Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Katowice Major 2019
The Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Katowice Major 2019, also known as IEM Katowice Major 2019 or Katowice 2019, was the fourteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and the world championship for the thirteenth season of the Intel Extreme Masters. It was held in Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland from February 13 – March 3, 2019.[1] Fourteen teams would qualify for the IEM Katowice Major 2019 based on their top fourteen placements from the last Major, the FACEIT Major: London 2018, while another ten teams would qualify from their respective regional qualifiers.[2] The top eight teams from the London Major ("Legends") received a bye to the second phase of the group stage while the other sixteen teams ("Challengers") had to go through the first and second group stages in order to reach the playoffs. It featured a US$1,000,000 prize pool, the seventh consecutive Major with that prize pool.[3][4] It was hosted by ESL, their first Major since 2016. This event was the start of the second season of the Intel Grand Slam.
| 2019 | |
 The Intel Extreme Masters logo | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
| Location | Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland |
| Dates | February 13–March 3, 2019 |
| Administrator(s) | Valve ESL |
Tournament format(s) | Two 16 team swiss-system group stages
8 team single-elimination playoff |
| Venue | ESL Arena Katowice MCK Spodek |
| Teams | 24 teams |
| Purse | $1,000,000 USD |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Astralis |
| 1st runners-up |  ENCE |
| 2nd runners-up |  MIBR  Natus Vincere |
| MVP | Emil "Magisk" Reif |
Astralis, Team Liquid, MIBR, Natus Vincere, and FaZe Clan were incoming Legends who retained that status, while BIG, HellRaisers, and compLexity Gaming were knocked out in the New Legends stage. Renegades, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and ENCE advanced to the playoff stage to become Legends for the following Major.
The grand finals featured the world's number one team Astralis, which defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas and MIBR in the playoffs, and the underdog ENCE, which defeated the world's number two in Team Liquid and the world's number three in Natus Vincere. Astralis swept ENCE in two maps to take its third Major title and tie Fnatic for most Majors titles. In addition, Astralis became just the third team after Fnatic and the Brazilian roster of Luminosity Gaming and SK Gaming to win consecutive Majors.
Background
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In professional CS:GO, the Valve-sponsored Majors are the most prestigious tournaments.[5][6]
The defending champions were Astralis, after winning their second championship at the FACEIT Major: London 2018. At the time, Fnatic had the most Major titles, with three.
Format
The Major cycle began with four Minors, or regional qualifiers: Americas, Asia, CIS, and Europe. Two teams from each qualifier moved on to the Major. In addition, because Valve reduced the number of direct Major invites from sixteen to fourteen, the third-place teams at each respective Minor advanced to a third-place qualifier to send two more teams to the Major.
The Major featured twenty-four teams. The top eight teams from the FACEIT Major: London 2018 were the Legends, and the remaining sixteen teams—the teams that placed ninth through fourteenth at the FACEIT Major and the ten teams that advanced from the Minors—were known as Challengers.
The Major was split into three stages. The first stage was the New Challengers stage, featuring all Challengers in a Swiss-system tournament: the top eight teams advanced to the next stage and the bottom eight teams were eliminated. The second stage is the New Legends stage, a second Swiss-system group stage. This stage featured the eight Legends from the London Major and the eight teams advancing from the New Challengers stage. Like the New Challengers stage, the New Legends stage also advanced the top eight teams and eliminated the bottom eight teams. All teams from this stage except the bottom two teams earned automatic invites to the following Major. The final stage was the New Champions stage, and teams that advanced to this stage received Legends status at the following Major. This stage featured an eight team, best-of-three, single elimination bracket.[7][8]
ESL announced changes for this Major in the New Challengers and the New Legends stages. Rather than only featuring best-of-threes in the fifth round of the group stages, ESL announced that any progression or elimination matches would feature a best-of-three series. Therefore, the high and low matches of round three and all matches in rounds four and five were best-of-three. ESL also made changes to the seeding protocol. Instead of having seeding determined by placement at the last Major and the Minors, each team in the Swiss-system stages ranked the other 15 teams in the stage; the rankings were then aggregated to create the final seeding for the first round of each Swiss-system stage.[9] ESL also moved away from FACEIT's Buchholz system and instead used an Elo rating system. Teams were assigned Elo ratings that matched their seeding and the rating changed after every win or loss, with the winner taking some of the loser's points. Each team's Elo rating was used to determine all matchups after the first round, instead of the random draws of previous Majors.[10][11]
Minors
Each regional qualifier, called "Minors", featured eight teams. Each Minor also had a US$50,000 prize pool, with first place receiving US$30,000, second place taking in US$15,000, and third place raking in the last US$5,000. Unlike past Minors, no teams was directly invited to the Minors.[13] All Minors take place in Katowice to avoid visa issues, just like the FACEIT Major approach.[14]
Each Minor's format was similar to past Minors, but with a couple small changes. The group stages would be a GSL, double elimination format with each group featuring four teams. The opening matches would be a best of one. A new change came along with the winner's set being a best of three instead of the usual best of one. The loser's and decider's matches would also be best of three sets. The top two teams in each group would move on to a four team, best of three, double elimination bracket. The top two teams would move on to the Major. In addition, the Minor finals that used to determine seeding would be eliminated; instead, the winner of the winner's match would be the first seed going into the New Challengers stage and the winner of the loser's match would be the second seed.[15]
CIS Minor
The CIS Minor qualifier featured sixteen teams. Winstrike Team was automatically invited based on its top sixteen placement at the FACEIT Major and another seven teams were invited. Eight more teams qualified through four online qualifiers. The qualifier will have a sixteen team, double elimination bracket and teams will play until eight teams qualified CIS Minor.
The CIS Minor took place from January 16 to 20, 2019.[16]
|
| First round | Semifinals | IEM Katowice 2019 | ||||||||||||
| A1 |  Team Spirit |
0 | ||||||||||||
| B2 |  AVANGAR |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | AVANGAR |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | Winstrike Team |
1 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | Winstrike Team |
2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | Gambit Esports |
1 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | AVANGAR |
Q | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Team Spirit |
Q | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Team Spirit |
2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | Gambit Esports |
0 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | Winstrike Team |
1 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Team Spirit |
2 | ||||||||||||
Gambit Esports and Syman Gaming kicked off the CIS Minor in Poland. Even after Gambit's shakeups after releasing two of its star players, it was still a stunning upset that Syman was able to knock down Gambit in the opening match. Team Spirit had a 12–5 lead against Nemiga Gaming, but the team from Belarus was able to take it to overtime; however, Spirit able to deny the comeback victory by sweeping the overtime, thanks to Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev's dominant 35 kills. AVANGAR easily took care of pro100 16-5 as the Kazakh team looked to go back to a Major after over a year. Winstrike Team also looked to head back to the Major after being Legends for one tournament before bombing out at the London Major as the Russian team easily took down a Runtime that was a mix of former top professional players and unproven talent. In the first best of three, Syman and Spirit had a tough battle, but Spirit managed to pull away as Pavel "COLDYY1" Veklenko in the two-game sweep, one of which went to double overtime, to secure a spot in the CIS Minor playoffs. Winstrike also secured a spot after taking two of three over AVANGAR. In the first elimination series, Gambit easily took down Nemiga. In group B, pro100 was able to eliminate Runtime after losing the first map to stay alive. Syman looked to upset Gambit once again and it looked possible after taking the first match. However, Gambit adjusted and cruised to victory in the next to maps to secure a top four spot. In a much closer series, AVANGAR swept pro100 and eliminated the Ukrainian team.
