IEM Katowice dark horses

IEM Katowice 2023 starts on February 1 and lasts for 12 days. The competition features 24 teams and some of them are known to be among the favorites. But there are also several teams that could easily turn into dark horses.

These teams are largely ignored by the public because the spotlight is on G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, and Team Vitality. However, looking at past results from IEM Rio Major and other tournaments, it’s clear that teams like MOUZ, Cloud9, and FURIA Esports deserve a lot of respect.

MOUZ’s chances

MOUZ are currently ranked seventh in the world but nobody seems to notice. This team finished third-fourth at IEM Rio Major and has several players who could easily carry the team to important victories, even against the strongest opponents.

MOUZ have a big advantage going into this tournament: their roster hasn’t been changed in five months. And before that, it hadn’t changed since the start of 2022. This is a very solid team and Christopher “dexter” Nong looks ready to do something impressive.

Are Cloud9 still a top team?

Cloud9 have a new player: Timur “buster” Tulepov. Nobody knows how strong he is but he’s definitely very experienced and comes from Kazakhstan, the same country that Abai “Hobbit” Hasenov is from.

C9 finished 9th-12th at IEM Cologne last year, third-fourth at ESL Pro League Season 16, and fifth-eight at IEM Rio Major. These results demonstrate that Cloud9 have the potential to be a world-beating team.

What’s even more encouraging is the fact that two of their players, Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov and Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov, finished in the top 5 in 2022. Having two of the best five players in CS:GO is definitely a good enough license to be a dark horse at an S-tier tournament.

Nobody views Cloud9 as one of the favorite teams to win IEM Katowice. This means that few competitors will prepare for them with the intensity with which they’ll prepare for other teams, such as Natus Vincere or Team Liquid. This gives C9 a great opportunity to get a top result.

Never forget FURIA Esports

People forgot about FURIA Esports almost as soon as IEM Rio Major ended. Not in Brazil, of course, but Europe is largely oblivious to the strength of this team.

Very little has changed for FURIA’s roster since 2018 and that can be seen in their results. This team may not be a world-beating competitor, but they are certainly capable of finishing in the top eight at any event.

Header: FURIA Esports