IEM Katowice 2022 is the first big LAN tournament this year that features a trophy. The Katowice-based championship is one of the most prestigious in the world of CS. CS.MONEY Blog is here to talk about the tournament, namely, its format and the favorites.
Tournament format
The tournament will start with the Play-in stage that begins on February 15 and only lasts 2 days. It will witness 16 teams compete for 8 slots in the main event. Renowned squads to attend this stage include Astralis, NIP, FaZe, and OG.
The main event starts on February 17. In it, 16 teams are divided into two groups under the double-elimination system. The group winner will advance to the semifinals, and teams in second and third places will join the quarterfinals. The Grand Final will be held under the Bo5 system, with the remaining elimination stage matches using Bo3.
The prize pool of the tournament amounts to $1 million. The winner will receive $400,000.
Will Gambit grab the opportunity and defend their title?
Gambit won the previous IEM Katowice. After that triumph, the team has been considered a serious rival to NAVI on the CIS stage — and to everyone else on the world stage. Nevertheless, the 2021 tournament took place online and therefore wasn’t connected with the venue, Katowice.
The last winner of IEM Katowice in the format was NAVI. And while they are currently the world’s best team, their performance at the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2021 was somewhat lackluster. NAVI did make it to the final stage of the tournament, but their stats are staggering: two wins and three losses. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev admitted that the squad had been far from bringing their A-game: “We started with bad performance. We’d just come back from vacation, we had been playing other games. We were losing deservedly, there was a big difference. We played better versus NiP — we’re gaining form. It feels better and better already.” Nevertheless, NAVI are naturally title contenders.
On top of that, there are two formally French teams: Vitality and G2. By the way, NAVI and G2 are in the same group. There’s a chance that we’ll see a clash between S1mple and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov — one of the world’s most talented players. The guy is already scoring amazing highlights like the one below.
It’s unclear what should be expected from Virtus.pro and Heroic. Both teams haven’t played any official matches this year yet, but they’re certainly playoffs contenders at the very least.
Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz has been out of action since the end of last year due to health problems, yet it’s possible the Swede will be back in the NIP roster for the Katowice tournament. In that case, this team’s chances of a solid performance will increase. However, they’ll have to get past the play-in stage first.
CS.MONEY’s prediction: NAVI and Vitality will face in the final. The Ukrainian club will win, and S1mple will become the MVP.
The main thing is that the event will indeed take place. S1mple, for instance, has significant doubts in this regard: “I have a feeling that IEM Katowice will get canceled. But sure, we’re going to play better anyway. We’re remembering everything now and will train our weak maps.”
