NRG secure Major berth; Envy stay alive in Katowice
The upper bracket final and the first lower bracket round have completed at the IEM Katowice Americas Minor. In the upper bracket, NRG defeated FURIA 2-0 (16-9 Inferno, 16-12 Cache) allowing the NA side to move on to the Major. In the lower bracket, Envy took down INTZ 2-1 (16-2 Dust 2, 11-16 Train, 16-8 Overpass).
NRG kicked off their Inferno T side quite strong, going up 11-2 before ending the half 11-4. FURIA attempted a comeback during the second half, managing five wins in the first seven rounds, but NRG managed to close it out in the end. Ethan "nahtE" Arnold put up a marvelous performance with 26 frags and 100 ADR, giving his team the boost they needed to finish Inferno 16-9.
Cache was much more hotly contested, with no team winning more than three rounds in a row in the first half. NRG still managed to edge out a 8-7 lead, helped by an early 5-1 lead. FURIA had a promising start to the second half, taking a lead of 11-10, but with Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte securing 29 kills and 103 ADR, NRG put their foot down and won the map 16-12.
NRGFURIA| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
44 - 27 | +17 | 88.7 | 83.0% | 1.46 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
43 - 35 | +8 | 82.6 | 73.6% | 1.28 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
38 - 33 | +5 | 75.2 | 71.7% | 1.17 |
 Damian 'daps' Steele |
32 - 30 | +2 | 64.6 | 73.6% | 1.01 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
20 - 24 | -4 | 51.6 | 73.6% | 0.94 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
34 - 34 | +0 | 80.9 | 69.8% | 1.09 |
| Rinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior |
32 - 29 | +3 | 61.4 | 73.6% | 0.96 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
34 - 38 | -4 | 73.9 | 64.2% | 0.93 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
27 - 39 | -12 | 58.3 | 54.7% | 0.75 |
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
22 - 37 | -15 | 62.1 | 62.3% | 0.71 |
In what could be a surprise to some, Envy started off their match against INTZ dominating on Dust 2. A swift 13-2 halftime score saw Stephen "reltuC" Cutler lead the way with his 1.74 rating. INTZ didn't even get a chance to come back as Envy quickly closed out the map 16-2.
It seemed that the match would be over quite soon, as Envy proceeded to dominate the first half of Train 11-4. Marcelo "chelo" Cespedes massively stepped up his game, racking up 25 frags and helping INTZ to win 12 rounds in a row to take map two 16-11.
Envy continued to be strong early game, with the American side taking the first nine rounds in a row. Despite this INTZ still managed to secure a 6-9 half. Taylor "Drone" Johnson was the key player for Envy in this game, allowing his team to have a strong CT side and close out the map 16-8 and the series 2-1.
EnvyINTZ| Envy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen 'reltuC' Cutler |
59 - 34 | +25 | 92.4 | 75.4% | 1.49 |
| Josh 'jdm64' Marzano |
48 - 40 | +8 | 70.2 | 76.8% | 1.17 |
| Taylor 'Drone' Johnson |
48 - 47 | +1 | 77.8 | 72.5% | 1.12 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
41 - 45 | -4 | 69.4 | 65.2% | 1.03 |
| Noah 'Nifty' Francis |
34 - 36 | -2 | 51.4 | 71.0% | 0.92 |
| INTZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
44 - 44 | +0 | 71.2 | 73.9% | 1.01 |
| Gustavo 'yel' Knittel |
41 - 41 | +0 | 68.3 | 66.7% | 0.96 |
| Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe |
43 - 43 | +0 | 68.0 | 60.9% | 0.93 |
| Alexandre 'xand' Zizi |
38 - 53 | -15 | 67.8 | 65.2% | 0.89 |
| Lucas 'destiny' Bullo |
36 - 49 | -13 | 57.0 | 60.9% | 0.78 |
NRG have won the Americas Minor and received a spot at the IEM Katowice Major while FURIA will play against Envy in the consolidation final to determine which team will advance durectly to the Major and which will play in the 3rd Place Play-In.
