MIBR and Renegades advance to IEM Katowice Major New Champions stage
Renegades and MIBR have both earned spots in the IEM Katowice Major playoffs with wins over Vitality and NiP, respectively, joining Astralis, Natus Vincere, and Liquid in the eight-team $1,000,000 bracket.
The Boys were the first of the two teams to advance, taking down the French side of Vitality 2-1 (16-5 Dust2, 11-16 Cache, 16-12 Inferno) at the start of the day.
Vitality's map pick of Dust2 was up first, with Renegades taking firm control on their T side with a 4-0 start before Vitality got themselves on the board with one round of their own. The Frenchmen found themselves swiftly reset as The Aussies went on to string together another six rounds before Cédric "RpK" Guipouy picked up three frags to help his side rally back, taking three of the remaining four rounds in the half as Renegades held a commanding 11-4 lead swapping onto their CT side.
Vitality managed to give themselves a fighting chance with a pistol round victory in the second half, but had two players picked off by Justin "jks" Savage's Scout in the ensuing round to allow for a quick conversion by Renegades. With the economy firmly in their control and Vitality in pieces, Renegades cruised to a 16-5 finish, taking the series to their own map pick of Cache.
It was Vitality who, once again powered by RpK, took the early portions of Cache, opening up the map with a 7-0 start. After taking a pause, Renegades switched up the pace on their T side, making an adjustment that allowed for them to fight back in the half and result in them sweeping the remainder of the rounds to edge out an 8-7 lead.
Vitality won their third pistol round of the series as they swapped to their own T side, using the momentum to regain the lead for a 10-8 scoreline. With rifles in hand, Renegades managed to push back for two rounds of their own to tie up the game, but found their economy crushed by Vitality as the Frenchmen took a quartet of rounds for their own. Just one final round went the way of Renegades before Vitality took a second set of rounds, closing out the second map of the series 16-11 in their favor.
The deciding map of the series, Inferno, began with more of a back-and-forth brawl between the teams, with Renegades taking the initial three rounds on their CT side. Vitality countered by entrying into bombsites and crushing the Renegades economy on two occasions, allowing for them to win seven of the ensuing nine rounds to push their way up to a 7-5 lead. Powered by jks, Renegades managed to take the final trio of rounds in the half to narrowly pull ahead 8-7 yet again.
The Boys continued their good form as they swapped over to their T side, crushing Vitality's defensive setups in the first six rounds as they worked their way up to a 14-7 scoreline. Only then were Vitality able to respond with a streak of five rounds of their own, but Renegades were unrelenting in their efforts as they kept up the pressure and secured two final rounds for a 16-12 map victory, securing themselves the series and a spot in the New Champions stage.
RenegadesVitality| Renegades |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
69 - 42 | +27 | 90.6 | 73.7% | 1.36 |
 Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad |
51 - 42 | +9 | 78.3 | 77.6% | 1.25 |
 Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai |
57 - 46 | +11 | 80.3 | 72.4% | 1.24 |
| Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas |
41 - 42 | -1 | 65.3 | 75.0% | 1.05 |
| Aaron 'AZR' Ward |
46 - 46 | +0 | 65.2 | 68.4% | 1.02 |
| Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt |
47 - 53 | -6 | 77.5 | 63.2% | 1.01 |
| Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire |
48 - 53 | -5 | 73.7 | 68.4% | 0.98 |
| Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
47 - 51 | -4 | 69.2 | 65.8% | 0.94 |
| Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy |
42 - 51 | -9 | 60.6 | 57.9% | 0.86 |
 Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin |
34 - 56 | -22 | 49.1 | 61.8% | 0.68 |
After Natus Vincere dispatched of AVANGAR in a two-map series, MIBR faced off against NiP in the final matchup of the day. There, the Brazilians emerged victorious with a 2-0 win (16-6 Train, 16-14 Inferno), affirming their own spot in the playoffs and sending NiP down to the 2-2 pool.
NiP began their pick of Train by winning their T side pistol round, but found themselves torn apart by a combination of Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's Scout and three deagle kills by Marcelo "coldzera" David in the second, forcing an immediate reset. FalleN and company worked their way up to a 7-2 lead before NiP managed a force-buy victory, stringing together two more rounds in their favor before MIBR closed out the half with the final three for a 10-5 lead.
Fernando "fer" Alvarenga picked up an ace in the second pistol round, granting MIBR control on the T side and allowing for his team to promptly secure match point with another four-round streak. NiP managed just one additional round before MIBR closed out the map, taking the series to their own pick of Inferno after dispatching of NiP 16-6 on Train.
fer and coldzera continued to apply pressure to NiP at the start of Inferno, allowing for the Brazilians to open up the map with a 6-0 lead. NiP rallied back with four rounds of their own, but MIBR pulled further ahead with another trio of rounds before NiP closed out the half with FalleN's side leading 9-6.
That margin was quickly neutralized as NiP won five rounds straight at the start of their T side, with MIBR taking two of their own to tie up the match at 11-11. The two teams fought for control, with NiP edging out the lead for a second time to sit just shy of match point at 14-12. fer and coldzera combined to help their team regain control, rallying back to tie up the score before FalleN won a 1vs1 in the 30th round to edge out a 16-14 victory.
MIBRNinjas in Pyjamas| MIBR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
47 - 31 | +16 | 102.8 | 73.1% | 1.43 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
52 - 33 | +19 | 97.4 | 75.0% | 1.43 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
32 - 29 | +3 | 61.0 | 78.8% | 1.08 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
29 - 31 | -2 | 68.8 | 73.1% | 0.99 |
| João 'felps' Vasconcellos |
29 - 36 | -7 | 71.7 | 69.2% | 0.94 |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonas 'Lekr0' Olofsson |
40 - 37 | +3 | 82.2 | 71.2% | 1.13 |
| Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner |
38 - 37 | +1 | 88.1 | 65.4% | 1.12 |
| Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund |
31 - 39 | -8 | 70.9 | 65.4% | 0.95 |
| Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg |
30 - 39 | -9 | 59.2 | 63.5% | 0.78 |
| Dennis 'dennis' Edman |
21 - 38 | -17 | 44.1 | 51.9% | 0.62 |
With these results, Astralis, Liquid, Natus Vincere, Renegades, and MIBR have all earned spots in the New Champions stage. Three more teams are set to join them, with two rounds of play remaining. The first of those will be the 1-2 round, where compLexity and Cloud9 will fight for their tournament lives. The three teams that advance from that round will play against the losers of today's matchups — AVANGAR, NiP, and Vitality.
The 1-2 matchups are set to play out tomorrow, while the 2-2 round will play out on Sunday. The 1-2 matchups, with times in EST, are as follows:
| 1-2 Round | |
 ENCE -vs- G2 |
7:00 AM |
 FaZe -vs-  compLexity |
10:00 AM |
 Cloud9 -vs-  HellRaisers |
1:30 PM |
