FaZe Clan, Gambit Esports, Virtus.pro, G2 Esports, Heroic and Natus Vincere advance to the final stage
After both the play-ins and group stage, six teams have booked their tickets to be in the playoff stage of the IEM Katowice 2022. The six went through the gauntlet to place themselves in the last stage of the competition, and we can expect great performances from the teams moving forward.
The six teams are:
- FaZe Clan
- Gambit Esports
- Virtus.pro
- G2 Esports
- Heroic
- Natus Vincere
Heroic and Natus Vincere, being the winners of Groups A and B respectively, go straight to the semifinal as a seed, while the rest will be battling it out in the quarter-finals.
For the two teams at the top, their journey to the playoffs could not have been different. Heroic started as one of the teams directly qualified to the group stage. They then started their campaign with a single map drop in the three matches they played in Group A, dropping the map in the match against OG.
Natus Vincere, the best team of 2021, also directly qualified to the group stage, but their ride was a little bit bumpy, unlike Heroic. While their duel against ENCE was a 2-1 match, they easily won against FURIA Esports. It was at the last match for Group B where they faced their biggest obstacle so far, FaZe Clan. The match was a hard-fought one, especially on the last map, where it was the only one that went into extra time. But Na’Vi won in the end, placing them in the semifinals of the competition.
The other four teams also went through some hardship to reach the playoffs stage. The only team that advanced from the play-ins stage is FaZe Clan, where they beat teams like Fnatic and MOUZ to reach this point of the tournament. Gambit Esports and G2 Esports meanwhile had to go through the gauntlet that was the lower brackets to reach the quarterfinals, and Virtus.pro went through by being runner up behind Heroic.
The playoffs will be played in front of a live audience at Spodek Arena, Katowice.
The first of the quarterfinals will be played on 25 February, with Virtus.pro facing off against G2 Esports. Catch all the latest info on IEM Katowice 2022 at our hub page HERE and also the match on the official steam channel HERE https://www.twitch.tv/ESL_CSGO.
