The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive playoffs begin Friday at IEM Katowice. Here are our predictions for the Round of 6 and how you can watch live online.
Just six Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams remain standing at IEM Katowice as the playoffs have arrived. After two grueling days of constant group stage play, four rosters will compete at Spodek Arena on Friday for the right to face the top seeds in the semifinals.
So far Katowice has produced some surprises and disappointments for CS:GO fans; who’d have figured that OpTic Gaming, who just won Season 2 of ELEAGUE last fall, would fail to even win a single game? Where exactly did Heroic come from?
We’ve made our predictions for Friday’s quarterfinal matchups and also given you the information on how you can watch each best-of-three game live. Leave your own picks for Friday’s draw in the comments.
Here’s what’s on the calendar today for IEM Katowice 2017:
Quarterfinal 1: Immortals vs. North
Date: Friday, March 3
Start Time: 6:35 a.m. ET
Match: Immortals vs. North
Live Stream: Stream 1 | Stream 2
Here’s an intriguing matchup. Immortals are North America’s last hope at IEM Katowice and come into this matchup with the better record of 4-1. They own wins over Astralis, Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, and although they had to beat Astralis again in a tiebreaker, getting two wins over the Danish squad is a huge plus for the NA team that just got fnx from SK Gaming last month.
North has actually seemed a heck of a lot better since they were released by Team Dignitas and aligned themselves with FC Copenhagen. Their Group Stage record was 3-2 with wins over Na’vi and DreamHack Masters Las Vegas winners Virtus.pro. So both sides have one impressive scalp to boast going into this matchup. Which one will break through? We expect it’ll be North after they’ve constantly been knocking on the door.
Our Pick: North 2-1
Quarterfinal 2: Astralis vs. Natus Vincere
Date: Monday, September 19
Start Time: 10:25 a.m. ET
Episode: Astralis vs. Natus Vincere
Live Stream: Stream 1 | Stream 2
Astralis continue their hot streak in 2017. IEM Katowice will be the third straight tournament in which the team has reached the playoffs. They went 4-1 in Group Stage although it was far from decisive; the aforementioned OpTic Gaming took them to a decent 16-12 and Ninjas in Pyjamas pushed them to a 28-24 war of a game.
On the other side Na’vi finished Groups at 3-2. But two of their losses came to fellow playoff teams North and Heroic, both by 16-12 scores. Can they upend Astralis with everything that the Danish team has seemed to discover about themselves? There’s a fair chance since Astralis’s wins haven’t been decisive and Na’vi have had close defeats. Expect a closer game than it looks even if the hot hand will continue to play.
Our Pick: Astralis 2-1
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If you missed any of the IEM Katowice Group Stage play this week, full matches are available on the ESL Counter-Strike channel on YouTube. The Grand Final is scheduled for Sunday, March 5.
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