k1to shines as BIG advance to IEM Katowice group stage over FURIA

The 24-year-old rifler had clinical performances on Mirage and Ancient to help his team advance to the top-16 stage of IEM Katowice.

BIG are through to the group stage of IEM Katowice following a 2-1 victory over FURIA, recovering from a defeat on their own pick of Anubis (11-16) by securing wins on Mirage (16-9) and Ancient (16-9) to take the series.

Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz's side kicked off the Play-In stage of IEM Katowice with a win over Complexity, and carried that momentum into their qualifying series. The team owe a big thanks to Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne for their victory — the German rifler came alive on the latter two maps of the series and was a pivotal factor in helping his team net a decisive win, posting 1.55 and 1.99 ratings on Mirage and Ancient, respectively. He won eleven out of thirteen opening duels on the latter map to completely crush the Brazilian team out of the server, with FURIA now needing to claw back through the lower bracket by beating the winner of a match between paiN and IHC.

"We're really happy," k1to said of BIG's qualification after the series. "Last year we didn't make it, we won the first game last year and then lost two Bo3s against good teams. We're really happy that we're through now, we have some days to prepare."

BIG had proven successful on Anubis in their opening match against Complexity and against Liquid at BLAST, so it wasn't much of a surprise when they picked the map to kick off the series. It was a choice that paid off early on as the German side raced to a 7-2 start on the defense, but their lead dwindled rapidly towards the end portion of the first half as Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato mustered nine kills in three rounds to help FURIA close the gap to just one round by halftime.

FURIA's resurgence continued after the side swap with a pistol round victory, which the Brazilian team wasted no time in converting into a streak of five rounds. A triple kill from KSCERATO ended up squandered as tabseN gunned down four FURIA members to get BIG on the board in the second half, beginning a brief back-and-forth trading of rounds, but FURIA remained in control and claimed victory not long after, 16-11.

FURIA maintained momentum as their pick of Mirage got underway, winning the pistol round and going up 3-0 before BIG could respond. Once the German team had rifles in hand, however, the tides of the map completely turned, and k1to emerged as a shining beacon of light for his team in what became a stellar defensive effort. BIG dropped two more rounds in the remainder of the half and blazed their way to a 10-5 lead on the map, and they didn't relinquish control whatsoever in the second half as multi-kill rounds from k1to allowed them to quickly close things out, 16-9.

Ancient was equally as decisive as the 24-year-old rifler's reign of terror carried through on the map, resulting in an absolutely crushing offensive half from BIG. The cruised to a 12-3 scoreline thanks to stellar entry work from the rifler, and the second half was equally as one-sided, with FURIA only closing the gap by a handful of rounds before k1to helped his side take things over the line.