What was supposed to be a fairly even matchup turned into a dominating performance by AVANGAR, winning by at least ten rounds in the 2–0 sweep over Team Spirit. In the second set, Winstrike and Gambit split two maps, both of which were close. On the third map on Dust II, Winstrike looked to take the game after being up 15–12. However, Gambit came back to tie the game and go into overtime. However, Winstrike quickly responded by taking the overtime and guaranteed at least a third place. AVANGAR easily skipped past Winstrike in the first map, but a big comeback win in the second map by Winstrike gave the Russian team a lot of momentum. However, AVANGAR was able to turn things around and put up a similar scoreline as the first map to claim its spot at the Major. In the loser's side, Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov and Rustem "mou" Telepov were Major champions just over a year and a half ago, but not they could not get out of the CIS Minor as Spirit put Gambit away for good. Spirit finally qualified for a Major after years of falling short while Winstrike had one more chance to qualify.
Europe Minor
The Europe Minor qualifier featured sixteen teams. mousesports were automatically invited based on their top sixteen placement at the FACEIT Major and another seven teams were invited. Eight more teams qualified through four online qualifiers. The qualifier had a sixteen team, double elimination bracket and teams played until eight teams qualified for the Europe Minor.
The Europe Minor took place from January 16 to 20, 2019. ENCE eSports and Team Vitality[17] qualified for the main qualifier.
|
| First round | Semifinals | IEM Katowice 2019 | ||||||||||||
| A1 |  Team Vitality |
0 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | North |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | North |
0 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | ENCE |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | ENCE |
2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 |  Valiance |
1 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | ENCE |
Q | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Team Vitality |
Q | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Team Vitality |
2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | Valiance |
1 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | North |
1 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Team Vitality |
2 | ||||||||||||
Team Vitality and OpTic Gaming kicked off the Europe Minor in a match in which neither team had proven itself on the international stage, as Vitality was a fairly newly formed lineup and OpTic was inconsistent even on the smaller stages. After a close first half, Vitality pulled away to take the opening match. In a huge upset in the next match, Valiance took down mousesports on mousesports's signature map of Mirage. Despite Chris "chrisJ" de Jong's 32 kills, Valiance's team effort pulled ahead to take down the favorite to win the Minor. Yaman "yam" Ergenekon made his debut with the former roster of Space Soldiers by top fragging for his team. However, the team itself needed to fix a lot of issues as it was dominated by ENCE. The last initial match was Windigo easily taking down North. A close first half was made possible by Nicklas "gade" Gade, but Windigo's defense seemed impenetrable as North won zero rounds on its terrorist side. On the winner's side, ENCE was able to move past Windigo with relative ease as Aleksi "allu" Jalli was one step closer to heading back to a Major with his young team. On the other side of the winner's matches, Valiance had a 15–13 lead late into the first map, but Vitality took over the game and pulled off a win in overtime. Valiance responded with a win on Inferno, but Vitality demolished Valiance in the decider to book a playoff spot for the Minor. The first match of the second day took mousesports squeezing past OpTic as the Danes were eliminated in a competitive Minor. North was able to take down the struggling ex-Space Soldiers and the Turks were eliminated. Valiance proved that its upset win over mousesports was no fluke as the majority-Serbian team took down the international squad again and eliminated mousesports. The rising Windigo was able to take the first map and North took the second map in the final group stage series. In the decider game, Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså carried his team to victory and North avoided another disappointment.
Vitality looked to continue to put on a good performance lead by their promising young star Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut while North only looked to head back to the Major and regain a Legends spot. In a close best of three, North swept Vitality as North needed to make two big comebacks. Valiance looked to continue its strong momentum and Valiance proved it was prepared after taking the first map and it looked like Valiance's plan of countering the enemies' strategies was working. However, ENCE came back, lead by Jere "sergej" Salo and Jani "Aerial" Jussila, to take the series and move on. A fan favorite, but underdog, of the community, ENCE finally booked a ticket to the Major as the team defeated North. The first map required a small, but tense comeback, as ENCE was down 14–11, but was able to take the game in double overtime. The loser's semifinals was the closest series of any of the Minors at this point. On the first map, Valiance had a 14–5 lead, but eight unanswered rounds from Vitality suddenly made it 14–13. Fortunately for Valiance, it was able to scrape together two more rounds to give the team the map advantage. However, it looked like that Vitality was able to make some adjustments as it took an early 9–2 lead. Despite this, Valiance mad it 11-9 and then 15–13, but the French made it out alive and took the last round to tie up the series. The third map was close all around. Vitality had a 9–6 lead before Valiance swung the score to its favor at 13–11. However, four rounds in a row gave Vitality the lead before Valiance took one more at 15–14. In the thirtieth round, Vitality found an open B bombsite and planted the bomb. While Valiance was able to sweep up the five members of Vitality, the European team went in with the bomb timer ticking down and Vitality won the series with under two seconds to go on the defuse. The decider series had a similar feel to the CIS decider, as North took the first map in a close game, but Vitality bounced back to trample North and qualified for the Major.
Asia Minor
The Asia Minor featured two teams from Oceania, two teams from China, two teams from East Asia, one team from Southeast Asia, and one team from the Middle East. Each qualifier featured four invited teams and another four teams through two online qualifiers. Each qualifier consist of an eight team, double elimination, best of three bracket. MVP PK was the first team to qualify for any Katowice 2019 Minor after defeating compatriot GOSU and Renegades rounded up the Asia Minor lineup after defeating Tainted Minds.
