FURIA and Astralis get eliminated from IEM Katowice

IEM Katowice 2024 has not even entered the group stage and some of the big teams are already out of the competition. What a disappointment for Astralis! And for FURIA too!

The Danish club signed two new players and was supposed to be much stronger than ENCE, who are currently led by none other than Astralis’ former IGL, gla1ve. But the team has very few star players on the roster, while Astralis is full of them.

FURIA’s elimination

For FURIA, their tournament started with an unfortunate defeat against The MongolZ (14 – 16) followed by another defeat against Apeks (1 – 2).

In the first match, FalleN did his best to help his team and everyone played relatively well, but Senzu and Techno were simply too good, winning a lot of key rounds for their team.

Before the second match, Apeks did not look capable of winning against the Brazilian squad. But after the first half of the first map, everyone was worried for FalleN. The score was 2 – 10 and it felt as though FURIA would lose very quickly. In the end, the score was 9 – 13 thanks to an excellent second half.

Things became hopeless again on the second map. After the first half, the score was once again 2 – 10 in favor of Apeks. Except this time, FURIA managed to make a spectacular comeback by winning 11 consecutive rounds.

On the third map, FURIA started again with a bad half, 3 – 9, but was very close to sending the battle into overtime. Apeks won 11 – 13 and sent them home, to the exasperation of every Brazilian fan.

Astralis’ elimination

Now go win it all, @gla1ve_csgo ❤ pic.twitter.com/9jWy4vsNhn

— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) February 1, 2024

Astralis were defeated by Heroic 13 – 11 in the opening match, getting a bit of revenge for the stavn and jabbi situation. The two players moved to Astralis at the end of November last year, essentially ruining Heroic’s plans for 2024.

In their second match, Astralis encountered ENCE and were defeated quite easily, probably because ENCE’s IGL, gla1ve, used to be the IGL of Astralis and understands exactly how device likes to play. The Danish superstar finished the match with a score of 26 – 25, but the rest of his team was completely crushed.

In a rather strange way, gla1ve was the highest fragger on ENCE, ending the match with a score of 35 – 19. From a tactical standpoint, this match was an absolute masterclass.

Header: ESL