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We continue to follow the action at IEM Katowice 2025. So far we are at the Play-In stage - the qualifying stage, where 16 teams are fighting for 8 places in the group stage.
Among the contenders to advance to the group stage are sAw - GamerLegion. The teams will play each other in the first round of the Play-In on the 29th of January at 13:00 CET.
Let's find out how the match between sAw and GamerLegion will end and which team will go further down the Play-In grid.
Let's go.
GamerLegion uniforms
We continue our analysis of GamerLegion vs sAw with an analysis of GamerLegion's form. In this match they are playing as favourites with odds to win at around 1.8.
In 2023, GamerLegion have not shown much hope. They played well at local events like Thunderpick Bitcoin Series #2 where they won, CCT West Europe Series #1 where they finished in the top 2, RES Western European Masters: Spring 2023 with another top 2.
There was also TOP-1 at Elisa Invitational Winter 2023, but the main achievement happened in May this year. It was then that GamerLegion defied logic and made it to the grand final of BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, where they defeated the hosts Vitality.
- GamerLegion lineup: sl3nd, ztr, Tauson, PR, REZ.
After a great injury in Paris, GamerLegion lost two of their headliners - siuhy and iM. New arrivals neaLaN and volt are not yet reaching the level of Top 2 Major a, and their KDs are eloquent: 0.64 for the former and 0.78 for the latter.
The first match at IEM Cologne 2023 was against Monte. The Ukrainian club was head to head and shut down their vis-a-vis with a score of 2-0 (16-8 Mirage, 16-11 Overpass).
GamerLegion managed to switch on at the last moment. In the match against TheMongolZ, on the first map GL Ledge were 8-16 up on Mirage, but cameback Inferno (16-8), and closed the series on the dopes with Overpass (19-15).
The International was even more interesting against fnatic. On the first map Vertigo GL lost with the score 5-16, but on Inferno GamerLegion played 16-12, and on Ancient they closed the dopes with the score 19-17.
As a result, IEM Cologne 2023 ended with GL in 8th place. They were knocked out by Cloud9, but the result is a good one considering the lineup change.
At Gamers8 Long Sogpeg were matched against Apeks, the other opener of the Paris Major. Both maps gave GL a serious headache, but after dopes on Mirage and a close fight on Overpass GL made it to the next round. However, that's where GL's G8 journey ended at the Top 8, when they lost to Heroic 1-2.
GamerLegion later attended ESL Pro League Season 18 and IEM Sydney 2023. Both tournaments didn't go well: top-20 at EPL, top-8 at IEM Sydney.
ESL Challenger Jonkoping 2023 GL is going pretty well. First Ledge beat MIBR 9-13, and then beat 3DMAX 2-1 in the match for life. With a race left, GL made it to the top 6, but there Ledgeili Vp.
Towards the end of the year Gamer Legion played at Elisa Masters Espoo 2023, where they got to the top 6, BB Dacha (top 8) and ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta. Top 8 there again.
There were two big tournaments in the 2024 season before RMR's Long Sogpeg - BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024 and IEM Katowice 2024. Both GL championships finished in the top 12, which I would call a pretty good result.
At PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR B GL Long Sogpeg started with a no-hitter against VItality (3-13) before beating Pera (13-6) and losing to ENCE (14-16) on dps. Later Ledgealy and Heroic, as well as 9Pandas in the Decider match, after which they were unable to go to the Major.
However, they ended up in Copenhagen, because 9Pandas couldn't get visas for travelling to Denmark. GamerLegion looked good in Copenhagen, but it was not enough to pass in Elimination Stage, and GL's way at the first ever Major tournament on Counter-Strike ended on 17-19th line.
GamerLegion also played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they finished in the top 16. They also played at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they could not jump above the top-16.
After ESL Pro League Season 19 GL could not return to playing in TIR-S tournaments. Their maximum in terms of performance was TOP-1 at CCT Season 2 European Series #13.
At Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, GamerLegion Long Cogped 0-2, losing to Vitality and Dynamo Eclot. But then cameback with wins over Unity Esports and Falcons and eventually made it to the PW Shanghai Major 2024: Opening Stage after beating BB.
Shanghai Major 2024: Opening Stage GL Long They started off with a win over FURIA. Then defeated another Brazilian, paiN, then lost to MongolZ, but then beat Passion UA in the exit match.
