Imperial fe to use stand-in at IEM Katowice due to visa issues
Imperial fe won't have their Russian IGL Victoria "tory" Kazieva at the IEM Katowice Stage 1 due to visa issues, the rifler Zainab "zAAz" Turkie confirmed on January 28th. Imperial fe will use their Bulgarian head coach Kamen "bubble" Kostadinov as a last-minute substitute throughout the event.
This is awful news for Imperial fe as the team performed so well against Natus Vincere at the BLAST Bounty Season 1 earlier this month, surprising just about everyone in the CS2 community.
While bubble is no stranger to competition at the highest level as he played professionally for over 10 years, he hasn't played since 2023. Additionally, bubble's inclusion in Imperial fe's lineup means that IEM Katowice will no longer have an all-women roster playing.
Imperial fe will debut against FURIA this Wednesday, January 29, and Wildcard and BIG are on their side of the bracket. All teams in the IEM Katowice Stage 1 must win two matches to advance to Stage 2 or lose two to be knocked out.
Imperial feFURIA| Imperial fe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Zainab 'zAAz' Turkie |
28 - 34 | -6 | 89.7 | 67.4% | 1.03 |
 Ana 'ANa' Dumbravă |
26 - 28 | -2 | 58.0 | 65.1% | 0.85 |
 Alexandra 'twenty3' Timonina |
27 - 33 | -6 | 62.6 | 62.8% | 0.74 |
 Kamen 'bubble' Kostadinov |
18 - 34 | -16 | 53.7 | 55.8% | 0.62 |
 Katarína 'Kat' Vašková |
19 - 34 | -15 | 53.3 | 53.5% | 0.58 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
44 - 21 | +23 | 96.7 | 81.4% | 1.68 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
41 - 27 | +14 | 103.5 | 79.1% | 1.54 |
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
34 - 21 | +13 | 76.4 | 81.4% | 1.33 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
21 - 24 | -3 | 73.7 | 76.7% | 1.00 |
| Felipe 'skullz' Medeiros |
23 - 27 | -4 | 61.0 | 72.1% | 0.98 |
