Heroic & fnatic qualify for IEM Katowice

Heroic and fnatic have qualified for IEM Katowice after winning their respective upper bracket semi-finals against Gambit and HellRaisers in the Europe Closed Qualifer.

IEM Katowice 2018 Europe Closed Qualifier kicked off this weekend with four spots available at the Polish event which will take place from February 27 to March 4 with a $500,000 prize pool.

Earlier in the qualifier, HellRaisers beat AGO and MOUZ while fnatic defeated Singularity. The upper bracket semi-final between fnatic and HellRaisers kicked off on Overpass where the Swedish team picked up eleven rounds on the CT-side and went on to win the map 16-12.

KRIMZ & co. have booked their places in Katowice

HellRaisers had the early lead on Train—the second map of the best of three series—and finished the first half 10-5 ahead. However, Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell & company came back to get the map victory with a 16-13 scoreline, qualifying for IEM Katowice 2018 with a 2-0 series win.

IEM Katowice 2018 Europe Closed QualifierBest of 3 fnaticMatchpage 2 0 4th February 2018 HellRaisers 16Overpass 12 16Train 13

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	55 - 35	+20	104.0	1.49
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	46 - 42	+4	78.9	1.08
Jonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonLekr0	41 - 41	0	75.8	1.05
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	34 - 42	-8	76.8	0.95
Maikil 'Golden' SelimGolden	27 - 39	-12	51.8	0.74

HellRaisers	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Özgür 'woxic' Ekerwoxic	50 - 37	+13	86.3	1.31
Bence 'DeadFox' BöröczDeadFox	42 - 40	+2	75.1	1.09
Vladyslav 'bondik' Nechyporchukbondik	41 - 39	+2	78.3	1.03
Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowANGE1	33 - 44	-11	74.8	0.94
Issa 'ISSAA' MuradISSAA	33 - 43	-10	75.4	0.86

The other upper bracket semi-final featured Gambit, who got a 2-1 victory over Natus Vincere in the previous round, and HEROIC who picked up wins against BIG and North. Train was the first map between the Danish and Kazakhstani teams and Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen's team triumphed in overtime (19-15).

The first half of Overpass ended with Gambit leading 8-7 but HEROIC put on a strong showing on the T-side to win the match 16-12 and the series 2-0. With this result, the Danes qualified for the main tournament.

IEM Katowice 2018 Europe Closed QualifierBest of 3 HEROICMatchpage 2 0 4th February 2018 Gambit 19Train 15 16Overpass 12

HEROIC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jakob 'JUGi' HansenJUGi	52 - 35	+17	80.4	1.31
Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferSnappi	47 - 47	0	91.4	1.14
Andreas 'MODDII' FridhMODDII	43 - 38	+5	77.9	1.10
Patrick 'es3tag' Hansenes3tag	43 - 45	-2	81.0	1.07
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensenniko	40 - 39	+1	67.2	1.00

Gambit	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovHObbit	56 - 38	+18	89.9	1.40
Rustem 'mou' Telepovmou	48 - 42	+6	77.5	1.14
Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevAdreN	34 - 48	-14	70.3	0.94
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized	36 - 47	-11	71.9	0.90
Mihail 'Dosia' StolyarovDosia	30 - 50	-20	58.9	0.81

Gambit and HellRaisers will have one more chance to qualify in the lower bracket semi-finals which will hand out two more spots at IEM Katowice. You can view the brackets on our event page.

The current team list for IEM Katowice can be found below: 

Astralis	Cloud9
FaZe	G2
Ninjas in Pyjamas	SK
Virtus.pro	Liquid
ORDER	Renegades
TYLOO	fnatic
HEROIC

BIG #24 Fatih 'gob b' DayikNikola 'LEGIJA' NinićJohannes 'tabseN' WodarzKevin 'keev' BartholomäusJohannes 'nex' Maget Gambit #11 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovAbay 'HObbit' KhassenovBektiyar 'fitch' Bahytov Natus Vincere #9 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov G2 #4 Richard 'shox' PapillonKenny 'kennyS' SchrubNathan 'NBK-' SchmittDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro HellRaisers #21 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowVladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBence 'DeadFox' BöröczIssa 'ISSAA' Murad SK #1 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo HEROIC #22 Andreas 'MODDII' FridhMarco 'Snappi' PfeifferPatrick 'es3tag' HansenJakob 'JUGi' HansenNikolaj 'niko' Kristensen Jesper 'JW' Wecksell Age: 22 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1226 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68 FaZe #2 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard TYLOO #30 Ke 'captainMo' LiuHui 'DD' WuHansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandHaoWen 'somebody' XuKevin 'xccurate' Susanto Jakob 'JUGi' Hansen Age: 20 Team: HEROIC Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 525 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.61 Liquid #14 Lucas 'steel' LopesNick 'nitr0' CannellaJosh 'jdm64' MarzanoJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Singularity #67 André 'BARBARR' MöllerBenjamin 'BENDJI' SöderenaSaif 'Sayf' JibraeelHugo 'HugoXD' Hallgren Cloud9 #3 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' Yip North #12 Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenPhilip 'aizy' AistrupMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåDaniel 'mertz' Mertz MOUZ #7 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiMartin 'STYKO' StykRobin 'ropz' Kool Astralis #5 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' Reedtz ORDER #53 Chris 'emagine' RowlandsSimon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJordan 'Hatz' Bajic Renegades #19 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardKeith 'NAF' MarkovicKarlo 'USTILO' PivacNoah 'Nifty' Francis Ninjas in Pyjamas #8 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundRichard 'Xizt' LandströmWilliam 'draken' SundinFredrik 'REZ' Sterner fnatic #6 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonMaikil 'Golden' Selim Virtus.pro #10 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasFilip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' Bieliński AGO #23 Damian 'Furlan' KislowskiDominik 'GruBy' SwiderskiMichał 'snatchie' RudzkiMateusz 'TOAO' ZawistowskiTomasz 'phr' Wójcik