CS: GO Intel Extreme Masters XIV 2020
The best CS: GO teams in the world travel to the Intel Extreme Masters XIV in Katowice (Katowice) in Poland to fight what is arguably the biggest CounterStrike event of the year. The nine best teams in the ESL world rankings will take part in the event, including Astralis, mousesports and Team Liquid.
The winning team will take home $ 250,000 and may take the decisive step towards the Intel Grand Slam victory. The first five tournaments in the Intel Grand Slam were won by five different teams, so the previous winners Astralis, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, Liquid and mousesports will try to get a head start here.
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The CS: GO Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) in Katowice returns with a prize pool of $ 500,000 and a total of 16 teams that will fight for the quarter-million dollar prize money for the winner.
These 16 teams – seven of which received direct invitations to the event and nine have earned their participation through various qualification rounds and minor victories – are divided into two groups of eight, with each group being played in double elimination format.
The winner of each group immediately moves on to the semi-finals, second and third place in each group qualify for the quarter-finals. Since this is a double elimination tournament, only the three best teams in each group will advance to the playoffs.
This means that the winners of the top and bottom brackets as well as the runner-up come out of the top bracket. The top bracket winners secure a place in the semi-finals of the playoffs, while the rest compete against each other in the quarter-finals.
Once the playoffs begin, the knockout system will play, the quarter and semi-finals will all be best-of-three, while the grand final will be played in best-of-five mode.
Since the games in the group phase are already fixed, we will try to predict which teams will advance from the group phase to the playoffs. We will therefore not limit our predictions to the opening games, but of course we will include them.
The group stage predictions
Group A
There are big names in this group, but only a few can prevail. Astralis will no doubt be one of the teams that should be among the top three in the tournament. Their first match will be against the new Cloud9 team and I think they will easily win this match.
Astralis vs Cloud9: win Astralis
The second game in Group A will be one of the most interesting games in the group phase. NiP and Vitality are pretty similarly talented teams with roughly equivalent quality. Both squads have experience in such big tournaments, so this will be a match to watch. However, I will prefer Vitality because NiP has recently lost most of its main players like GeT_RiGhT and recently only f0rest.
Ninjas in pyjamas vs Team Vitality: victory Team Vitality
The third game in Group A takes place between Na’Vi and FaZe. These two teams are two of the biggest names in the scene, both teams have star players. It appears that Perfecto has well played the role of GuardiaN on the part of Natus Vincere. So if I had to choose between these two teams, I would choose Na`Vi.
Natus Vincere vs FaZe Clan: victory Natus Vincere
And now to my prediction of who will be promoted to the Katowice Major playoffs: there will be Na`Vi, Astralis and Vitality, with Astralis winning the group and Na`Vi second.
Group B
In Group B, the worse teams of this tournament are in my opinion, there could be some interesting constellations in the later rounds, but there is only one in the opening games that is worth watching.
The third match of group B is played between Liquid and Virtus.pro and is on the one hand the highest class and “fairest” matchup of the opening games of group B. VP only took over the entire Avangar squad in December, the same Avangar squad that won the Blast Pro event in Moscow and reached the final in Berlin last year. That means they are undoubtedly team quality. However, they are playing against Liquid who won season 2 of the IEM Grand Slam. In this encounter, I think Liquid will win, but VP will certainly not make it easy for them.
Team Liquid vs Virtus.pro: victory Team Liquid
Those who will advance from Group B to the playoffs are most likely mousesports, G2 and Liquid.
Info: CS: GO stands for Counterstrike Global Offensive and is one of the most successful and popular fighting games of all time alongside Dota2, League of Legends, Starcraft and World of Warcraft.
The Intel Extreme Masters series is already in its 14th season. It is a kind of Premier League of the gaming scene. With a prize pool of half a million US dollars, it is one of the most lucrative tournament series in the world. Other events of the Intel Extreme Masters even reach a million dollars in prize money.
At the Intel Extreme Masters XIV Katowice top stars of the scene compete in a direct duel. The winning team will receive $ 250,000.
IEM is also based in Melbourne, Beijing, Cologne, Malmo, New York, Chicago and Sydney. The IEM is a product of the ESL (Electronic Sports League).
The favorites for the tournament win
Although the IEM Katowice 2020 could offer some surprises, there are clear tournament favorites. Astralis, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere and mousesports have the best chances in my opinion.
Astralis
The year 2019 was marked by her impressive return. The Danish team will continue to dominate until 2020, but it will be difficult for them to prove themselves at IEM Katowice 2020. The team had a bad start to 2020 when they lost 2-2 to Complexity in the BLAST Premier Spring 2020 group stage.
Astralis’ dominance is based on its excellent interaction and team coordination. dev1ce, dupreeh and Xyp9x have been playing together since 2013 and the trio defines the Astralis style of play. Astralis have the most balanced card pool and play comfortably on all cards.
The Danish team is the favorite to win the IEM in Katowice, but if their performance at BLAST Premier Spring 2020 is a benchmark, Katowice will be a tough task.
Team Liquid
Team Liquid has the individual talent of the players to beat every other team. However, the poor form of individual players has recently been a major problem for the North American team.
Team Liquid’s style of play is heavily dependent on the success of the first shot. EliGE and Twistzz form the core of Team Liquid in terms of firepower and can offer the team the advantage in individual battles. However, the team often has the problem that it cannot meet expectations in important situations.
Nevertheless, Team Liquid is undoubtedly a clear favorite for the tournament win, a top 3 position is almost out of the question for me.
Natus Vincere
The Ukrainian team from Natus Vincere made some team changes earlier this year when they parted ways with their veteran, AWPler GuardiaN. They signed the young Perfecto in his place and relied on their squad to develop its full potential.
Although Natus Vincere has two of the best CS: GO players in his squad, including the clear number 1 s1mple, the team has never been able to reach the heights experts and fans had expected from the team.
If s1mple didn’t play for Natus Vincere, they wouldn’t even be in the top 10. If you don’t get a good result at IEM Katowice 2019, it is quite conceivable that s1mple will make the long-discussed decision to leave the team and nobody could really blame him for it. He is surrounded by veterans who are simply no longer good enough for the world elite.
Although Na’Vi should not be considered a favorite to win this tournament, they can always surprise due to their star potential. With the exception of the outstanding s1mple, the team has a balanced squad in which each player makes a significant contribution to the team’s performance.
mousesports
After a series of victorious events in the recent past, the mousesports team crept into the rankings relatively quietly. The multinational team has repeatedly demonstrated that it can take on the “big” teams. Karrigan has made a name for himself as a team captain, giving young CS players the opportunity to reach new heights in their careers. He has helped teams like FaZe Clan and Astralis on their way to the top of the world.
Her recent results are more impressive than that of many other teams, including Astralis and Team Liquid. mousesports is one of the secret favorites at IEM Katowice and despite the strong competition from Team Liquid and Astralis, mousesports has the potential to win the tournament.
