The road to the grand final is dominated by EU and CIS teams.

The group stage for the year-end Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI: Winter has concluded, and six teams have been narrowed down from the sixteen teams in the group stage. There were a few matches where the matches were intense, as well as a few surprises. The six who are in the playoffs fought tooth and nail to be in the final stages of the competition and to win a slice of the $250,000 prize pool as well as points towards the ESL pro tour rankings.

The six teams are:

Thus far, NiP and Gambit Esports did go through the wringer as they were bumped to the lower bracket rounds to fight their way to the playoffs.

In the quarterfinals, the two matches that were played were between Godsent & NiP, as well as Team Vitality & Gambit Esports.

Godsent vs Ninjas in Pyjamas

The matchup between Brazil and Europe saw both teams trying their best to be the shining example for their region. Three maps were played. In the first map, Nuke, NiP started strong in the first half, with the winning majority of the rounds without giving the lads from brazil a chance to get in a string of wins. Thus by round 23, GodSent was left way back in points deficit, especially as NiP won the last four rounds for a 16:10 win.

Overpass, the second map, was the complete opposite. Godsent went out the gate running, winning 12 rounds in the first half easily. By the second half, NiP tried to catch up but did not manage to and the win was given to Godsent, 16-8. In the third map, Ancient, the table flipped once again as NiP controlled the play. While Godsent did give them a bit more of a challenge here, it was not enough for them to catch up to NiP.

Ninjas in Pyjamas won 2-1.

Team Vitality vs Gambit Esports

The second quarterfinal match saw the French going against the CIS team in a 3-map playoff. The first map, Dust2, saw Team Vitality steamroll Gambit without mercy, especially in the latter part of the first half, and the early part of the second half the lads from the CIS team did not manage to catch a breath and lost the map 16-5.

The story in map two, Vertigo, is a flip of map 1, where it was Gambit’s turn to put pressure on Team Vitality. The pressure was great enough that Gambit controlled the map and won 16-9. In the last map, Mirage, the two teams played to a tie at round 30 and forced the game into extended time. Gambit fought valiantly to grab the win, but Vitality managed to eke a little extra to win the final map.

Team Vitality won 2-1.

As the Quarterfinals ends, only four teams are left in the competition to reach the grand final round. The matches for the semifinals will be

G2 Esports vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
Virtus.pro vs Team Vitality

The Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI: Winter 2021, part of the Intel Grand Slam, is the final event for IEM in 2021, with the next IEM event to be held in Katowice in 2022.

IEM Winter 2021: Group stage ends with six teams heading to playoffs