The CIS team extended their dream start to the tournament, while the international lineup avoided elimination in the lower bracket. Spirit have advanced to the Group A upper bracket final of IEM Katowice, assuring themselves of a spot in the playoffs and continuing a dream run from the Play-In stage, having now defeated Cloud9, BIG, G2, and HEROIC. They are set to face off against Astralis at 15:30 on Sunday, with the victor advancing directly to the semi-finals and the loser booking a quarter-final spot. Meanwhile, G2 saw to the elimination of BIG in a two-map series, and will next take on Evil Geniuses on Saturday at 19:00 as they look to continue their lower bracket run in Group A. Abdul "degster" Gasanov and Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov were the frontrunners for Spirit in an Inferno win over HEROIC, a map where the Danish side found their defenses torn apart as Spirit took a 9-6 lead at the break. Casper "cadiaN" Møller and company briefly gained the upper hand in the second half, converting a pistol win into a string of four rounds, but were left out of sorts as Spirit put up a stalwart defense from there, dropping just two rounds en route to a 16-12 map win. Spirit remained in control on Nuke, with HEROIC unable to string together rounds until the end of the first half, leading to a 10-5 scoreline for the CIS side. It seemed as if HEROIC would make good on a comeback effort in the second half as Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen helped keep the Danish team in the running, clawing back to a 14-13 scoreline, but Spirit claimed match point first before chopper closed out the map with a 1vs3 clutch, edging out a victory for his side. G2 took an early lead on Inferno, securing a T side pistol victory and converting subsequent rounds for a 3-0 start. Florian "syrsoN" Rische helped to get BIG on the board, rotating around the map with his AWP and tearing apart G2's defaults, combining with a steadfast B hold from Nils "k1to" Gruhne as BIG took seven rounds in a row. A change of pace from Nemanja "nexa" Isaković's troops was what allowed them to finally crack through, rallying at the end of the half to edge out a one-round lead. Although BIG took three rounds of their own off the break, they were unable to contest G2's defensive setups once rifles were in hand, with Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač leading their way in a 16-10 victory. The situation seemed to take a grim turn for G2 on their pick of Mirage as their initial three-round lead quickly dwindled, and it was BIG who showcased a stellar defensive effort as syrsoN continued to wreak havoc, this time being joined by Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz for a 10-5 scoreline at halftime. However, G2's own CT side proved to be just as difficult to crack, with stellar fragging and information plays from NiKo proving pivotal in a nine-round spree for his side before they closed out the map shortly afterwards.Spirit
Matchpage 2 0 19th February 2021
HEROIC 16Inferno 12 16Nuke 14
Spirit
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Boris 'magixx' Vorobievmagixx
40 - 34 +6 72.4 1.18 Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakovchopper
40 - 37 +3 76.6 1.16 Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhevsdy
39 - 37 +2 76.1 1.15 Nikolay 'mir' Bityukovmir
42 - 41 +1 82.6 1.10 Abdul 'degster' Gasanovdegster
41 - 36 +5 67.7 1.03
IEM Katowice 2021Best of 3 HEROIC
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensenniko
47 - 38 +9 86.7 1.20 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllercadiaN
45 - 36 +9 69.4 1.09 René 'TeSeS' MadsenTeSeS
35 - 46 -11 71.2 0.84 Johannes 'b0RUP' Borupb0RUP
31 - 39 -8 61.6 0.83 Martin 'stavn' Lundstavn
25 - 44 -19 63.8 0.72 G2
Matchpage 2 0 19th February 2021
BIG 16Inferno 10 16Mirage 12
G2
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo
49 - 37 +12 94.1 1.45 Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačhuNter-
48 - 30 +18 80.1 1.36 Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS
31 - 31 0 74.2 1.10 François 'amanek' Delaunayamanek
30 - 34 -4 64.8 0.96 Nemanja 'nexa' Isakovićnexa
29 - 37 -8 62.1 0.91 BIG
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarztabseN
45 - 37 +8 85.7 1.12 Florian 'syrsoN' RischesyrsoN
39 - 33 +6 75.4 1.10 Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşXANTARES
28 - 36 -8 62.6 0.86 Nils 'k1to' Gruhnek1to
30 - 42 -12 65.9 0.83 Tizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschtiziaN
25 - 39 -14 54.8 0.72 Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz
Age: 25 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1633 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.70
Florian 'syrsoN' Rische
Age: 24 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 1415 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.63
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Age: 25 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1211 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.67
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov
Age: 24 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 870 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.67
Evil Geniuses #9
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz
Tarik 'tarik' Celik
Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte
Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov
Cloud9 #20
Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin
Patrick 'es3tag' Hansen
Ricky 'floppy' Kemery
Erick 'Xeppaa' Bach
William 'mezii' Merriman
Astralis #2
Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz
Emil 'Magisk' Reif
HEROIC #6
Casper 'cadiaN' Møller
Johannes 'b0RUP' Borup
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen
Martin 'stavn' Lund
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Nils 'k1to' Gruhne
Age: 22 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 947 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.69
BIG #4
Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz
Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch
Florian 'syrsoN' Rische
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Nils 'k1to' Gruhne
Spirit #16
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov
Nikolay 'mir' Bityukov
Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev
Abdul 'degster' Gasanov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković
Age: 23 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1035 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.64
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen
Age: 22 Team: HEROIC Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1077 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.66
G2 #10
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub
François 'amanek' Delaunay
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković
Abdul 'degster' Gasanov
Age: 19 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 1.20 Maps played: 449 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.61 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone
Casper 'cadiaN' Møller
Age: 25 Team: HEROIC Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1254 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.64
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Age: 24 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 1369 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.67