IEM Katowice preview: Returning Challengers

The 14th CS:GO Major is almost upon us, with IEM Katowice's New Challengers Stage kicking off February 13, and that means it's time for us to present the first six teams we will see in action in the first phase; the Returning Challengers.

Before the FACEIT Major, there were eight Returning Challengers in the New Challengers Stage. However, in London, a new system was introduced with the bottom two teams of the New Legends Stage exiting the Major cycle altogether, which meant they would have to go through the Minors to requalify, so only six of them made it directly to IEM Katowice.

In this first preview of the Polish Major, we are taking a look at exactly the six teams who placed 9th-14th in London (fnatic, Cloud9, Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2, TYLOO, and Vega Squadron) to see how they will fare among the competition, with our analysis of the 10 Minor Challengers set to follow before the event kicks off.

The ESL Arena, where all the Minors took place, will play host to the first stage of the IEM Katowice Major

Although at previous Majors these teams would earn the higher seeds compared to those that came from the Minors, the system has been altered for IEM Katowice and the participants themselves created the seeding, putting this sextet between No. 1 (fnatic) and No. 11 (TYLOO) for the first round.

ESL brought even more changes to the format by adding best-of-three series in all progression and elimination matches and introducing elo-dependant reseeding between rounds, which you can learn about in our viewer's guide, in which you'll also find the full schedule and everything else you need to know to follow the first stage of the 14th Major.

Without further ado, let us delve into our first preview of IEM Katowice.

fnatic

#6

Lineup	Age	Rating
Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson	24	1.23
Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin	16	1.09
Jesper "JW" Wecksell	23	1.06
Richard "Xizt" Landström	27	1.05
Simon "twist" Eliasson	24	1.04
Jimmy "Jumpy" Berndtsson	Coach

Offline placings in the last three months

Placement	Event
3-4th	iBUYPOWER Masters 2019
1st	PLG Grand Slam 2018

There's certainly no need to introduce fnatic when it comes to the Majors, as the various Swedish rosters under its banner have played at all 13 of them up to this point, making playoffs at all but the very last one in London, which put the UK-based organization in the first stage (officially known as the Main Qualifier up to 2018) of the following Major for the very first time.

Of course, the team is now very different from what it used to be at the organization's CS:GO peak in 2015, when they won two out of three Majors that year, but the current roster still packs loads of experience from those days in Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell and Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson — three and two-time winners, respectively — as well as in in-game leader Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström, who also has one such title and several runners-up finishes to his name from his time with Ninjas in Pyjamas. One of their two most recent additions in Simon "⁠twist⁠" Eliasson is not nearly as Major-experienced even though he participated in three out of the first four, and the other, 16-year-old Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin, is a rookie in this cycle, having only played at the Europe Minor prior to FACEIT's Major in 2018 as part of Red Reserve at the time.

In fact, it wasn't long after the London event that the newest duo made their way onto the Swedish squad, who broke apart shortly after the event, with Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist and William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin making way for the new additions. Since then, the new roster has looked like a serious contender, with an incredibly close encounter versus the dominant Astralis resulting in a semi-final finish at IEM Chicago, before locking down their first triumph at a rather smaller tournament at PLG Grand Slam to finish off 2018 as one of the most quickly improving teams.

fnatic are a lock to go through to the second stage

After defeating Liquid during the aforementioned American tournament's group stage, fnatic couldn't repeat that feat at 2019's first notable competition, iBUYPOWER Masters, which put a stop to the team's meteoric rise. Still, the improved results over the past few months, spearheaded by 2018's ninth-best player KRIMZ, who was often accompanied at the top of the board by the impressive Brollan, helped fnatic secure the top seed in the first stage of IEM Katowice, which alone shows that they are one of the heavy favorites to advance to the second stage.

