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Touching down in Katowice, your very being vibrates with anticipation and reverence. Anticipation for the matches to come and the famously electric crowd. Reverence for the history of this place.
The Spodek Arena, the source of such magical moments that will forever live in the memories and hearts of Counter-Strike fans.
For CS fans, the name Katowice will forever be synonymous with Counter-Strike, and linked with the emotion of glorious victories and bitter defeats. As Michal ‘Carmac’ Blicharz, VP of product development at ESL, once said: “Our product is emotion.”
With the IEM Katowice 2025 playoffs just around the corner (happening today, February 7th 2025, with Eternal Fire vs Mongolz and Team Spirit vs Virtus Pro), it’s the perfect time to revisit some of those famous moments. Here are five our our picks.
EMS One Katowice 2014: The Polish Plow achieve their destiny on home soil
Virtus Pro’s core of Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski, Jarosław ‘pashaBiceps’ Jarząbkowski and Wiktor ‘TaZ’ Wojtas were already legends of Counter-Strike 1.6. NEO is especially considered one of the greatest of all time in Counter-Strike’s classic form.
Joined by young guns Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski and Paweł ‘byali’ Bieliński in late 2013, the roster signed for Virtus Pro in early 2014, and were a terrifying combination of youth and experience, know-how and firepower.
Still, Virtus Pro were far from favourites going into the tournament. They were less fancied going into the tournament than Titan, reigning (and only) major champions Fnatic, and of course the indominable NiP line-up fresh off of their record-breaking 2013, which saw them create their historic 87-0 run.
It is fitting then that Virtus Pro’s famous victory came against the most difficult possible opposition. The rapturous support of the local crowd carried ‘Virtus Plow’ to a momentus 2-0 victory that never looked particularly close, with the Poles simply rolling over the legendary NiP roster.
Although Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski was the top performer in the final, Jarosław ‘pashaBiceps’ Jarząbkowski was given the MVP award for the hugey emotional event. The photo of pasha hoisting the Katowice trophy with one arm remains one of the most enduring photographs in CS history.
IEM Katowice 2019: dupreeh dedicates major to his late father
On February 19th 2019, dupreeh revealed on Twitter that his father had lost his battle with cancer.
He stated:
His father had put up a heroic fight, having battled the disease since 2010. As a result Nicolai ‘device’ Reedtz called dupreeh’s dad the “definition of a fighter”.
After defeating Ence in the major final, dupreeh revealed that it was his father’s final wish that he and Astralis would win the major. dupreeh honoured his father with a 1.25 HLTV rated EVP performance, which saw Astralis bring home their historic third major.
dupreeh’s father was indeed an incredible fighter, but in those emotional circumstances, it has to be stated that the apple did not fall far from the tree.
IEM Katowice 2020: Covid-19 pandemic takes hold of Counter-Strike world
2020 was a memorable year in the Spodek because of the absence of its heartbeat, the fans. In a hugely emotional livestream, Michal ‘Carmac’ Blicharz, ESL VP of product development, broke the news that no fans would be able to attend the event due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As the world was just waking up to the threat of the virus, the livestream stood as an indication that all our lives were about to rapidly change.
The event went ahead without fans, with Natus Vincere claiming their third Katowice victory overall, and first in CSGO, in an empty Spodek.
What could have been the beginning of a Navi warpath was viciously curtailed by the virus, as no further LAN event was played in tier one Counter-Strike for 500 days following Katowice’s conclusion. Counter-Strike moved online, vastly changing the circuit in ways we still are seeing the consequences of today.
This author, for one, is hugely grateful that CS fans will be together to enjoy IEM Katowice 2025 in the Spodek arena.
IEM Katowice 2022: History inside and outside of the server
2022 saw IEM Katowice return to the Spodek, after 2021 was played online. Again, the event was notable for in-server and out of server events.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine breaking out mid-event, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev took it upon himself to make an emotional speech calling for unity and peace, as a Ukrainian who had achieved so much besides his three Russian teammates at the time.
“Right now I stay with my friends,” he said. “We win together and we lose together. All of us want peace for the whole world. All of us are scared. All of us need to show an example to the whole world in this tournament. We need to stay together with our fans, with our friends, and everyone who will watch this tournament. We all need to stay humans first.”
In the server, Faze claimed a famous victory at IEM Katowice 2022, which saw them hoist the trophy despite Justin ‘jks’ Savage having to stand in for two separate players during the event. First FaZe lost Robin ‘ropz’ Kool to illness, then FaZe regained their starting lineup only to lose Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard for the playoffs.
jks famously stated, “I don’t wanna be the reason these guys drop out of the tournament”, and he certainly wasn’t as his stand-in heroics helped Faze to a 3-0 victory over G2 in the grand final.
The victory was sweet release for karrigan, who had lost a brutal final against Fnatic in 2018. The Dane revealed he had rewatched that defeat prior to the grand final, vowing to not let that happen again.
The victory also resulted in the iconic image of ropz looking at the trophy in disbelief after FaZe’s victory (pictured top of this article), in a moment reminiscent of Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund’s emotional reaction to NiP’s 2014 Cologne major victory.
IEM Katowice 2023: CSGO finally rewards its greatest rifler
For Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač and G2, the defeat was another in a long line of defeats in grand finals. Despite a glittering individual career, Counter-Strike’s biggest trophies continued to allude him.
Thankfully jks was on hand yet again, as G2 finally broke their curse against Heroic at IEM Katowice 2023.
In a beautiful moment, Niko lifted the trophy alongside cousin, Nemanja ‘huNter-‘ Kovač.
After a series of painful defeats, G2 finally broke through their mental barrier, winning IEM Cologne in the same year in victories that showed that Counter-Strike eventually rewards the persistent.
Finally, NiKo had the prestigious trophies that reflected his exceptional career.
About this list of our five IEM Katowice emotional moments
By no means is this an extensive list of Katowice’s rich history. Of course, Fnatic won the title three times, with the 2018 grand final against FaZe remaining one of CS’s greatest showcases.
In 2024 Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets announced himself to the world at this event and has never looked back. Read more: Team Spirit and donk win IEM Katowice 2024.
There are simply too many moments and too many storylines to encapsulate in one piece.
These are merely the moments that instantly sprung to mind in the flood of emotion that comes with visiting one of Counter-Strike’s most holy grounds.
It is an honour to add to that history, in any relatively miniscule way possible by providing you with coverage of IEM Katowice 2025.
Darragh Harbinson is a freelance writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK as well as the likes of UKCSGO, Dexerto and Rush B Media.
