ENCE and MOUZ swept their way into the Group B upper-bracket final at the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2024 event on Monday in Poland.
ENCE defeated G2 Esports 2-0 and MOUZ did the same to GamerLegion in Monday’s semifinal matches to move one step closer to qualification for the playoff stage.
Meanwhile, Team Falcons and Natus Vincere each won three-map matches to reach the Group A lower-bracket final, and Heroic and Monte survived and advanced in the lower-bracket quarterfinals of Group B.
Twenty-four teams began the tournament competing for a share of the first $1 million prize pool in Europe since Counter-Strike 2 launched in September. Sixteen were still standing to begin the group stage, which feature two double-elimination groups of eight. Only six teams, the top three from each group, will reach the playoffs. All matches are best-of-three until Sunday’s grand final, which is best-of-five.
On Monday, ENCE defeated G2 13-8 on Mirage and 13-7 on Anubis. Olek “hades” Miskiewicz of Poland led ENCE with 32 kills and a plus-10 kills-to-deaths differential.
MOUZ needed overtime to topple GamerLegion 16-14 on Overpass before winning 13-6 on Ancient for the sweep. Dorian “xertioN” Berman of Israel starred for MOUZ with 51 kills and a plus-23 K-D.
Team Falcons dropped its opening map against Complexity Gaming, 13-9 on Ancient, before rallying to wins of 13-5 on Overpass and 13-10 on Anubis. Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas of Jordan put up a match-high 56 kills for the Falcons.
Natus Vincere also fell behind early with a 13-11 loss to Eternal Fire on Nuke. NaVi tied it with a 13-8 result on Mirage and ran away 13-5 with the decisive third map, Anubis. Ukraine’s Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov had 57 kills and a plus-25 for NaVi.
In the first round of the Group A’s lower bracket, Heroic went to overtime on both its map wins over Team Vitality. They won 16-14 on Mirage, dropped a 13-11 decision on Anubis and responded with a 16-13 victory on Vertigo. Guy “NertZ” Iluz of Israel (68 kills, plus-14 K-D) and Rene “TeSeS” Madsen of Denmark (67 kills, plus-14) guided Heroic.
Finally, Monte swept Cloud9 with matching 13-11 victories on Overpass and Mirage. Ukrainian Volodymyr “Woro2k” Veletniuk paced Monte with 45 kills on a plus-13 differential.
The group stage concludes Tuesday with six matches:
–FaZe Clan vs. Team Spirit (Group A upper-bracket final)
–Team Falcons vs. Natus Vincere (Group A lower-bracket final)
–ENCE vs. MOUZ (Group B upper-bracket final)
–GamerLegion vs. Heroic (Group B lower-bracket semifinal)
–G2 Esports vs. Monte (Group B lower-bracket semifinal)
–GamerLegion/Heroic winner vs. G2/Monte winner (Group B lower-bracket final)
PRIZE POOL
1. $400,000, 3,000 BLAST Premier points (Qualifies to IEM Cologne 2024, BLAST Premier World Final)
2. $180,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $80,000, 1,200 BLAST Premier points
5-6. $40,000, 500 BLAST Premier points
7-8. $24,000, 300 BLAST Premier points
9-12. $16,000 — Complexity Gaming, Eternal Fire, two TBD
13-16. $10,000 — Rebels Gaming, Apeks, Team Vitality, Cloud9
17-20. $4,500 — Virtus.pro, The MongolZ, BIG, M80
21-24. $2,500 — BetBoom Team, Astralis, FURIA Esports, Rooster
The event will be broadcast live on the ESL Counter-Strike Twitch and YouTube channels, with all matches also available on-demand on YouTube.
IEM Katowice will also include a $500,000 standalone Starcraft II competition, with $150,000 going to the winners. The 24-team event will again feature the IEM Expo from Feb. 8-11.
–Field Level Media