The Asia Minor will take place from January 22 to 26, 2019.[18]
|
| First round | Semifinals | IEM Katowice 2019 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Renegades |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 |  ViCi Gaming |
1 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Renegades |
2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | Grayhound G. |
1 | ||||||||||||
| B1 |  MVP PK |
1 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | Grayhound G. |
2 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Renegades |
Q | ||||||||||||
| A2 | Grayhound G. |
Q | ||||||||||||
| B2 | ViCi Gaming |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | MVP PK |
0 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | Grayhound G. |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | ViCi Gaming |
1 | ||||||||||||
The Asia Minor began with the heavy favorites Renegades facing off against the unknown Aequus Club from Israel, and Renegades easily took care of business there 16–7. The other Australian team, Grayhound Gaming, faced off against the dark horse team in CyberZen. After Grayhound took a comfortable lead, CyberZen started to mount a comeback; however, some mistakes by CyberZen in round 26 against a Grayhound team that barely bought into the round lead the Chinese team to stumble and Grayhound secured the win. In group B, GOSU surprisingly took a huge lead against ViCi Gaming 12–3. ViCi finally started to get into a rhythm, but it was too late as GOSU was able to pull off the upset win. In the last opening match, Beyond Esports looked to also pull off an upset over MVP PK, but MVP PK pulled ahead in the second half to easily take the victory. In group A's winner's match, Renegades barely took the win over its compatriots in Grayhound, as both games were decided by two rounds. On the other side, MVP PK took down its own compatriots in GOSU after a very close first game; in the second game, however, MVP easily won to move on to the top four. Aquees looked to surprise the scene after taking a massive lead over CyberZen, but the Chinese team turned on the jets and brought the game all the way back; despite this, Aquees closed out the game. However, CyberZen took the momentum from the almost-comeback and took the next two games with relative ease. Beyond could not get anything going with its redesigned lineup as ViCi easily moved on to the decider's series. Grayhound and CyberZen split the first two maps, both close games. The third map was also close, but after CyberZen tied the game up at 11, Grayhound pulled away, winning the next five of six to face off against MVP PK in the bracket. GOSU looked to upset ViCi again, and the Korean team almost did it again, but ViCi winning a series of unanswered rounds hurt GOSU, including being up 14–5 on the second map at one point, and ViCi would close out the series just barely.
ViCi started the playoffs with a win over the Renegades lead by Zhihong "aumaN" Liu. However, Renegades did not have any problem in the following two maps as the Renegades guaranteed a top three spot in this Minor. What was supposed to be an evenly matched set did not turn out as expected. MVP PK comfortably took the first map, but Grayhound did the same in the next two maps, as neither team struggled too much in its victory. In the loss, only Keun-chul "solo" Kang had a positive kill-death differential. The battle for top three ended in the loser's semifinals. ViCi took an early lead, but MVP PK was able to bring the score back by the end of the first half. ViCi then took match point with a comfortable lead, but MVP PK started to mount a comeback; however, that comeback fell just short and ViCi took the first map. The next map would go in favor of ViCi strongly and the MVP organization's frustrations continued as it ended in another fourth-place finish. Grayhound easily took the first map off of Renegades, but Renegades took the second map as Grayhound looked for the upset. Renegades took a massive 12-3 and then 15–6 lead, but a sudden surge from Grayhound got the team within two rounds. Nevertheless, Renegades managed to find a round to take the top seed at the Minor. ViCi easily took the first map against Grayhound, but the Australians returned the favor with a win of their own. The third map would end up being a close one based on the score, but a dominant win based on the performance. ViCi took a 9–6 lead and then a 12–6 lead. However, Grayhound would then win the next ten of eleven rounds, shutting down ViCi's terrorist side to join Renegades at the Major.
With Renegades and Grayhound qualifying, this would mean that Sean "Gratisfaction"' Kaiwai was the first New Zealander and Erdenetsogt "erkaSt" Gantulga was the first Mongolian to play at a Major. Euan "sterling" Moore also joined Gratisfaction as a New Zealander to play at a Major.
Americas Minor
The Americas Minor featured two qualifiers, one from North America and one from South America. The North America qualifier featured sixteen teams. Eight teams were invited and another eight teams qualified through four online qualifiers. The qualifier would have a sixteen team, double elimination bracket and teams would play until six teams qualified for the Americas Minor. The South America qualifier featured eight teams. Four teams were invited and another four teams qualified through two online qualifiers. This qualifier have an eight team, double elimination, best of three bracket. Teams would play until two teams qualified for the Minor.
The Americas Minor took place from January 22 to 26, 2019, the same dates as the Asia Minor.[19]
|
| First round | Semifinals | IEM Katowice 2019 | ||||||||||||
| A1 |  NRG Esports |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | Team Envy |
0 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | NRG Esports |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | FURIA Esports |
0 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | FURIA Esports |
2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | INTZ eSports |
1 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | NRG Esports |
Q | ||||||||||||
| B1 | FURIA Esports |
Q | ||||||||||||
| B2 | Team Envy |
2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | INTZ eSports |
1 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | FURIA Esports |
2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | Team Envy |
0 | ||||||||||||
NRG Esports easily took down Imperial e-Sports 16–8 to start off the Americas Minor. Bravado Gaming was able to upset INTZ eSports after a fairly close game as the South African team looked to head back to a Major. Team Envy won its first Major-related game after its new branding as the Americans completely shut down Brazil's Team One. FURIA Esports was able to upset the favorite to win the group eUnited as FURIA looked to join MIBR at the Major to represent Brazil. In the first winner's match, NRG easily took down Bravado to head to the top four as NRG looked to make its first Major despite being a top American team for a while. In group B's winner's match, FURIA took down Envy after some close games to make it to the playoff stage. After dominating the Minor qualifier, eUnited's run to the Major ended in a letdown as Team One was able to come back from a nine-round deficit in the first map and then used that drive to easily take the second map as eUnited were sent home. Meanwhile, INTZ was able to take down Imperial, but the victory came at more of a struggle than anticipated as Imperial was able to take a map. In group A's decider, INTZ had a fairly easy time taking down Bravado as the South African dream came to an end amidst Bravado's financial troubles of keeping the team in the United States. The last Katowice Minor group stage set was an extremely close one. The first map went in favor of Team One cleanly. In the second map on Dust II, Envy's new in-game leader Finn "karrigan" Andersen was about to lead Envy to evening the series, but a small and sudden surge from Team One sent the game to overtime. After the game was tied at 17, Envy was able to clutch it out to send it to a third map. At first, Team One's 13–9 lead seemed to be sufficient, but Envy was able to bring it back to tie the game at 14. After some very close rounds, Envy's persistence beat out that of Team One and Envy moved on.
The favorites to win the Minor, NRG Esports, took one step closer to the Major after defeating Team Envy after Cvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov went big for his team. In the Brazilian battle, FURIA joined NRG after defeating INTZ in three maps. Kaike "kscerato" Cerato, after being rumored of being transferred to MIBR, had 14 more kills than the next closest player's kill count. After struggling for much of ESL Pro League Season 8, Team Envy looked like it found its groove as it demolished INTZ 16–2 on the first map, but in the second map, after a 11–4 lead, INTZ scored 12 unanswered rounds to take the second map. The third map featured a close first half, but Tayler "Drone" Johnson's 25 kills helped Envy send INTZ back home. NRG finally secured a Major spot after many unsuccessful attempts after taking down FURIA in two maps as it was led by Ethan "nahtE" Arnold. FURIA easily took down Envy in the decider set with the score of 16–2. The second map proved to be a lot closer, but Rinaldo "AbleJ" Moda Junior's 24 kills lead FURIA to close out the map with ten rounds in a row to become just the third South American team to play at a Major.
With NRG Esports qualifying, this meant Cvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov was the first Bulgarian to play at a Major.
