Cloud9 beat Winstrike 2-0, through to Katowice New Legends
The IEM Katowice New Challengers stage hit its final round, and after seeing NiP and G2 secure their spots in the next stage it was down to Cloud9 and Winstrike for the final place.
Nuke was the first map and after Winstrike opened the game with the first two rounds, Cloud9 won the third round and went on a roll for the next five rounds, building up the CT-side economy. Having dropped a round, Cloud9 picked up the win to reset their opponent's economy and pushed all the way up to a strong lead, with Will "RUSH" Wierzba getting a 3k to help hold the A-site before Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro took three in the final round for the 11-4 lead.
The second half kicked off with Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey taking three in the pistol round to start Cloud9's campaign to secure the map. After going 13-4 up, Winstrike secured three rounds before Cloud9 were able to ride into the sunset with a 16-7 win. Tim "autimatic" Ta led the table, with 104.2 ADR and 1.60 rating.
Overpass was the next map, and although Cloud9 started the map with the T-side pistol, Winstrike won a full eco win on their CT-side and pushed up to take the lead in three rounds. Cloud9 came back for two sets of three rounds, split by a Winstrike win, but it'd be the Russians heading into the break as narrow 8-7 leaders, partially in thanks to Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov's 3k in the final round.
The second half began with Winstrike taking their lead further with two rounds, with Boombl4 securing a 1v2 to take that tenth round. But after that, Cloud9 went rolling. Round after round, the Americans reached past the even point and cruised up to the 14-10 mark. Winstrike picked up two further rounds, before kioShiMa secured a 1v1 clutch with the AUG after Robin "flusha" Rönnquist took down two to place Cloud9 on map point. Winstrike picked up the following round, and after two Cloud9 forcebuys forced the game to a 15-15 score and into overtime.
Overtime began with Winstrike picking up the first round, before Cloud9 closed down the next two rounds with Zellsis taking three on the B-site to secure the lead. The Americans then opened up the second part of overtime to go onto another match point, before RUSH took down three to secure the win.
Cloud9Winstrike| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist |
45 - 32 | +13 | 86.1 | 74.1% | 1.23 |
 Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
46 - 33 | +13 | 80.0 | 75.9% | 1.21 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
48 - 37 | +11 | 86.2 | 70.7% | 1.17 |
 Fabien 'kioShiMa' Fiey |
41 - 34 | +7 | 82.6 | 67.2% | 1.17 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
34 - 39 | -5 | 69.6 | 67.2% | 0.97 |
| Winstrike |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aurimas 'Kvik' Kvakšys |
45 - 39 | +6 | 80.5 | 75.9% | 1.19 |
 David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan |
42 - 45 | -3 | 80.4 | 67.2% | 1.07 |
| Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov |
34 - 44 | -10 | 74.2 | 51.7% | 0.88 |
| Georgi 'WorldEdit' Yaskin |
33 - 39 | -6 | 55.3 | 58.6% | 0.84 |
| Jan 'wayLander' Rahkonen |
21 - 47 | -26 | 48.2 | 48.3% | 0.55 |
This result confirms all of the New Legends teams for next week, and they are as follows:
| New Legends Teams | |||
 Astralis |
 BIG |
 FaZe |
 HellRaisers |
| Liquid |
 MIBR |
 Na`Vi |
 compLexity |
 AVANGAR |
Cloud9 |
 ENCE |
G2 |
| NRG |
NiP |
 Renegades |
Vitality |
The first round of the IEM Katowice New Legends stage commences next week, on March 20th.
