The Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2016 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament has now moved to the Spodek Arena where all playoff matches will be played. After an electric opening ceremony for the 10th anniversary of the IEM Katowice World Championship, Natus Vincere and Tempo Storm opened the playoffs with a Best-of-Three series.
Surprisingly, the Brazilian team choose to play de_overpass against the CIS team of Natus Vincere, starting as terrorists and being heavily favorites on that particular map a quick lead seemed to confirm that fact. Tempo Storm however woke up shortly after as Ricardo "boltz" Prass kept hopes in a crucial round alive. Ongoing we saw Tempo Storm grabbing one round after another thanks to strong plays against Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs' AWP. Despite having the momentum, money always looked worse for the counter-terrorists, as Na'Vi managed to break momentum and the team around Henrique "HEN1" Teles had to play an Eco round, losing two in a row: 05:08 for Na'Vi. Finding a kill when Na'Vi entered A side, Tempo Storm managed to take away the 13th round from Yegor "flamie" Vasiliev and company. Followed by a build up for B spot, Gustavo "SHOWTIME" Gonçalves tried to bait Na'Vi but as they decided to go in, the bait did not worked out. Thanks to GuardiaN, Na'Vi managed to take first half with 09:06.
The second half kicked off with Tempo Storm committing to B side, opening the side by finding a headshot against flamie, quickly working through the defending Na'Vi. The second round started with four rifles for Tempo Storm, slowly working their way around the map and staying together. Na'Vi on the other hand prepared a trap on B side, as soon as Tempo Storm rotated fully to A side they managed to plant the bomb safely and even went off to face at A long grabbing some more kills. HEN1 was the first to fall the next round with his Tec9 as Na'Vi aggressively pushed mid but failed to succeed any further: 09:09 draw. Guardian once again tried to make the play for Na'Vi but failed once more to overcome HEN1's AWP. Punches were traded at B side with Denis "seized" Kostin making the important frag as well as spotting the bomb, giving the signal to rotate. In the end, both Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev and seized survived the mess on B side. Slow paced once again, Temp Storm build up for A first but rotated to B. However, thanks to seized great positioning every one fell to his famas. Two crucial buy rounds then got snatched away by Na'Vi, followed by a tactical pause from Tempo Storm before going into the match point round: 14:09 for Natus Vincere. Trading kills back and forth, Natus Vincere end up with three alive to overcome Tempo Storm. Eventually Natus Vincere managed to win the first map with 16:10.
Second map chosen was de_cobblestone, a map where Natus Vincere historically struggled as defender. Being strong as attacker, Tempo Storm decided to slowly check and peak at B side. Followed by some quick trades zeus quickly found himself all alone against three attackers, getting overrun. Having very little, Natus Vincere still managed to do damage until a one on one on A side with planted bomb. Edward managed to win but the clock already ran away. Having the AK Na'Vi stacked up on A long but failed to take down Tempo Storm. The game went back and forth round after round with frags being traded on both sides, most notably felps delivering a sick haircut to seized on A side. As Tempo Storm was building up more and more momentum, Natus Vincere decided to take a break seven rounds into the first half. Nine rounds into the game Na'Vi brings the double AWP play and managed to secure their second round on the scoreboard. GuardiaN once again got caught off guard in the following round, Tempo Storm managed to plant the bomb with 10 seconds left on the clock. With only flamie surviving, Na'Vi had to continue with a hard reset in the 12th round. With the bomb planet, flamie utilized his rifle finding three kills. Tempo Storm however wanted to close out the first half and managed to do so, only giving away three rounds to the defending Natus Vincere despite Edward hitting his Desert Eagle shots.
The second half started off with the crucial pistol round, flamie picking up three and therefore keeping hopes for his team alive. With twelve rounds in their bank, Tempo Storm decided to do no risky play as only Joao "felps" Cabral picked up a scout. Na'Vi slowly worked their way to A side, only losing seized with his Mac10, on the hunt for the last three surviving defenders zeus managed to take down two without a problem. Followed by a quick round towards B side, Natus Vincere managed to grab their sixth round. The first gun round for Tempo Storm started with no defuse kit, as everyone wisely chose to purchase head armor. HEN1 managed to do the first frag with his AWP, also hitting the second player to survive with 19 hp. With 10 seconds remaining, SHOWTIME managed to clear the field with three kills. Heading into the crucial must win round if Tempo wanted to close out the series and head on to de_mirage, Na'Vi managed to break Temp Storms defense sending them into a hard reset money wise. Having many options in the following gun round after SHOWTIME tried to play offensive, Na'Vi decided to take B side managing to kill all defenders with not much time left on the clock. A pause issued by Tempo Storm before heading into the Eco followed. In the crucial buy round HEN1 finds the first frag with his AWP, with 25 seconds remaining Na'Vi tries to take A side but failed to succeed. Slowly approaching B side, a perfect flash prevented Natus Vincere from entering while getting picked off by Tempo Storm afterwards. Tempo Storm being five kills away from closing the series but failed to do so in the following rounds, being stuck at match point. Lucas "Lucas" Teles managed to find the first frag in the last round before the potential overtime at drop, slowing the push down just a little. Natus Vincere then taking it to overtime with a re-frag by flamie at drop and a nice entry frag from GuardiaN with his AWP.