Minor play-in
This qualifier featured the teams that placed third in their respective Minors. This phase was a four team, best of three, double elimination bracket. The opening matches were the Asia Minor representative against the Europe Minor representative and the CIS Minor team versus the Americans Minor team.[15]
The Minor play-in took place on January 27, 2019.[20]
|
| First round | Semifinals | IEM Katowice 2019 | ||||||||||||
| AS | ViCi Gaming |
1 | ||||||||||||
| EU | North |
0 | ||||||||||||
| AS | ViCi Gaming |
0 | ||||||||||||
| CIS | Winstrike Team |
1 | ||||||||||||
| CIS | Winstrike Team |
1 | ||||||||||||
| AM | Team Envy |
0 | ||||||||||||
| CIS | Winstrike Team |
Q | ||||||||||||
| AS | ViCi Gaming |
Q | ||||||||||||
| EU | North |
2 | ||||||||||||
| AM | Team Envy |
0 | ||||||||||||
| AS | ViCi Gaming |
2 | ||||||||||||
| EU | North |
0 | ||||||||||||
The first game of the day featured a major upset, with ViCi taking down North 16-8 as Philip "aizy" Aistrup struggled massively for his team with just eight kills. Winstrike demolished Team Envy 16-4 as the veteran Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen had 29 kills to lead the Russian team. The winner's match was a very close one as both teams knew one more win would send them to the top twenty-four at the Major. In the back and forth affair, Winstrike came out on top 16-14 Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov and his team were able to outlast the impact Zhihong "aumaN" Liu had for ViCi and Winstrike headed to its third consecutive Major. North was able to take a 13–2 lead against Envy in the first best of three in the elimination match and was able to close out the map despite a small comeback attempt from the American side. The second map was fairly close, but Envy could not get its foot completely off the ground as North looked to seek revenge against ViCi. The first map was a close one. After falling behind 9-6 after the first half, North was able to take a 12–10 lead. However, ViCi's star Wing Hei "Freeman" Cheung was able to lead his team to take the final six rounds and the Chinese team looked to join TyLoo as Asia's representatives. North got off to a very good start in the first half of the second map, ending the score with 11–4, including taking 11 of the last 12 rounds. That lead turned into 12–6, but ViCi were suddenly able to tie it up at 12 and then the game went to overtime at 15-15. More back and forth ensued until the game reached double overtime. Lead by Freeman and Andrew "kaze" Khong, ViCi were able to barely pull out the victory and send North home. Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså and Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye tried to carry North to a win, but the rest of their team fell behind.
With ViCi Gaming qualifying, this meant Wing Hei "Freeman" Cheung was the first player from Hong Kong to play at a Major.
Broadcast talent
Desk hosts
Alex "Machine" Richardson- Tres "stunna" Saranthus
Stage host
- OJ Borg
Reporter
- Frankie Ward
Commentators
- Henry "HenryG" Greer
- Vince Hill
- Jason "moses" O'Toole
.svg.png.webp)
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett- Analysts and desk hosts also filled in as commentators
Analysts
- Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill
- Sean "seang@res" Gares
- Jacob "Pimp" Winneche
Observers
- Connor "Sliggy" Blomfield
- Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
- David "Prius" Kuntz
- Alex "Rushly" Rush
Broadcasts
The major is streamed in various languages across Twitch. It is also streamed on ESL's YouTube channel, Steam.tv, and on CS:GO's in-game viewing client GOTV.[21]
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Teams competing
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Pre-Major ranking
HLTV.org rank teams based on results of teams' performances. The rankings shown below reflect the February 11, 2019 rankings.[22]
The HLTV.org World Ranking ranks the best teams in the competitive field of the game. The world ranking is based on teams' achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last 2 months, and performance at the last 10 LAN events. All of that is predicated around a 3-man core each team is required to have in order to retain their past points. Points cap at 1000 points. The rankings started with the last season's Katowice World Championship, in which Fnatic defeated FaZe Clan and concluded with Astralis defeating Team Liquid at ESL Pro League Season 8.
Teams that were in the top 30 but failed to qualify for the major include North (#7, Denmark), mousesports (#10, Europe), Ghost Gaming (#16, United States), Valiance (#20, Serbia), 3DMAX (#24, France), Heroic (#25, Denmark), forZe (#26, Russia), Luminosity Gaming (#27, Brazil), Sprout Esports (#29, Germany), and x6tence Galaxy (#30, Sweden).
| World ranking | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Team | Points | Move1 | Peak2 | Low2 | Best Major placing3 | Best achievements2 |
| 1 | Astralis |
933 |  |
1 | 1 | 1st at Atlanta 2017 1st at London 2018 |
IEM Chicago 2018 winner ECS Season 6 winner ESL Pro League Season 8 winner |
| 2 |  Team Liquid |
576 |  1 |
2 | 3 | 2nd at Cologne 2016 | IEM Chicago 2018 runner-up ESL One New York runner-up ESL Pro League Season 8 runner-up |
| 3 | Natus Vincere |
384 |  1 |
2 | 3 | 2nd at Cluj-Napoca 2015 2nd at Columbus 2016 2nd at London 2018 |
BLAST Copenhagen winner EPICENTER 2018 runner-up |
| 4 |  FaZe Clan |
4327 | 1 |
4 | 8 | 2nd at Boston 2018 | EPICENTER 2018 winner 3rd at IEM Chicago 2018 ELEAGUE Invitational 2019 winner |
| 5 | NRG Esports |
265 | |
5 | 10 | 1st at Katowice 2019 Americas Minor | cs_summit 3 winner 3rd at ESL One New York 2018 3rd at SL iL Season 6 |
| 6 |  Fnatic |
265 | |
5 | 26 | 1st at Winter 2013 1st at Katowice 2015 1st Cologne 2015 |
PLG Grand Slam 2018 winner 3rd at IEM Chicago 2018 |
| 8 | Cloud9 |
208 | 13 |
7 | 29 | 1st at Boston 2018 | 3rd at BLAST Lisbon 2018 ELEAGUE Invitational 2019 runner-up |
| 9 | MIBR |
187 | 5 |
4 | 9 | 1st at Columbus 2016 1st at Cologne 2016 |
ECS Season 6 runner-up BLAST Istanbul 2018 runner-up |
| 11 | ENCE |
182 | 6 |
10 | 20 | 1st at Katowice 2019 Europe Minor | DreamHack Winter 2018 winner SL iL Season 6 winner |
| 12 |  BIG |
178 | 4 |
7 | 15 | 5th at Kraków 2017 5th at London 2018 |
5th at SL iL Season 6 3rd at cs_summit 3 |
| 13 | Renegades |
166 | 10 |
11 | 30 | 9th at Cologne 2015 | 5th at SL iL Season 6 3rd at Toyota Masters Bangkok 2018 |
| 14 | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
163 | 5 |
6 | 14 | 1st at Cologne 2014 | BLAST Copenhagen runner-up 5th at EPICENTER 2018 |
| 15 | Team Vitality |
162 | N/A | 14 | 45 | 2nd at Katowice 2019 Europe Minor | DreamHack Atlanta 2018 winner |
| 17 | Team Spirit |
115 | 17 |
17 | 56 | 17th at London 2018 | 5th at WePlay! Lock and Load |
| 18 | AVANGAR |
114 | 15 |
15 | 31 | 17th at Boston 2018 | 3rd at EPICENTER 2018 Qi Invitational runner-up |
| 19 | G2 Esports |
109 | 4 |
4 | 25 | 5th at Boston 2018 | 5th at ESL One New York 2018 7th at ESL Pro League Season 8 |
| 21 | HellRaisers |
101 | 11 |
10 | 21 | 5th at London 2018 | 5th at EPICENTER 2018 |
| 22 | Grayhound Gaming |
82 | 23 |
22 | 68 | 2nd at Katowice 2019 Asia Minor | 3rd at ESEA Season 29 9th at PLG Grand Slam |
| 23 | FURIA Esports |
80 | 56 |
21 | 85 | 2nd at Katowice 2018 Americas Minor | 5th at WePlay! Lock and Load |
| 28 | Winstrike Team |
178 | 276 |
27 | 304 | 1st at Katowice 2019 play-in | 9th at WePlay! Lock and Load |
| 35 | ViCi Gaming |
– | 110 |
35 | 145 | 2nd at Katowice 2019 play-in | 13th at ESL Pro League Season 8 |
| 39 | compLexity Gaming |
– | 18 |
11 | 39 | 5th at London 2018 | 3rd at DreamHack Atlanta 2018 4th at cs_summit 3 |
| 53 | Vega Squadron |
– | 13 |
13 | 53 | 9th at Boston 2018 | SL iL Season 6 runner-up |
| 67 | TyLoo |
– | 55 |
12 | 67 | 12th at London 2018 | DreamHack Open Austin 2018 runner-up |
1Change since September 24, 2018 ranking, the ranking after the FACEIT Major.