With the new reseeding system making it very hard for teams to have too tough or too easy of a route, and adding best-of-threes where it most matters, it seems like it is impossible for fnatic to fail in this stage when looking at the other teams. A fairly wide map pool, coupled with an obvious home map in Mirage, puts them as clear favorites in most matchups, best-of-one or best-of-three, so it's all in their hands to pass the New Challengers Stage without too much trouble.

Cloud9

#8

Lineup	Age	Rating
Timothy "autimatic" Ta	22	1.08
Robin "flusha" Rönnquist	25	1.07
Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey	24	1.04
William "RUSH" Wierzba	24	0.92
Maikil "Golden" Selim	25	-
Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro	Coach

Offline placings in the last three months

Placement	Event
2nd	ELEAGUE CS:GO Invitational 2019
5-6th	iBUYPOWER Masters 2019
3rd	BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018
7-8th	ECS Season 6 Finals

Though not quite as successful as fnatic, Cloud9 are a highly storied organization as well, making their first mark in CS:GO Majors with a playoff finish at ESL One Cologne 2014 with Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares's lineup that had transferred over from compLexity earlier that year. Although the North American side could not repeat the playoff appearance for a long time thereafter, they have been able to re-qualify for most Majors since then with just two exceptions in ESL One Cologne 2016 and ELEAGUE Major 2017, with the original members departing one by one until they were all gone by 2018.

Major success didn't come until the ELEAGUE Major last year, when Cloud9 went on a historic run that saw them secure the first such title for North America, but the lineup did not survive for long, as results quickly deteriorated and the core of the team left throughout 2018. Now, with a little over a year having passed since the massive triumph, Cloud9 field a five whose Major trophy count adds up to seven, but only William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba and Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta remain from the team that lifted one in Boston, as the organization branched out to Europe with the additions of flusha, Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey, and Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim.

Cloud9 looked in solid shape once Zellsis warmed up to the competition

As if the team's continuous roster issues over 2018 weren't enough, Cloud9 are now forced to utilize a workaround to comply with Valve's majority rule for IEM Katowice. Golden continues to face health issues, which will prevent him from attending the Polish event, so the team added Jordan "⁠Zellsis⁠" Montemurro as a coach to their Major roster before the roster lock on January 1 in order to be able to swap him for the Swede when the Major begins. That is technically allowed despite it resulting in the team only featuring two out of five players from the FACEIT Major lineup.

Of course, the 20-year-old is no coach, but it's still unclear who will fill in that position in an unofficial (read: won't be able to stand behind the team during matches) capacity at the Major, whether it will be Soham "⁠valens⁠" Chowdhury or Ronald "⁠Rambo⁠" Kim, who was on trial with the team at iBUYPOWER Masters and ELEAGUE Invitational.

Those two events also saw the newcomer Zellsis — who is about to be another Major rookie — accommodate in the squad, struggling at the former before warming up to the competition and holding his own in Atlanta to help Cloud9 finish second at the event, trading series with FaZe. That has helped the squad establish a newfound slower playstyle under the new leadership of flusha and indicates that they shouldn't have too much to worry about in the first stage of IEM Katowice, provided Zellsis keeps being useful.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

#14

Lineup	Age	Rating
Fredrik "REZ" Sterner	21	1.10
Dennis "dennis" Edman	28	1.02
Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund	28	1.00
Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg	30	0.97
Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson	25	0.90
Faruk "pita" Pita	Coach

Offline placings in the last three months

Placement	Event
6th	BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018
3-4th	ECS Season 6 Finals

Ninjas in Pyjamas belong with fnatic to the list of legendary organisations which had great success at the Majors in the first years of existence of the Valve-hosted tournaments, making the finals of the first five and securing one title. However, over time their record deteriorated and eventually, the Swedish giants fell out of the cycle following a group stage exit at ESL One Cologne 2016 and an infamous collapse at the late-2016 ELEAGUE Major Main Qualifier to Vega Squadron.

