IEM Katowice: FaZe eliminate Cloud9; New Champions stage teams determined
The final matchup of the IEM Katowice New Legends stage has concluded, seeing FaZe advance past Cloud9 2-0 (16-14 Cache, 16-9 Dust2) to claim the final Legends spot at the IEM Katowice Major. The win also sees Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer remain the only player to advance to the playoffs stage of every Major, having now made 14/14.
The series began on Cloud9's pick of Cache, where three kills from Håvard "rain" Nygaard in the first pistol round helped FaZe take control of the map on their CT side. olofmeister combined with Nikola "NiKo" Kovač to take FaZe up to a 4-0 lead, with Cloud9 replying with two of their own before FaZe once again shut them down.
NiKo and olofmeister continued to put frags on the board, with NiKo putting up a heroic AWP A site defense to allow FaZe another trio of rounds. Cloud9 managed just one final round in the half before FaZe swept the remainder of their CT side rounds for a 12-3 scoreline as they swapped sides.
FaZe continued in their winning ways with another win in the second half pistol round, granting Cloud9 a single round before moving up to match point. Despite being just a single round from a map victory, FaZe struggled to close out Cache, with Cloud9 winning ten straight rounds to narrow the margin to 15-14 in FaZe's favor. A B site re-execute fake allowed for FaZe to take A site with relative ease in the 30th round, finally closing out the map 16-14 and taking the series to their own pick of Dust2.
A similar start to Dust2 saw FaZe take the first three rounds of the map on their T side, with Cloud9 replying back with one of their own before FaZe continued on with five of their own. Another singular round went to Cloud9, with FaZe once again replying back with a reset to take an additional trio of rounds before Cloud9 closed out the half with two of their own for an 11-4 lead in FaZe's favor.
Cloud9 began their comeback attempt in the second half, winning three rounds straight until FaZe fought back in round 19, leaving Timothy "autimatic" Ta in a 1vs4. With an AWP in hand, autimatic fought back to keep Cloud9 in control, allowing for his team to grab an additional three rounds before FaZe finally got on the board in the second half. Once they managed to put a round up, FaZe were unrelenting, pushing their way to the finish line for a 16-9 map win to take the series 2-0.
FaZeCloud9| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
50 - 32 | +18 | 98.5 | 80.0% | 1.48 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
42 - 33 | +9 | 88.1 | 70.9% | 1.30 |
 Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev |
37 - 28 | +9 | 76.5 | 72.7% | 1.19 |
 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
40 - 31 | +9 | 73.5 | 69.1% | 1.16 |
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
31 - 37 | -6 | 59.3 | 63.6% | 0.83 |
| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist |
33 - 40 | -7 | 82.3 | 63.6% | 0.96 |
 Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
40 - 40 | +0 | 74.0 | 60.0% | 0.96 |
 Fabien 'kioShiMa' Fiey |
34 - 38 | -4 | 62.4 | 65.5% | 0.91 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
32 - 41 | -9 | 67.2 | 58.2% | 0.84 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
22 - 41 | -19 | 55.9 | 60.0% | 0.69 |
With FaZe being the final team to qualify for the IEM Katowice New Champions stage, the playoff bracket has now been determined. The quarterfinal matchups, with times in EST, are as follows:
| Friday | |
 Natus Vincere -vs-  FaZe |
10:00 AM |
Liquid -vs-  ENCE |
12:30 PM |
| Saturday | |
 MIBR -vs-  Renegades |
10:00 AM |
 Astralis -vs- NiP |
12:30 PM |
Cloud9's elimination also leaves the future of Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro in question, as he was originally brought on board to replace Maikil "Golden" Selim on a trial basis. A tweet following Cloud9's loss indicates that Zellsis himself is unsure of what his future looks like, with further details sure to come to light in the near future.
