On February 16, the first matches of IEM Katowice took place, and they have already brought several surprises to the audience. Due to the unfavorable epidemic situation, matches are still held online, but this did not prevent the tournament from becoming the largest CS:GO event since the beginning of the year. For the first time, its format includes a large-scale play-in stage, which is why the competition will take a total of two weeks.
At the initial stage, sixteen teams will fight to reach the main part of the tournament in a double-elimination format, when two victories are enough to advance to the next stage, and two defeats mean relegation. One of the surprises of the qualifying stage was the loss of the Swedish team fnatic. Having suffered defeats first from OG and then from MIBR, they left the tournament. At the same time, the loss in the match with MIBR turned out to be truly devastating: fnatic could not win on any map.
Meanwhile, NiP, Liquid, OG and Virtus.pro have already secured their place in the main draw of the tournament, having won two victories necessary for this. The final composition of the participants will be determined by the evening of February 17 after the end of the play-in stage, and on Thursday the first matches of the group stage will take place.
