IEM Katowice Major 2019: Everything you need to know

Predictions

Former Champions of Katowice

The Majors are CSGO's biggest events in a calendar year. Although CSGO doesn't have the exorbitant prize pool of Dota 2, the hype behind the Majors matches that of the International. The most-watched Esport event in history was the IEM Katowice 2018 tournament which had over 30 million unique viewers who watched the stream peaking at over 1 million concurrent viewers. Considering Katowice 2018 wasn't a Major, this year there is a good chance that record might be broken.

Favorites to win the tournament.

Over the 2nd half of the last year, CSGO followed a certain pattern. Every team will scratch and claw their way to the grand finals and then lose to Astralis. The Danish roster went on a tear in the last 5 months of the year winning the London Major and following it up with 5 more tournament wins. Their run of terror somewhat stalled after they lost to Liquid in 2019's first tournament, IBP Masters, but the #1 favorite to win the tournament is still Astralis.

Other contenders are Team Liquid, whom I mentioned above, and Natus Vincere. In the last Calendar year, Astralis won 10 tournaments. In the grand finals of these 10 tournaments, they beat Liquid 5 times and Na'Vi 3 times. Although teams like Faze Clan and Mousesports showed potential, they didn't quite reach the level of these 3 teams. While Liquid boasts of having, perhaps, the best North American line-up ever, Na'Vi has the best player in the world, S1mple. It is on S1mple to carry his team to victory if Na'Vi is to win the Major.

Dark Horses

Out of 24 teams in the tournament, quite a few have the potential to win the Major. Most of these teams have the talent required to match the likes of Astralis and they just need to find the winning way. Out of these 'Dark Horses,' the most prominent one is Faze Clan, one of 2018's best teams the team spiraled down after the London Major. They replaced their in-game leader Karrigan with Adren and made Niko their new IGL. They won the E-League invitational in January and might repeat the feat at the Major.

The only other team who look capable of winning the Major, on paper, is Made in Brazil. MiBr recently removed Stewie2k and Tarik from their roster and replaced them with Taco and Felps. Thus the team returned to having an all-Brazilian line-up for the first time since early 2018. We haven't seen this new team play even once and they might not be the old team we remember but considering what this exact line-up accomplished when they were together, our hopes for MiBr are as high as ever.

The Challengers Stage

There will be 16 teams in the Challengers Stage which will be the first phase of the Major. Out of those 16 teams, only 8 will make it to the Legends Stage. The 16 teams are NiP, Fnatic, Vega Squadron, G2, Cloud9, Tyloo, Ence, Vitality, NRG, Furia, Avangar, Team Spirit, Renegades, Grayhound, Winstrike, and Vici.

The 8 teams I pick from these to qualify to the Legends Stage are Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fnatic, Cloud9, G2, NRG, Ence, Vitality, and Renegades.

The Legends Stage

Said 8 teams from above will join the 8 legends from the London Major to fight for the play-off spots. The above predicted 8 teams will join Astralis, Na'Vi, Liquid, MiBr, Faze Clan, Hellraisers, Complexity, and BIG.

The 8 teams I pick to make it to the Champions Stage are Astralis, Na'Vi, Liquid, MiBr, Faze Clan, Cloud9, NiP, and Ence.

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The IEM Katowice 2019 Major will be streamed live on Twitch for free on ESL's channel. Anybody who plays CSGO, which is free on Steam can also watch the Major in game.