PALOMA wins against 9ine in ESL Polish Championship 2023

9ine was crushed by PALOMA’s CS2 lineup in the ESL Polish Championship 2023. PALOMA has thus qualified for the play-in of the IEM Katowice next year.

PALOMA, a Polish team without organization, has qualified for the play-in stage of next year’s IEM Katowice after defeating 9INE in the final of the ESL Polish Championship Autumn 2023. The team, led by former Permitta players Patryk “olimp” Woźniak and Rafał “sNx” Snopek, also secured a spot for the European ESL Pro League Season 19 pre-qualifiers. For olimp and sNx, it is the third consecutive national title with different teams.

The ESL Polish Championship, which will see its last edition this fall, was a disappointment for 9INE, now with Jakub “jcobbb” Pietruszewski, especially after Olek “hades” Miskiewicz took over the role of AWPing in-game leader. PALOMA, on the other hand, a team that was not necessarily considered a big favorite, successfully prevailed against 9ine.

The match of PALOMA vs. 9ine

The first map in PALOMA’s match against 9ine was Ancient. Both teams looked pretty strong at first, and it went back and forth for a long time, but over time PALOMA was able to overtake their opponent.9ine kept stumbling and just couldn’t quite get a foothold. Polish pro player Kamil “KEi” Pietkun gave it his all for 9ine and even managed a 1.41 rating, but it wasn’t enough to keep his team afloat and 9ine lost the map 13-16.

The second map was Nuke and this time 9ine wanted to do better, but again it showed how motivated PALOMA was. The 20-year-old Bartosz “moonwalk” Mikołajczyk was the star of PALOMA and the driving force for his team, which finally gave the orgless lineup its second victory, 13-9. moonwalk achieved a rating of 1.29. Although he did not come close to KEi, he was still able to help his team to success. 9ine lost the match with a bitter 0:2 and will wonder in retrospect why they just couldn’t beat PALOMA.

PALOMA is the first team to secure a place in the IEM Katowice 2024 play-in on January 31. Teams such as G2 and MOUZ are already seeded for the group stage, in which the best 16 teams will compete.

So far, teams such as Paloma and FaZe have qualified for the play-in phase of IEM Katowice 2024. The full list of qualified teams is yet to be announced as tournaments and qualifiers continue to take place.

With PALOMA’s win, perhaps some organizations have taken notice of the promising lineup and maybe they won’t be orgless for much longer.