Review of IEM Katowice Major 2019 — The New Challengers Stage
Ihor MatusThe participants are going to relax and after that to have battles at the main stage of the tournament, The New Legends Stage. And now we will tell you about the teams that managed to surprise the audience and about those who performed as it had been expected.
Teams that surprised the audience
Renegades
The Australians from Renegades may very well be the main surprise at the first stage of the Major tournament. Many spectators expected that they would leave the tournament by the score of 2-3 or 1-3, but the team showed that it should not be underestimated. At the first match Renegades faced with AVANGAR, where they got a win over the Kazakh and at the second and the third battles RNG showed the Chinese from ViCi Gaming and TYLOO that the Australian CS:GO is very strong. Together with it Renegades became one of two teams that made it to the next stage of the Major tournament with the best statistics — 3-0.
AVANGAR
The Kazakh from AVANGAR performed very well and surpassed the audience's expectations. They lost only one match against Renegades that had a brilliant performance. They won their other battles with FURIA, G2 and TYLOO. They had definite difficulties at all the matches and the battle with the opponents was not easy, but, nevertheless, AVANGAR managed to complete their participation in The New Challengers Stage by the statistics of 3-1 and to pass to The New Legends Stage.
Ninjas in Pyjamas
It is difficult to say what the audience expected from NiP. Despite the level of the Swedish team and the organization itself, the results of the CS:GO roster made us doubt about success of their performance at the current tournament. At the first battle NiP won over FURIA Esports easily, but they lost the next two matches playing with Winstrike and Renegades. Consequently, f0rest and the team pulled themselves together and won the last two matches which, by the way, we're difficult even though they were played against Vega Squadron and Vici Gaming. Meanwhile, Vega and ViCi were considered to be outsiders of The New Challengers Stage, but, nevertheless, they put threats to NiP. In the end, the Swedish made it to the next stage, ending their participation in Challengers by the statistics of 3-2.
Interesting fact: the amount of rounds played by Ninjas in Pyjamas is more than any other participant of the tournament. It is explained due to the fact that the Swedish played all five possible matches and at one of them the map got to overtime.
TYLOO and Vici Gaming
Although the Chinese collectives didn't pass to the next stage of the Major championship, they still deserve to be respected as they managed to surpass the audience's expectations, especially Vici Gaming. TYLOO had a difficult situation due to the fact that before the tournament the team leased two players from Flash Gaming, rather unsuccessful team. Nevertheless, the Chinese got prepared for the tournament and managed to win 2 matches playing with Team Vitality and Cloud9, but could not win over NRG Esports, AVANGAR and G2 Esports. Vici Gaming presented the audience a sensational match where they won over the clearest favorite, the Swedish team fnatic. They also managed to get a win over NRG Esports but lost the battle with NRG Esports, Team Vitality and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
The Chinese took the 9-10 place at the tournament bracket of The New Challengers Stage, having the best statistics of such teams. Although they were not able to make it to The New Legends Stage, the collectives made us feel great when we were watching this Major tournament.
Fnatic
Fnatic is the only team placed in this category due to their surprise of the audience in a bad way. According to the surveyed participants of The New Challengers Stage, Fnatic got the highest evaluation and we're considered to be the main favorite to get to The New Legends Stage. At the first match against the weakest collective according to the evaluation, Vici Gaming, Fnatic were not able to show anything serious and suffered a heavy defeat. At the next battle with Winstrike they also could not get a win but they managed to win the match against Grayhound Gaming after all. The final meeting with G2 Esports resulted in a failure for the Swedish and in the end they left the competition by the statistics of 1-3. “Unsatisfactory and disappointing result” is a mild and inappropriate understanding of the situation happened for the Swedish grands of the CS:GO world. As a reminder, until yesterday Xizt and the team held the 6 place in the list of the best CS:GO teams according to HLTV.org. Now they are placed on the 13 position and in our opinion they really deserve it.
Collectives that performed as it had been expected
NRG Esports
As well as Renegades, NRG Esports got one of the first places in the tournament bracket of The New Challengers Stage. The Americans managed to win over such opponents as Winstrike and Vici Gaming easily. The last battle against TYLOO was very uneasy. On the first map the Americans got a win by the score of 16-13, and the second map led them even closer to a failure. There the map ended up by the score of 16-14. In the end, the meeting was completed with 2-0, and NRG became the 9-10 known participant of The New Legends Stage.
Interesting fact: statistics of NRG Esports and Renegades is absolutely the same. They passed to the next stage of the championship by the score of 3-0, and the amount of the lost/won rounds equals to 64-42. The likelihood of this coincidence was very little, and the fact that Renegades have the same statistics as NRG, proves the increased strength of the Australians.