After struggling in the online phases of the following two cycles, which saw Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg and Xizt depart from the four-man core that had stood since the beginning of the game, it wasn't until the FACEIT Major that Ninjas in Pyjamas managed to return to CS:GO's biggest stage, with the exact same lineup we will also see starting Wednesday in Katowice. In London, Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund & co. finished just outside of the playoffs with a narrow loss to MIBR in the fifth round of the New Legends Stage, completing a very tough route unsuccessfully to end up in this stage of the upcoming tournament.

A two-month long break from an offline environment could be cause for worry

In the five months that have passed since the British event, Ninjas in Pyjamas have continued their steady climb with some promising showings at tournaments such as the BLAST Pro Series stops in Istanbul and Copenhagen, but when eyes were on them at the Danish organiser's last event, in Lisbon, the Swedes crumbled and bombed out in last place with zero wins in five matches.

With that having been their latest showing and nearly two months having passed since, it's difficult to predict what kind of form we will see Ninjas in Pyjamas in this week. It means that they have had significantly more time than most to prepare and look more closely at what the others have been up to, as the vast majority of teams in the upcoming stage either had to go through the Minor system or played another tournament or two, but it also puts the Swedish side at risk of rustiness due to the lack of official matches. Their opening matchup with FURIA, who have the potential to be a dark horse, should give us an idea of whether that was a good tradeoff or not.

G2

#19

Lineup	Age	Rating
Lucas "Lucky" Chastang	20	1.16
Audric "JACKZ" Jug	26	1.12
Kenny "kennyS" Schrub	23	1.08
Richard "shox" Papillon	26	1.03
Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro	22	0.98
Damien "maLeK" Marcel	Coach

Offline placings in the last three months

Placement	Event
2nd	PLG Grand Slam 2018
7-8th	ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
5-6th	DreamHack Open Winter 2018

G2's history at Majors goes back over three years to DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, where the organization's European mixture surprised with a semi-finals finish just months before transferring to FaZe. Although from that point on the organization only made Major playoffs again once, at the ELEAGUE Major in 2018, they have never missed out on an attendance ever since the Romanian tournament.

The current constellation of players is a mix of vast amounts of experience in Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon as one of only nine players who have played at every single Major and Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub, who boast a Major title each from DreamHack Winter 2014 and DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015, and rookies in their two latest additions from 3DMAX in Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug and Lucas "⁠Lucky⁠" Chastang, while Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro sits in the middle with the last five Majors attended since he came into G2 in 2016.

Since the FACEIT Major, G2 have gone through another restructuring upon realizing that the lineup featuring Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans and Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux was not going to yield sufficient results, adding the aforementioned 3DMAX duo in late 2018. The newcomers haven't had many opportunities to show what they have in store just yet, as they have only gone to two tournaments so far, DreamHack Open Winter and PLG Grand Slam.

Are G2 really playing all seven maps?

With the team temporarily reverting back to their previous roster in between the two events for ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, it's difficult to place this still quite new G2 among the competition in the first stage of the Major, especially when they have played nothing of substance in 2019 aside from the IEM Sydney qualifier, placing second to BIG to miss out on a spot at the Australian event.

From their matches in that qualifier and at PLG Grand Slam, G2 seem to be playing all seven maps, which is something few teams even attempt to pull off and could turn out to be a double-edged sword for a team that has been playing together for quite a limited amount of time. Other than that, they have been seeded by the rest at seventh place, which seems reasonable for someone that is neither a lock to advance or bound to bomb out early based on the little information available.

Vega Squadron

#53

Lineup	Age	Rating
Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov	22	1.15
Dmitriy "jR" Chervak	25	1.00
Anton "tonyblack" Kolesnikov	26	0.92
Pavel "hutji" Lashkov	23	0.91
Igor "crush" Shevchenko	23	0.89
Artem "Fierce" Ivanov	Coach

Offline placings in the last three months

Placement	Event
2nd	Bucharest Gaming Week Invitational by ESL

Vega Squadron are an organization that has kept the same core of players ever since attending their first Main Qualifier prior to the ELEAGUE Major in late 2016, which saw the Russian-Ukrainian squad send Ninjas in Pyjamas out with the memorable 16-2 victory on Cache, though their first attempt to make it to the actual Major did not pan out in the end as they went 2-3.

