
Dauren ‘AdreN’ Kystaubayev — 0.83
Dastan ‘dastan’ Akbayev — coach
TYLOO (position in the HLTV rating — #28)
Win odds: 151.0
The status of the main outsider not only in Group B but the whole IEM Katowice 2020 is deserved by the Chinese team TYLOO. First of all, we want to remind that AttackeR and his teammates became a participant due to the coronavirus outbreak in China. Vici Gaming, that took the first place at the regional qualifier, lost a chance to perform at the tournament while TYLOO happened to be in Ukraine during the epidemic and had trainings at the bootcamp. TYLOO is located on the 28 place in the world rating according to HLTV. Even though the Chinese are seen in Thirty Best, they Chinese practically do not have any chance to win the tournament and to pass to the final and the likelihood of the team playing at the playoff is incredibly low. The last official match for TYLOO happened on 9 January. It was an elimination round for IEM Katowice 2020 where the Chinese lost with the score 0-3 in a fight with Vici Gaming. If the players were not able to beat their countrymen who could not compared to the other contestants of the Polish tournament, what competition can we talk about? Additionally, let’s mention the fact that the coach of TYLOO, KingZ will not able to visit the event as the players are in China. The slot will be taken by CruSad3, who is currently performing the role of the manager of the team. And if we remember that xeta joined the team on 10 January, after the end of the qualifier and his rating on HLTV is 0, as he has not performed on the professional stage for over three months, the doubts about TYLOO’s total failure will totally disappear.
TYLOO roster and rating of the players:
HaoWen ‘somebody’ Xu — 1.11
YuLun ‘Summer’ Cai — 1.18
YuanZhang ‘AttackeR’ Sheng — 1.02
Cheung ‘Freeman’ Wing Hei — 1.07
Son ‘xeta’ Seon-ho — 0.00
Hu ‘CruSad3’ SiLe — manager/coach