It’s been over a week now, following a play-in phase and a group stage6 teams had qualified for the play-offs of this Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Katowicebetter known as IEM Katowice 2022 on CS:GO. At the end of these playoffs it is therefore FaZe Clan who wins this Major, under the nose of G2which once again passes so close to its goal.
We could therefore find during these playoffs Heroic, as well as Virtus.prohaving qualified from Group A, having reached the Upper Bracket final, won by Heroic 2-0 but also Gambit Esportshaving won the Lower Bracket final 2-0 facing the Ninjas in Pajamas. Within Group B, these are also 3 teams that stood out from the rest. First of all, Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan qualified for the playoffs advancing to the Upper Bracket final, then won 2-1 by NAVI and from the Lower Bracket, it’s G2 who qualify, knocking Astralis out in the final 2-1.
It is therefore then the playoff phase which took place this weekend, with the quarter-finals, organized on Friday evening. The first quarter therefore opposed FaZe Clan at Gambit Esports where FaZe easily won 2-0 without much adversity from Gambit. In the second quarter-final, G2 won 2-0 against Virtus.prothe first map ending all the same in overtime on Mirage, after 7 overtimes. The two teams join the quarter-finals, where they join the winners of the group stage finals. FaZe Clan takes on Heroic, but easily wins 2-0, without much adversity from the Danish team. On the side of G2, she faces NAVI, who was in a difficult situation during these playoffs, given the current context in Ukraine, the team’s country of origin, to Ukrainian and Russian players. s1mpe, the star of the roster had also shared strong words during the opening of these playoffs. G2 therefore easily wins against NAVI, who obviously did not have the head to give everything they had on the score of 2-0despite two very tight maps (16-12 and 16-13).
So these are FaZe Clan and G2 who reach the Grand Final of these IEM Katowice 2022. G2 therefore once again had a chance to win a Master, those who had come so close to their goal at the last Master, where the French team lost in the final against NAVI. Unfortunately, here again, G2 only comes close to his dream. During the first map, Inferno, G2 lose 19-15 to FaZethen during the second map, Mirage, despite having reached the score of 15-7G2 fails to score the decisive point and finally loses 31 to 27. Finally, on the last map, Dust II, FaZe prevails 16 to 14, thus winning the match.
In addition to winning this match, it is therefore these IEM Katowice 2022 that FaZe Clan winsdoing its very first victory at a Major in its history and winning along the way the $400,000 cash prize reserved for the winner.