2Since end of FACEIT Major
3Best major placements may not necessarily reflect teams' current rosters
New Challengers stage
The New Challengers stage took place from February 13 to February 17, 2019, at the ESL Arena. The Challengers stage, also known as the Preliminary stage and formerly known as the offline qualifier, was a sixteen team swiss tournament. The seeding was released on February 6, 2019. Next to each team's name under the "Team" column is each team's initial seeding. Under each of the "Rounds" columns are the team's opponent's seed at the time the round was played.[23]
| Place | Team | Record | RD | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | NRG Esports (2) |
3-0 | +22 | Winstrike Team (15) 16-9 Nuke |
High match ViCi Gaming (12) 16-6 Overpass |
High match TyLoo (6) 2-0 |
New Legends stage | New Legends stage |
| Renegades (9) |
3-0 | +22 | AVANGAR (8) 16-8 Train |
High match Ninjas in Pyjamas (3) 16-13 Mirage |
High match ENCE eSports (2) 2-0 |
New Legends stage | New Legends stage | |
| 3–5 | Team Vitality (6) |
3-1 | +16 | TyLoo (11) 8-16 Inferno |
Low match Grayhound Gaming (15) 19-17 Nuke |
Mid match Vega Squadron (11) 16-1 Overpass |
High match ViCi Gaming (11) 2-0 |
New Legends stage |
| AVANGAR (8) |
3-1 | +6 | Renegades (9) 8-16 Train |
Low match FURIA Esports (14) 16-14 Mirage |
Mid match G2 Esports (7) 16-10 Overpass |
High match TyLoo (7) 2-0 |
New Legends stage | |
| ENCE eSports (5) |
3-1 | +4 | Team Spirit (12) 16-10 Nuke |
High match G2 Esports (6) 16-6 Overpass |
High match Renegades (5) 0-2 |
High match Winstrike Team (12) 2-1 |
New Legends stage | |
| 6–8 | Ninjas in Pyjamas (4) |
3-2 | +20 | FURIA Esports (13) 16-6 Mirage |
High match Renegades (8) 13-16 Mirage |
Mid match Winstrike Team (13) 6-16 Train |
Low match Vega Squadron (13) 2-1 |
ViCi Gaming (11) 2-1 |
| G2 Esports (7) |
3-2 | +16 | Vega Squadron (10) 16-14 Cache |
High match ENCE eSports (4) 6-16 Overpass |
Mid match AVANGAR (10) 16-10 Overpass |
Low match Fnatic (10) 2-1 |
TyLoo (10) 2-1 | |
| Cloud9 (3) |
3-2 | 0 | Grayhound Gaming (14) 16-11 Mirage |
High match TyLoo (9) 3-16 Overpass |
Mid match ViCi Gaming (12) 6-16 Inferno |
Low match FURIA Esports (14) 2-1 |
Winstrike Team (8) 2-0 | |
| 9–11 | Winstrike Team (15) |
2-3 | -3 | NRG Esports (2) 9-16 Nuke |
Low match Fnatic (5) 16-11 Train |
Mid match Ninjas in Pyjamas (3) 16-6 Train |
High match ENCE eSports (3) 1-2 |
Cloud9 (9) 0-2 |
| TyLoo (11) |
2-3 | -9 | Team Vitality (6) 16-8 Inferno |
High match Cloud9 (2) 16-3 Overpass |
High match NRG Esports (1) 0-2 |
High match AVANGAR (8) 0-2 |
G2 Esports (7) 1-2 | |
| ViCi Gaming (16) |
2-3 | -12 | Fnatic (1) 16-9 Train |
High match NRG Esports (1) 6-16 Overpass |
Mid match Cloud9 (4) 16-6 Inferno |
High match Team Vitality (5) 0-2 |
Ninjas in Pyjamas (6) 1-2 | |
| 12–14 | FURIA Esports (13) |
1-3 | -9 | Ninjas in Pyjamas (4) 6-16 Mirage |
Low match AVANGAR (10) 14-16 Mirage |
Low match Team Spirit (14) 2-0 |
Low match Cloud9 (14) 1-2 |
Eliminated |
| Fnatic (1) |
1-3 | -11 | ViCi Gaming (16) 9-16 Overpass |
Low match Winstrike Team (16) 11-16 Train |
Low match Grayhound Gaming (16) 2-0 |
Low match G2 Esports (9) 1-2 |
Eliminated | |
| Vega Squadron (10) |
1-3 | -26 | G2 Esports (7) 14-16 Cache |
Low match Team Spirit (13) 16-14 Mirage |
Mid match Team Vitality (8) 1-16 Overpass |
Low match Ninjas in Pyjamas (6) 1-2 |
Eliminated | |
| 15–16 | Team Spirit (12) |
0-3 | -17 | ENCE eSports (5) 10-16 Nuke |
Low match Vega Squadron (11) 14-16 Mirage |
Low match FURIA Esports (15) 0-2 |
Eliminated | Eliminated |
| Grayhound Gaming (14) |
0-3 | -19 | Cloud9 (3) 11-16 Mirage |
Low match Team Vitality (7) 17-19 Nuke |
Low match Fnatic (9) 0-2 |
Eliminated | Eliminated |
| Round 3 matches | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENCE eSports |
7 | Nuke | 16 | Renegades |
| ENCE eSports |
14 | Mirage | 16 | Renegades |
| ENCE eSports |
– | Inferno | – | Renegades |
| Fnatic |
16 | Inferno | 9 | Grayhound Gaming |
| Fnatic |
16 | Overpass | 11 | Grayhound Gaming |
| Fnatic |
– | Mirage | – | Grayhound Gaming |
| NRG Esports |
16 | Inferno | 14 | TyLoo |
| NRG Esports |
16 | Mirage | 13 | TyLoo |
| NRG Esports |
– | Train | – | TyLoo |
| Team Spirit |
9 | Mirage | 16 | FURIA Esports |
| Team Spirit |
14 | Nuke | 16 | FURIA Esports |
| Team Spirit |
– | Cache | – | FURIA Esports |
| Round 4 matches | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Vitality |
25 | Inferno | 22 | ViCi Gaming |
| Team Vitality |
16 | Nuke | 12 | ViCi Gaming |
| Team Vitality |
– | Overpass | – | ViCi Gaming |
| TyLoo |
12 | Cache | 16 | AVANGAR |
| TyLoo |
14 | Inferno | 16 | AVANGAR |
| TyLoo |
– | Mirage | – | AVANGAR |
| ENCE eSports |
16 | Dust II | 11 | Winstrike Team |
| ENCE eSports |
7 | Mirage | 16 | Winstrike Team |
| ENCE eSports |
16 | Train | 13 | Winstrike Team |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
17 | Overpass | 19 | Vega Squadron |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
