IEM Katowice 2024 coverage powered by Predator Gaming
Tournament favourites Team Vitality have crashed out of IEM Katowice 2024 in the group stage after a 2-1 lower bracket loss to Danish side Heroic.
The European roster, which features UK rifler William ‘mezii’ Merryman, faced Heroic in round one of the lower bracket after losing to a new-look Ence in their opening game of the tournament.
Vitality took Heroic the distance in the first map on Mirage, but the Danes eventually took the win 16-14 in overtime, with Nico ‘nicoodoz’ Tamjidi dropping 28 skills to sting Vitality’s chances.
The early map loss inspired Vitality, who fought back by winning the second map on Anubis 13-11, but were once again forced to face overtime in the third map when CTs Heroic rushed their way to their 12th round.
Vitality were locked out and failed to win a single round on the T side, with an agonising 16-13 loss on Vertigo confirming their elimination in the group stage at Katowice.
The org’s UK player mezii expressed his frustration after the exit from IEM, saying his side weren’t good enough and they need to step up for future tournaments.
It was the first time that Vitality had lost two consecutive series since being eliminated from IEM Sydney in October 2023.
How Vitality were expected to go further at IEM Katowice 2024
While Vitality have an historically awful record at IEM Katowice, they are ranked number one in the world right now and were expected to win the tournament, especially in Esports News UK’s predictions of IEM Katowice 2024 where all but one person said that Vitality would win the event.
They had topped off an impressive 2023 with consecutive trophies as Vitality won the Blast Premier Fall and World Finals, and had also celebrated qualification to Blast’s Spring Final, which will be played at the Wembley Arena in London.
A supercomputer prediction for IEM Katowice 2024 predicted Vitality would win Group B and be eliminated in the semi-finals.
But in reality in Katowice, they were swatted away after just two games at the tournament, first being knocked to the lower bracket by Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander’s new-look Ence roster and then being sent home by Heroic.
Heroic are now two wins away from playing in front of the crowd at the Spodek Arena, as they advance to play the loser of today’s GamerLegion versus Mouz match in the upper bracket semi-finals.
GamerLegion are UK’s last hope at IEM Katowice 2024 after M80 and Vitality exit
There was a handful of UK talent at IEM Katowice 2024: Mezii on Vitality, Dephh on M80 (who moved from coach to the active roster) and GamerLegion player volt and coach ashhh.
That’s not to mention the IEM Katowice 2024 broadcast talent of course.
With Vitality’s shock exit, and M80 failing to qualify for the group stag after a 2-0 defeat to David De Gea‘s Rebels Gaming, this leaves GamerLegion as the UK’s last hope in Katowice.
They have just fallen to the lower bracket semi-final after a 2-0 loss to Mouz, where they will now face Heroic.
This comes after a successful play-ins run and a 2-0 victory over Monte.
Reece Barrett, Esports News UK CS writer, who will be reporting on the finals this weekend from Katowice, said: “GamerLegion are an organisation who have been chugging along tier two of Counter-Strike for years, and it’s amazing to see them perform in big events like Katowice.
“As much as it’s great that they’re still representing the UK scene, you can’t deny the storyline of Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski playing in front of a home Polish crowd again, and it would be amazing to see him back at a top level again. It would be fantastic to see them at the Spodek, and I really hope that they can take the UK scene on a run to remember!”
Reece is a sports journalist who has previously worked with the likes of BBC Radio Solent, Southern Daily Echo, Salisbury Radio, VAVEL and many more. He is currently studying a degree in Sports Journalism at Solent University.
