IEM Katowice 2024 favorites

IEM Katowice will be an epic CS2 event that will mark the beginning of a new season. BLAST Premier Spring Groups precedes it, but its format doesn’t really make it a compelling tournament that can tell us who the strongest teams are.

IEM Katowice 2024, on the other hand, does have a format that’s relevant for determining the world’s best teams, and will feature 24 amazing competitors. Some of these competitors are not exactly tier 1 teams, which is why the tournament will have a play-in stage that precedes the groups. But the world’s best teams will all be in the race.

This article analyzes the favorites and takes a look at some of the reasons why some teams are vastly stronger than others.

The best teams to watch at IEM Katowice 2024

Among the teams that are likely to win IEM Katowice, these five are probably the strongest:

• Team Vitality
• FaZe Clan
• G2 Esports
• Cloud9
• Astralis

For Vitality, this event will be a great opportunity to show the world that the last two BLAST Premier events of 2023 were not by them accidentally. After being named the best CS2 player of 2023, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut should feel motivated to show his fans that he is even better than Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev.

If he can carry his team to victory at this tournament, 2024 is going to be Vitality’s chance to dominate Counter-Strike even more than before.

FaZe Clan are on this list because they won the first three events in CS2. Despite losing Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken to Team Liquid, they still have the third best player of 2023 on the roster. With the help of Robin “ropz” Kool, FaZe should qualify for the playoffs and possibly even the Grand Final.

Let’s not forget that Team Liquid is not here to stop them. Their only real rivals will be Vitality, G2, C9, Astralis, and possibly Natus Vincere.

What was your favourite #IEM moment of 2023? 🥹 pic.twitter.com/pzRRTJs1Y3

— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) December 29, 2023

G2 won the previous edition of IEM Katowice, and have on the roster two players who finished 2023 in the top 5 at the individual level. These advantages are more than enough for them to win, but they will need excellent performances to reach this ambitious goal.

For Cloud9, this might be the beginning of a new era. Much of this team’s roster is made up of former Natus Vincere players. Three members, including the IGL, were part of the Na’Vi roster that won the PGL Stockholm Major in 2021.

And finally, we have Astralis, who are now fully upgraded and ready to compete against the world’s best. The three players who were doing great are still here and they’ve been joined by two former Heroic members. This team has the potential to win the tournament.

Header: ESL