NA CS at the Majors: IEM Katowice 2019

With less than a week to go until the start of the last ever CS:GO Major, Dust2.us is walking down memory lane to relive North America’s Counter-Strike history at the Majors. After a FACEIT Major in London where North America had two teams make the playoffs, would come an IEM Katowice 2019 where NA came very short.

IEM Katowice 2019 was announced before the FACEIT London Major 2018 even happened, but results from the latter would have implications for the competition in Poland. The top eight from London would directly go on to be present in the New Legends stage in Katowice, where they would meet the top eight from IEM Katowice New Challengers stage.

The bottom eight teams from the previous major New Legends stage used to be qualified for the following major New Challengers stage, but this time Valve decided that the two teams that went 0-3 in London would have to prove themselves by playing their respective Minor (the teams didn't manage to conquer the spot).

Prior to the Minors, North America already had three representatives confirmed at IEM Katowice, Liquid, compLexity, and Cloud9. This could have been a record-breaking Major if two more NA teams qualified for the New Challengers stage through the Minor. NRG comfortably claimed their spot in Katowice, alongside FURIA, who only lost to NRG. But, due to the changes involving the two 0-3 teams mentioned before, there would be a Minor qualifier for the teams that came third on the Regional Minors, which meant Envy could still be the fifth NA team at the Major. Unfortunately, the team didn't manage to win a single map and were out of contention.

The New Challengers stage started off well for NA, with NRG beating Winstrike 16-9 and Cloud9 defeating Grayhound 16-11. NRG managed to continue on a winning path after dismantling ViCi 16-6 and then winning 2-0 against TYLOO, qualifying for the New Legends stage with a flawless 3-0 record.

For C9, things would be a bit more complicated because, after the opening win, the team would go on to lose the following two matches, 16-3 against TYLOO, and 16-6 against ViCi. On the brink of elimination and down a map to FURIA after a 16-1 loss, Cloud9 managed to win map two 16-1, and then close the series with a 16-10 Cache to stay alive in Katowice. There was still one more series before C9 could breathe with relief, against Winstrike. This series was more comfortable with a 2-0 result, despite having to clinch the Legends spot in a Mirage overtime.

With four teams in the New Legends stage, expectations started to rise for NA, but it seemed like NRG had lost their gas, and Cloud9 and compLexity couldn't manage to get a less difficult schedule.

NRG, after going 3-0 on the previous stage, did a full 180 and went 0-3, after losses against Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-14), AVANGAR (16-13), and compLexity (2-0, 22-19, 19-16).

The compLexity side didn't have a much better run, as they lost against Astralis (16-6), and MIBR (16-9), managed to stay alive with the win against NRG, but then lost again against FaZe (2-1, 8-16, 16-11, 16-14).

Cloud9 managed to start off the stage with a 16-3 win against MIBR, but then it all fell apart with losses against Astralis (16-0), and Vitality (16-14), still, the team stayed alive after a win against HellRaisers (2-0, 16-8, 16-12) but also fell to FaZe on the last hurdle (2-0, 16-14, 16-9).

After all this, only Liquid would be representing North America in the playoffs, after going undefeated in the New Legends stages, with wins over AVANGAR (16-12), Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-13), and NAVI (2-0, 16-14, 16-9).

Liquid's run wouldn't last much longer as they faced the would-be finalists ENCE in the quarterfinals. The series opened on Mirage, where Liquid didn't manage to get a good advantage on the CT-side, going to the half down 8-7. The second half wasn't better for the NA side, as ENCE looked focused on the defense, closing the map after only allowing four more rounds from Liquid. The second map, Inferno picked by Liquid, would get off to an amazing start for American fans, as Liquid took the half 10-5, but then couldn't close the map when it was 15-8, and ENCE came back to a 15-15. During overtime, Liquid only got a single round, and the Fins would proceed in the tournament.

As Astralis would go on to win their third Major, second in a row, North America would have three representatives guaranteed to be present at the next major, StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 or would they? Be sure to follow Dust2.us in order to read about what happened in Berlin and NA's CS story there.