16 | Train | 6 | Vega Squadron |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
16 | Mirage | 6 | Vega Squadron |
| G2 Esports |
8 | Mirage | 16 | Fnatic |
| G2 Esports |
16 | Dust II | 8 | Fnatic |
| G2 Esports |
16 | Overpass | 5 | Fnatic |
| Cloud9 |
1 | Mirage | 16 | FURIA Esports |
| Cloud9 |
16 | Inferno | 1 | FURIA Esports |
| Cloud9 |
16 | Cache | 10 | FURIA Esports |
| Round 5 matches | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
16 | Train | 7 | ViCi Gaming |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
13 | Inferno | 16 | ViCi Gaming |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
16 | Mirage | 7 | ViCi Gaming |
| G2 Esports |
12 | Mirage | 16 | TyLoo |
| G2 Esports |
16 | Dust II | 2 | TyLoo |
| G2 Esports |
16 | Cache | 7 | TyLoo |
| Cloud9 |
16 | Nuke | 7 | Winstrike Team |
| Cloud9 |
19 | Overpass | 16 | Winstrike Team |
| Cloud9 |
– | Mirage | – | Winstrike Team |
They heavy favorite in the New Challengers stage Fnatic kicked off the Major against the 16th seeded ViCi Gaming. ViCi got off to hot 8–1 start before Fnatic recovered by the end and trailed only 6–9. Starting in the second half, it looked like Fnatic was looking to take it after taking the first two gun rounds. However, ViCi changed up some strategies and then ran over the top seeded Swedes and an upset happened in the very first match of the Major. Although Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson had a massive game for Fnatic with 24 kills, the rest of his team fell behind, including Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin with just 16 kills and 20 deaths. Weijie "zhokiNg" Zhong had 26 kills and Zhuo "advent" Liang had 25 to lead ViCi while not needing Andrew "kaze" Khong to go on a superstar performance as he normally does. What was supposed to be a tightly contested map turned to a fairly convincing win. Renegades took a 9–6 lead at the end of the first half over AVANGAR. The teams switched sides and Renegades overran AVANGAR on its terrorist side; the turning point was arguably when Ali "Jame" Djami unscoped his AWP when Sean "Gratisfaction"' Kaiwai peeked around a corner with just twelve seconds left with the bomb. Aaron "AZR" Ward lead the server with 24 kills. Alexey "qikert" Golubev and Jame lead the way with 17 kills for AVANGAR, but Timur "buster" Tulepov, after an impressive Boston Major, struggled with just six kills. Cloud9 got off to a hot start against Grayhound Gaming with a 6–0 lead, which included two 1 vs 3 clutches by the newcomer Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro and the veteran Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey Grayhound did keep it close, including winning five unanswered in the second half to keep it within one, but Cloud9 took the match to progress to the 1-0 phase. kioShiMa lead all players with 27 kills while three players on Grayhound had 19 kills, with Chris "dexter" Nong being the highest rated player on the team. Nobody knew how TyLoo would do at the Major since the team played at zero tournaments since December, but, lead by YuLun "Summer" Cai, the newly formed TyLoo lineup had zero trouble once it got to its counter-terrorist side. Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt had 22 kills to lead Team Vitality, but its star player Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut struggled with just 15 kills as the Chinese team took the win. ENCE eSports and Team Spirit was next. While initially close, ENCE was able to pull away at the end of the map with Jere "sergej" Salo and Jani "Aerial" Jussila leading with 21 kills. Dmitry "S0tF1k" Forostyanko and Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev also had 21 kills for Spirit, but the Russian team could not go toe-to-toe with the Finns. Vega tried to surprise the world again with an upset over G2 and it started well with a 9–6 lead at the half. However, G2 had an even better terrorist side in the second half as Kenny "kennyS" Schrublooked like he had returned to his old self with 29 kills and Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro, who had faced criticism for underperforming, had 26. Igor "crush" Shevchenko had 25 for Vega, but the team fell just short. FURIA Esports came in as a dark horse, especially with Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato on the team, but the team struggled against the veterans in Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) as Fredrik "REZ" Sterner and Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson lead all players in kills. KSCERATO played well, but the rest of his team struggled. NRG Esports' debut on the Major was a good one as Ethan "Ethan" Arnold went huge with 24 kills and Cvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov followed up with 21. Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov and Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin had 17 kills each, but Winstrike Team's second half was flat.