The overtime started with a double AWP setup for Tempo Storm as defender with Edward catching the first bullet but surviving with 37 HP. The clock is ticking down as Lucas finds once again one attacker at drop. Tempo Storm picked another two kills and secured the first round. SHOWTIME and HEN1 open the second round with AWP kills left and right, remaining Terrorists decide to challenge SHOWTIME and felps on B side with GuardiaN and SHOWTIME trading shots – second round in the bank for Tempo Storm. HEN1 then tried to play aggressivley towards mid, getting picked off by flamie. Natus Vincere tried to conquer A spot but boltz and Lucas combined managed to stop them. Natus Vincere decided to play with two snipers too as flamie picks the Auto-Sniper. GuardiaN tried a quick first frag but failed to hit his shot only the hit the second one, leaving boltz with 16 HP alive. Tempo Storm was ready to storm the B spot but Edward stopped the push early with a double kill. With zeus holding down the bomb, Tempo Storm however had enough and closes out the series after a back to back fight on B side.
The chances for a Brazilian semifinal are high as Tempo Storm vs. Natus Vincere continued on de_mirage. Winning the knife round once again, Tempo Storm decided to start as defender. Preparing an B side go, Na'Vi managed to plant the bomb after trading blows with Tempo Storm but failed to hold the spot, giving away pistol round. Na'Vi grabs two AK-47, playing it slowly with flamie managing to secure the first frag against felps followed by a second frag. Deciding to once again go to B side, Lucas safes the day for Tempo Storm with stunning four frags. Natus Vincere tried to break the armor of Tempo with another force buy, failing to succeed after some decent frags. Natus Vincere took a break after the fifth round for Tempo Storm, discussing things as Tempo looked totally prepared for them. Despite bringing it down to a one on one on B side with bomb planted, Na'Vi still did not take a round away from the Brazilians. Tempo Storm is reading Natus Vincere very well, taking away round after round. But there is hope as Natus Vincere finds the opening in the ninth round, which is dangerous. Despite being in the lead with eight rounds in a row, money is looking worse and worse as Na'Vi picked up another round. GuardiaN did not managed to find in the game quite yet, getting picked off by an aggressive HEN1 with Edward saving the day afterwards. The game seems slowly to get out of Tempos hand, as we could see no AWP with double Famas in round number twelve. However, after an intense back and forth Tempo Storm managed to steal away the round, trying to stop the momentum for Na'Vi. Still, the CIS team managed to steal away more and more rounds, especially thanks to Edward's strong performance. It was only due to SHOWTIME's strong B side defense in the last round that Tempo Storm can finish the first half 10:05.
We have seen Natus Vincere coming back on de_cobblestone after a bad half already but flamie missing crucial shots, forcing his team into a force buy after losing the pistol round on B side. Na'Vi managed to snatch some kills, especially GuardiaN with his Scout but in the end Tempo takes down all remaining players, sending Na'Vi into an Eco. Out of nothing the Brazilian find themselves on the back foot, as they got rushed down mid. The game got more and more intense with every round as Tempo Storm managed to stop Natus Vincere's run after three rounds. Continuing to trade blows left and right, slowly but steady the rounds dwindle away for Tempo Storm, despite catching GuardiaN and Edward off guard at times. Thanks to flamie Na'Vi tied the series at 13:13, Tempo Storm then managed to send SHOWTIME to B side while faking the A side to grab that little bit extra money. HEN1 delivering huge shots with his AWP but in the end Na'Vi is on match point, Tempo Storm needed to take two rounds in a row to rescue their tournament life into overtime. Both teams play pretty passive as the Spodek Arena went completely silent, GuardiaN then found the opening frag with Tempo Storm rushing B side and getting stopped for the 2:1 victory in maps for Natus Vincere.
Natus Vincere will face Luminosity in the semifinals approx. 20:30 CET tday.
