NAVI gets the first victory in the group stage of IEM Katowice 2023

The NaVi team turned out to be stronger than Cloud9 with a score of 2:0, thanks to which they advanced to the semi-finals of the upper bracket of their group. Here, the Born to Win will face the winner of the Team Liquid vs. IHC Esports match later in the evening. In turn, the Cloud9 team goes to the lower bracket of group A, where they will get another chance to get into the playoffs.

One of the starting meetings started on the Ancient map, which became the choice of the Russian team. However, the starting advantage went into the treasury of NAVI players, who quickly seized the initiative and ran ahead. However, Cloud9 managed to respond with a series in the end to close the gap to a decent one — 9:6. After the side switch, the Ukrainian team managed to quickly take control of the game in order to control the situation. At some point, the wards of the groove tried to return, but to no avail. As a result, NAVI managed to get the necessary rounds and took the lead in the series — 16:13.

Then the teams moved to the Inferno map, which turned out to be the choice of NAVI. Here "Born to Win" immediately took the initiative under their control, showing a confident attack. In turn, the Cloud9 players did not oppose anything to the opponent on defense, having received a natural defeat - 12:3. In the second half, the Russian team was honored only for three rounds, after which NAVI again took control of the game and closed the series in their favor — 16:6.

IEM Katowice 2023 takes place from 1 to 12 February in Katowice at the Spodek Arena. As part of the championship, 24 teams from the CIS, Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and Oceania are fighting for a total prize pool of $1,000,000, as well as a ticket to IEM Cologne 2023 for the winner.

Interim results of IEM Katowice 2023

• 1st place: $400,000 + ticket to IEM Cologne 2023
• 2nd place: $180,000
• 3rd-4th place: $80,000
• 5th-6th place: $40,000
• 7th-8th place: $24,000
• 9th-12th place: $16,000
• 13th-16th place: $10,000
• 17th-20th place: MIBR, ENCE, Sprout and FURIA - $4,500
• 21st-24th place: paiN Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Permitta Esports and Grayhound Gaming — $2,500