Vega took an early lead over its Russian compatriots, but Spirit took the next eight of ten rounds before Vega made it close again at the half. However, Spirit pulled away again and took a 14–11 lead. Vega then turned on the jets and suddenly took the next five rounds to close out the messy game. Pavel "COLDYY1" Veklenko and Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev had a huge game for Spirit, but the combination of Dmitriy "jR" Chervak, Pavel "hutji" Lashkov, and Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov allowed Vega to squeeze past. On the B stream, Grayhound bounced back from a close loss against Cloud9 and took a 13–2 lead over Vitality. However, Vitality won a few rounds in a row and then took advantage of Grayhound's inexperience. Grayhound eventually got to match point late into the game, but Vitality tied the game right up to send the game to overtime. Grayhound got a round on the seemingly-elusive terrorist side to possibly to it in an advantage, but Vitality adjusted its strategies and took two terrorist rounds to complete the comeback. Dan "apEX" Madesclaire had the best performance out of anyone with 36 kills and ZywOo bounced back with 33. Oliver "DickStacy" Tierney also broke the 30 barrier and Chris "dexter"' Nong and Euan "sterling" Moore had 23 kills each, but the Australian team could not hold on in the end. Fnatic was upset once again as the Swedes could not get anything going against Winstrike as they fell 2–13 at the first half. Fnatic nearly came back, but a 1 vs. 3 clutch by Boombl4 spurred Winstrike to finish the game in a win. Although Richard "Xizt" Landström was the highest rated player for Fnatic, the rest of Fnatic was shut down. Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen had 23 kills in the win. Another comeback took place on the other side as AVANGAR came back from a 8–1 deficit and read FURIA's terrorist strategies well towards the end as the last few rounds were shut down. Jame and Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov were able to make the comeback possible with 27 and 21 kills, respectively. Andrei "arT" Piovezan had 23 kills and KSCERATO had 20, but Yuri "yuurih" Santos only had 13 kills to the loss. TyLoo continued it surprise run by defeating Cloud9 in dominating fashion. The two Indonesians showed up as Kevin "xccurate" Susanto had 20 kills and Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand had 19, with Haowen "somebody" Xu also at 19. Will "RUSH" Wierzba had 13 kills, but Cloud9 struggled, including the top 20 player Timothy "autimatic" Ta with just 6 kills. G2 looked to go up to two wins and it won the second round with a weak buy and went up 2–1. However, ENCE won twelve unanswered and closed the half with a 13–2 lead. G2 performed better on its counter-terrorist side, but the lead was too much and ENCE easily took the map. The veteran Aleksi "allu" Jalli and the two young players sergej and Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen had 20 kills each in the win. Audric "JaCkz" Jug and Lucas "Lucky" Chastang had 13 kills each in their second ever Major game, but the Finns dominated in the end. NRG came out swinging against ViCi and took an easy win over the Chinese as ViCi could not take down another top seed. Ethan and Jacob "FugLy" Medina in the dominating win. Zhuo "advent" Liang only had one kill for the majority of the map and ViCi's start player Wing Hei "Freeman" Cheung also struggled with just 8 while zhokiNg did well with 14. Renegades's three weeks of bootcamp paid off as the Australians went up 2–0 against NiP. Although NiP mounted a comeback when Renegades reached map point, a hit on the A bombsite completely ran over NiP's defense and Renegades took the win. The three veterans in NiP – Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, Christopher "GeT RiGhT" Alesund, and Dennis "dennis" Edman – all had good games, but REZ and Lekr0 struggled after a good first game. AZR and Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas had crucial kills for Renegades in the win to conclude day 1.
Vitality started day 2 with a romp over Vega 16–1, as the French took twelve unanswered to close out the game. All of Vega performed poorly, including Anton "tonyblack" Kolesnikov, who was the best performing player for Vega, as nobody broke double digits for the team. G2 could not replicate the performance of its French compatriots as they team fell to AVANGAR. While Richard "shox" Papillon did well, the rest of G2 struggled and buster for AVANGAR had a big game with 27 kills. Winstrike took advantage of NiP banning to one of its strongest maps as, aside from f0rest, the Swedes could not get much done. Aurimas "Kvik" Kvaksis had 29 kills for Winstrike and only David "n0rb3r7" Danielyan underperformed in the game. The pick that many chose to go 0-3 moved on to the high ground of round 4 ViCi dominated Cloud9 on Inferno. Although legendary player Robin "flusha" Rönnquist kept pace with ViCi with 21 kills, everyone one else on Cloud9 stumbled. ViCi's two star players came alive and Zhihong "aumaN" Liu contributed with 20 kills. Renegades finally made it to the top 16 after years of turmoil and the Australians took down fan favorite ENCE as Justin "jks" Savage had a massive series with 51 kills across the two maps while Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad's supportive role proved to be vital. Fnatic stayed alive and avoided another upset after taking down Renegades' compatriots Grayhound. While Jesper "JW" Wecksell did not have the best series, KRiMZ and Brollan stepped up to counter the likes of dexter and sterling. Erdenetsogt "erkaSt" Gantulga and Liam "malta" Schembri struggled in the loss and Grayhound was eliminated. FURIA had another massive counter-terrorist side on Mirage, but struggled again on its terrorist side. Spirit started to mount a big comeback, garnering 7 rounds in the second half, but the lead was too much and FURIA closed it out. Spirit took a 12–6 lead on the second map and looked to tie up the series, but FURIA won seven unanswered to take the lead. Spirit won two to take back the lead, but FURIA managed to take the series and stay alive. Dmitriy "Dima" Bandurka had 40 kills across the two maps for Spirit, but he struggled on the second map in the losing effort. Damian "daps" Steele lead NRG to a very close win over TyLoo, as Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte had a massive set with 72 kills over two maps.