Since then, however, they have made the top-16 stage of all three Majors, while changing Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov and Sergey "⁠keshandr⁠" Nikishin with Igor "⁠crush⁠" Shevchenko and Anton "⁠tonyblack⁠" Kolesnikov (previously known as kibaken) in the first half of 2018, although they have yet to make it to the playoffs, having come closest to the bracket in Atlanta last year with a 2-3 record in the second Swiss stage.

We're in for another Shark Week if history repeats itself

Every Major, the story of Vega Squadron is the same. They come with a low ranking due to a lack of appearances on LAN and they go on to surprise by making it through the first portion of the Major. This time, it is no different; they have only played two LAN tournaments since London, making it to the grand final both times, at StarSeries i-League Season 6 and at the much smaller Bucharest Gaming Week Invitational.

Now, over two months after the Romanian tournament, Vega Squadron are sitting at No. 53 as the second-lowest ranked team of the Major, but as history has proven, they are a team to fear, especially given their volatile and hard-to-read playstyle, and the other participants of the New Challengers Stage have acknowledged that by putting the CIS-based squad as the 10th seed, close to the likes of AVANGAR, Renegades, and TYLOO.

TYLOO

#67

Lineup	Age	Rating
HaoWen "somebody" Xu	23	1.13
Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand	23	1.05
Kevin "xccurate" Susanto	20	1.01
YuLun "Summer" Cai	21	-
YuanZhang "Attacker" Sheng	22	-
Ivan "Johnta" Shevtsov	Coach

Offline placings in the last three months

Placement	Event
5-8th	PLG Grand Slam 2018
5-6th	SuperNova CS:GO Malta
2nd	Toyota Master Bangkok 2018

TYLOO are one of the two teams alongside Renegades who have consistently made it through the Asia Minors to the following Main Qualifiers only to fall back into the Minor system after a disappointing run in the qualifying stage. Valve's decision to restructure the qualifier and make it a part of the Major meant that the Chinese technically made their first Major prior to ELEAGUE last year, but visa issues prevented the team from attending the tournament and so they had to wait until the FACEIT Major to officially play their first.

In London, the Chinese side finally broke the trend that dated back to Cologne 2016, making it to the top 16 with some hard-fought wins in the first Swiss stage before ultimately falling 1-3 in the second, still making sure that they receive a direct ticket to IEM Katowice's New Challengers Stage with an upset win against MIBR in the opening match.

It's anyone's guess which end of the spectrum TYLOO's new team will fall on

However, they went on to exit a couple of events earlier than expected, most notably StarSeries Season 6, where they placed 12th-14th, SuperNova CS:GO Malta, where they were defeated by BIG and HellRaisers in the groups, and the PLG Grand Slam, where they were humbled by Sharks. That resulted in the Chinese side TYLOO making lineup changes for the first time in nearly a year. Longtime members Ke "⁠captainMo⁠" Liu and Hui "⁠DD⁠" Wu were replaced by two of their former teammates, as Flash's YuanZhang "⁠Attacker⁠" Sheng and YuLun "⁠Summer⁠" Cai returned to the brand they had represented before, with Ivan "⁠Johnta⁠" Shevtsov rounding out the squad as the new coach as the team hope to improve their mental game.

There is next to nothing to go off to predict how this team will do in the first stage other than that the new duo will be an upgrade in firepower and that their communication issues will likely reset due to the three new additions. We can expect a similarly chaotic playstyle that we have grown used to when watching TYLOO because of that and, due to the lack of time, a fairly limited map pool – something the Chinese had been known for in the previous iteration, anyway.