The group stage at the IEM Katowice championship ended at the end of last week. The playoffs, which will feature the remaining six teams, will take place at the end of the week. The final stage of the tournament will begin on Friday with a match between Natus Vincere and Gambit. The last time these teams played against each other was four months ago, in the quarterfinals of IEM New York. The winner of this match will play against Spirit, which has never had to play against teams from the CIS in previous matches of the tournament.
Later on the same day, Astralis will face off against Virtus.pro, who have not competed against each other since the StarLadder Major Final in Berlin in 2019, when the CIS roster was still playing under the AVANGAR tag. The winner of this match will play against Liquid. It is interesting that the latter have not won a victory over the Danish team for a long time: perhaps, if Liquid makes it to the semi-finals, they will have a chance to break the losing streak on the part of Astralis, which at this point already has nine matches.
Thus, the two quarter-final matches will take place on Friday 26 February. Their winners will play in the semi-finals against Spirit and Liquid, who ended up higher in the tournament bracket due to better performance in the groups. Finally, the grand final, which will determine the final winner of the tournament, will take place on Sunday, February 28.
