Eternal Fire breezed through the Play-In Stage.
The first day of the IEM Katowice 2024 has come to an end and we have our first few teams that have qualified for the playoffs. The first round matches were all best-of-one matches and as such, there was immense potential for quite a few surprises. Heroic and Eternal Fire managed to climb through their initial few matches to qualify for the playoffs. And here’s how the rest of the teams fared on Day 1 of IEM Katowice 2024.
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Heroic and Eternal Fire dominate through the inaugural matches
One of the most anticipated matches was Heroic’s best-of-one against Astralis. While some fans might have been quite confused as to the new-look Astralis roster, Heroic was here to play.
The map was Mirage and what seemed to be a decent start. But once Astralis got a few guns to their name, it became a rather defensive playstyle. Bringing the Danish flavor to Mirage, both teams had a very strong CT side, but Heroic’s all-around performance was significantly better. Jabbi had 24 frags on Astralis, much ahead of his teammates. But the spread across the Heroic Counter-Strike lineup was significantly better balanced.
After their victory over Astralis, Heroic also managed a 2-1 victory over BIG in the Round 2. The 2-1 victory included wins on Nuke and Anubis, although they did suffer a setback on Vertigo. Regardless of the loss on the second map, Heroic have now secured their spot in the playoffs.
The other team to secure its spot in the playoffs is Eternal Fire. The Turkish superteam featuring popular and well-known names such as Calyx, Maj3r, Woxic and XANTARES is nothing to be scoffed at. They had a relatively easier route through their first two matches. Their opening match was a landslide victory (13-1 versus BetBoom) followed by a very quick 2-0 victory over Rebels Gaming.
IEM Katowice kicked off yesterday with the Play-In Stage with Heroic and Eternal Fire as the first teams to move on. The first round of matches were all best-of-one series while the latter matches were Bo3s. The group stage for the tournament will start on February 3, which also includes direct invites to the tournament.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Counter-Strike news and updates.