At PW Shanghai Major 2024: Elimination Long, they defeated Vitality and Liquid, and in the match for life they defeated Wildcard. However, after reaching the Elimination Stage of the tournament, GL didn't have time to play, finishing in the top 14.
In the 2025 season, like most of the teams at the top of Valve's rankings, Long Competed in BLAST Bounty Season 1, where they finished in the top 17-17-32.
GamerLegion Mappool
The best map GL is Overpass. The team has 6 wins and 2 losses there.
There was also Ancient with 2 wins and 1 loss. Still have Mirage in the pool (57% wins in 7 matches).
On Inferno they are 2-2. Nuke has 1 try and a loss.
Not playing on Anubis and Vertigo.
Form sAw.
We continue the analysis of the match sAw - GamerLegion with the analysis of sAw's form. In this match they play as outsiders, but the gap is not big: the odds for sAw to win are 2.
They started the year with qualifications for ESL Pro League Season 17: European Conference. There they shared the top 1. Then there were two Top 4s at CCT South Europe Series #2 and OMEN WGR Challenge 2023.
There were also appearances at major championships, such as ESL Pro League Season 17. However, it was not possible to get a high result, only TOP-28, but the experience of the game.
Later sAw took the top 8 at CCT North Europe Series #4, top 4 at ESL Challenger League Season 44: Europe. In April 2023, sAw played at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, but failed to rise above the TOP-16. But they managed to do it later, at local tournaments.
This was the case at Masters League Portugal Season 11: Online, where sAw won the trophy by beating For the Win in the final. This was the case at ESL Masters Espana Season 13: Onilne Stage, ESL Masters Espana Season 13, CCT West Europe #4.
- Composition sAw: MUTiRiS, rmn, story, Ag1l, shr.
Before taking part in CCT Online Finals #5 sAw played a lot of championships and, to be fair, they were good almost everywhere. They took top 2 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2, CCT North Europe Series #6, Aveiro Techdays Cup 2023, Master League Portugal Season 12: Online Stage.
We also played in big tournaments, such as Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where unfortunately for us we couldn't rise above TOP-12. At the end of November we won Master League Portugal Season 12 and XL Games Clash 2023.
CCT Online Finals #5 sAw Long Sogpeg were very confident. They easily ran over Team Space in the first round of the top set, winning 2-0. What happened next was more difficult.
In the second round of CCT Online Finals #5 sAw met Aurora, who were stronger than the Portuguese. The match lasted 3 maps and sAw even won the first one, but it didn't go any further and as a result Aurora reached the semi-finals winning their series 1-2.
In the match for the third round of play-offs CCT Online #5 sAw met Zero Tenacity. The Portuguese had no trouble getting past their vis-a-vis, closing out the series with a score of 2-0. However, Fnatic could not be defeated and sAw finished in the top 4.
Next was Top 4 at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2024 and a similar place at ESL Challenger League Season 48: Europe. Before playing at Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, sAw won ESL Challenger Katowice 2024.
PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, sAw started with a loss to SINNERS, but then won Dynamo Eclot and Falcons. But they failed to beat NaVi in the match for a slot in the Major and as a result it was 2-2. However, they failed to qualify for the Major tournament: Ledge and BB went 0-2 in the match for the slot.
Season 2025, BLAST Bounty Season 1, loss to BIG in the first round. This is how you can describe the Long Corner of the season at the Portuguese club.
Mappool sAw.
The most successful map for sAw is Nuke, where the Spaniards have 3 wins with 1 loss. Followed by Vertigo with a score of 2-1 and Ancient with a score of 3-2.
Neutral choices are Inferno and Anubis. Both maps have been played 4 times and on both maps the stats are 2-2.
The worst situation is on Overpass, where sAw won 2 matches out of 6.
Mirage are not playing.
History of head-to-head meetings GamerLegion - sAw
In the season 2024 the teams played each other twice and both matches were taken by sAw.
Predicted result of sAw - GamerLegion at IEM Katowice 2025
In this match my bet is on sAw. To me, the loss of FL4MUS will play negatively for GL, as he was the headliner of the club. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see a full-fledged bo3.
Bottom line: sAw wins.
Nexus Gaming
Fire Flux EsportsWatch match