ENCE eSports
The Finnish team performed pretty well and made it to The New Legends Stage, but that is what this team had been expected to do. Now ENCE eSports is the best team in Finland and one of the best teams in the world that joined Ten Best by the results of the end of Challengers Stage taking the ninth position there. The thing that was really surprising about ENCE was the fact that got to the next stage with the score 3-1, but not 3-0. ENCE couldn't withstand the onslaught of Renegades, but they coped with Team Spirit, G2 Esports and Winstrike easily.
Team Vitality
NBK- together with his team wasn't prepared morally for good play shape of TYLOO, so that resulted in a failure at the first match. At the following battle with Grayhound, the French had to worry in real earnest and try very hard as the game passed to overtime. The next match against Vega Squadron got over really fast as Vega managed to win only one round from the French. The match against Vici Gaming had the longest map of the first stage of the Major tournament that got over by the score of 25-22 for Vitality. In the end, Team Vitality finished participating in The New Challengers Stage by the score of 3-1 and got to The New Legends Stage. We are expecting an interesting game from Vitality at the main stage of the Major tournament.
Cloud9
We can't say that Cloud9’s performance was startling as the American lost the matches against two Chinese collectives. By the way, three won matches were played against one of the weakest opponents, Grayhound, FURIA and Winstrike. At the last meeting with Winstrike, the Americans had to to try hard as the second map got to overtime but it resulted in 2-0 for C9. RUSH together with his teammates passed the main stage, but it is not unexpected as well. That is what was expected from Cloud9, as there were both strong opponents that can’t be compared with C9 and weak that were not difficult to win for them.
G2 Esports
The French from G2 Esports also were expected to be seen at the main stage of the Major tournament by many fans. Shox together with his teammates gave a good battle at the first match against Vega Squadron. There the CIS tea, showed their skills so well that G2 almost had a loss taking the game by the score 16-14. At the next two battles with ENCE eSports and AVANGAR, the collective had difficulties with the game, so G2 lost meetings by the score of 6-16 and 10-16. At the last two elimination matches,G2 Esports were about to lose and both of the meeting against Fnatic and TYLOO were over by the score of 2-1. In the end, the French collective made it to The New Legends Stage, but it cost some efforts. Quite a few people believed that G2 would pass to the next stage having statistics of 3-0 and the team performed in the way it had been expected.
Winstrike
Fans of the CIS stage were very disappointed with the performance of their favorites. Winstrike had a very good chance to pass, but they were ruined. The first match was played against the favorite of The New Challengers Stage, NRG Esports. There Winstrike had a loss by the score of 9-16. At the next two matches the players from Russia managed to win over the Swedish opponents, Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas. The last two meetings were really troublesome for Winstrike. At the battle with ENCE eSports, they managed to win one map and at the last one they were close enough to win, but taking only 13 rounds, they finished their participation in the tournament, suffering a defeat from ENCE eSports.
Vega Squadron
Vega Squadron have a similar story as Winstrike. The CIS spectators were watching the team, but unlike Winstrike, Vega managed to take only one game. The first match was lost at the battle with the French from G2 Esports. At the third and the fourth battle with Team Vitality and Ninjas in Pyjamas, Vega also could do nothing and at the second match they won over Team Spirit, one of the weakest teams. That was the end of success of “Blue sharks” and their participation in the first Major tournament in 2019 got over.
FURIA Esports
Initially, the Brazilian team was considered to be one of the main outsiders as well as Team Spirit and nobody was expecting big success from them. The collective surprised all the audience showing a good result at the previous Minor tournament and made it to IEM Katowice Major 2019. At the first two matches, played with Ninjas in Pyjamas and AVANGAR the Brazilians could not give a good opposition to win them, but we should mark the fact that at the battle with AVANGAR they were close enough to get a victory. Winning 14 rounds, they were not lucky enough to finish what they started. At the third match FURIA performed against Team Spirit and at the elimination match they managed to prolong their being at this tournament for one more match. At the fourth battle with Cloud9, the players from FURIA were fighting in real earnest. On the first map they lost only one round, making this match a battle of the day. Meanwhile, Cloud9 were not lost and on the second map they repeated success of the Brazilians, leaving them only one round. On the final map, the battle resulted in 16-10 for C9, and due to that FURIA’s participation in the Major tournament got over. They showed that the Brazilian CS:GO existed beyond the team MIBR and probably we will see them at the next championships.
Team Spirit and Grayhound Gaming
Spirit and Grayhound were clear outsiders from the very beginning and there is nothing surprising about their being one of the first to leave the championship. Team Spirit could not win the matches against ENCE eSports, Vega Squadron and FURIA Esports, and Grayhound suffered a defeat at the battle with Cloud9, Team Vitality and Fnatic. Nevertheless, the fans were satisfied with the results of Grayhound. Thanks to Australians getting to the main stage of the tournament, the audience got an interesting sticker.