Vitality and ViCi kicked off round four. ViCi was able to take a 10–5 lead at the end of the first half and then went up 14-7 and looked to pull off another upset. However, eight unanswered rounds from Vitality suddenly gave the French match point, but ViCi managed to snag the thirtieth round to send the game to overtime. A back and forth affair took the game to triple overtime, where Vitality pulled off the win. kaze had 42 kills, but ZywOo was able to match him with 41, including crucial 1 vs 2 and 1 vs 3 clutches in overtime. On the second map, ViCi started on the much more favored side on Nuke, but the team only managed to get eight rounds. Vitality took advantage of this and after a shaky start to the second half, Vitality moved on to the New Legends stage. While Alex "ALEX" McMeekin struggled on Nuke, Cédric "RpK" Guipouy showed signs of his old self and lead the way with 24 kills. AVANGAR wasted no time against TyLoo and quickly went up 8–2, but TyLoo was able to fortify its defense and make it a close half at 8–7. The Chinese team then went up 11–7, but it would not have any more luck as it could not get past the Kazakh defense and took map one. AVANGAR once again took a lead into the middle of the game and took a convincing 15–5 lead. However, TyLoo, lead by some strong defense by somebody and YuanZhang "Attacker" Sheng allowed TyLoo to mount a huge comeback. In the thirtieth round, Aidyn "KrizzeN" Turlybekov, who had been struggling for a good portion of the tournament, stepped up and took down the TyLoo players on the A bombsite and AVANGAR denied the comeback and moved on to the Legends stage. ENCE took a huge 11–4 lead to start off the last series of day 3, including winning ten in a row. Winstrike started to bring it back behind WorldEdit and Boombl4, but the lead was too far gone. Winstrike managed to take that momentum from the first map and convert it to the second map with a 13-2 half. ENCE managed to scrappily pick up rounds, but Winstrike closed map two with ease. Map three showcased the dominant counter-terrorist side on Train. ENCE took a massive 14–1 lead, including a wild 1 vs 3 sergej clutch. However, Winstrike came all the way back by taking 12 of 13 rounds to make the score 15–13. ENCE made some tweaks and squeezed out a winning round to move on. Overall, ENCE players such as Sami "xseveN" Laasanen stepped up when necessary throughout the series to secure the win. Day 4 began with a thriller in the rematch of the historic game, when Vega eliminated NiP at the Atlanta Major 2017 in the qualifier, making that Major the first Major NiP did not take part of. Vega showed off its strong counter-terrorist side on Overpass in the first half, but NiP did the same as well in the second half, even when Vega had eight match points, and the game headed to overtime. The overtime was also close, but Vega managed to not give up the massive advantage it had and closed out map one. NiP recovered a map on Train in an easy win, lead by REZ's 25 kills. Mirage was the last map and Vega took a 9–6 lead and then the first pistol round. However, NiP's defense held strong, letting Vega only find rounds once in a while, and eliminated the Russian team. Fnatic came out strong with an 11-4 halftime lead over G2. G2 had a strong second half start, but Fnatic would easily take the first map. After a close first half on the second map, but G2 would pull away with an easy win of its own, letting Fnatic only take two rounds as Lucky had a big game. The last map Overpass was historically a good map for both teams. Fnatic took the pistol round, but G2 followed up with nine rounds in a row and the half ended 11–4 in the side of the French. Fnatic was able to take the first gun round, but a harsh reset to the economy spelled the end of Fnatic, putting Fnatic's fourteen Major streak of finishing in the top sixteen to an end. Simon "twist" Eliasson, who had only nine kills, had struggled for Fnatic throughout the event, and the number one seed fell. FURIA took a massive 8–0 lead and then, after Cloud9 took a round, FURIA then won the game 16–1. FURIA looked to carry that momentum, but it was Cloud9 who turned things around and won a 16–1 game of its own. The final map was much more competitive than the first two, as the half ended in 8–7 in favor of FURIA. Cloud9 then took the first six rounds of the second half to take the lead at 13–8, but FURIA finally took two rounds. However, Cloud9's strategies countered FURIA's counter-terrorist side and the American organization stayed alive. Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo had a strong performance for FURIA and players such as Rinaldo "ableJ" Moda Júnior had important frags, but kioShiMa's 23 and Zellsis's key kills in the second half lead Cloud9 to a win.
NiP and ViCi had a very close first half on the first map, with the Swedes leading on 8–7. In the second half, despite aumaN leading the server, ViCi could not get a single round in the second half and NiP cruised to a win. The second map started with ViCi taking the first five rounds, then NiP took the next eight before ViCi took the last two of the first round. In the second half, however, NiP only had a brief period of success on its terrorist side and ViCi was able to tie the series in after the close game. After a back and forth start on Mirage, NiP pulled away and took a big 11-4 halftime lead. ViCi was able gather two sets of three rounds, but deficit was too much to come back from and NiP moved on. G2 managed to have a good counter-terrorist side, but TyLoo had an even better one in the second half, as G2 only scrapped up two rounds. Dust II was historically a good G2 map and it showed why as the French had an even better first half than the last with a 13–2 lead. G2 then easily finished up the game to force a third map. G2 matched its halftime score from the second map in the third map. TyLoo tried to come back after taking the second half pistol round, but G2's economy rounds somehow managed to overrun TyLoo and G2 moved on. TyLoo started the tournament 2–0, but ended in 2-3 as it could not get a best of three win. Cloud9 started on the much more favored side on Nuke and easily took an 11–4 lead. Winstrike tried to put on a big performance for its counter-terrorist side in the second half, but Cloud9 denied much success as autimatic dominated the map. Cloud9 won the pistol round to carry the momentum, but some crucial mistakes allowed Winstrike to take the next three rounds and then eventually an 8–7 lead. Winstrike won the first two rounds, but Cloud9 won seven rounds in a row to go up 14-10 and then 15–12. Winstrike then regrouped and then tied the game at 15. In overtime, Winstrike dominated the first round, but Cloud9, lead by RUSH's plays, took the next four to survive and move on.
New Legends stage
The New Legends stage, formerly known as the Group stage, used the same format as the Challengers stage. This stage takes place from February 20 to February 24, 2019, live at the International Congress Center in Katowice. The seeding was released on February 19, 2019.[24] Next to each team's name under the "Team" column is each team's initial seeding. Under each of the "Rounds" columns are the team's opponent's seed at the time the round was played.[25]
| Place | Team | Record | RD | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Astralis (1) |
3-0 | +45 | compLexity Gaming (16) 16-6 Nuke |
High match Cloud9 (12) 16-0 Train |
High match Renegades (8) 2-1 |
New Champions stage | New Champions stage |
| Team Liquid (2) |
3-0 | +16 | AVANGAR (15) 16-12 Overpass |
High match Ninjas in Pyjamas (10) 16-13 Overpass |
High match Natus Vincere (3) 2-0 |
New Champions stage | New Champions stage | |
| 3–5 | Natus Vincere (3) |
3-1 | +18 | G2 Esports (14) 16-7 Inferno |
High match Team Vitality (11) 25-22 Mirage |
High match Team Liquid (2) 0-2 |
High match AVANGAR (10) 2-0 |
New Champions stage |
| MIBR (4) |
3-1 | +10 | Cloud9 (13) 3-16 Inferno |
Low match compLexity Gaming (16) 16-9 Mirage |
Mid match G2 Esports (14) 16-12 Inferno |
High match Ninjas in Pyjamas (8) 2-0 |
New Champions stage | |
| Renegades (9) |
3-1 | -4 | ENCE eSports (8) 16-13 Inferno |
High match FaZe Clan (4) 16-14 Inferno |
High match Astralis (1) 1-2 |
High match Team Vitality (7) 2-1 |
New Champions stage | |
| 6–8 | FaZe Clan (5) |
3-2 | +15 | HellRaisers (12) 16-4 Train |
High match Renegades (8) 14-16 Inferno |
Mid match AVANGAR (15) 13-16 Mirage |
Low match compLexity Gaming (14) 2-1 |
Cloud9 (11) 2-0 |
| ENCE eSports (8) |
3-2 | +11 | Renegades (9) 13-16 Inferno |
Low match HellRaisers (13) 12-16 Dust II |
Low match BIG (7) 2-1 |
Low match G2 Esports (14) 2-0 |
AVANGAR (10) 2-0 | |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas (11) |
3-2 | +8 | NRG Esports (6) 16-14 Nuke |
High match Team Liquid (2) 13-16 Overpass |
Mid match HellRaisers (13) 16-5 Overpass |
High match MIBR (4) 0-2 |
Team Vitality (9) 2-1 | |
| 9–11 | Cloud9 (13) |
2-3 | -2 | MIBR (4) 16-3 Inferno |
High match Astralis (1) 0-16 Train |
Mid match Team Vitality (11) 14-16 Mirage |
Low match HellRaisers (12) 2-0 |
FaZe Clan (6) 0-2 |
| Team Vitality (10) |
2-3 | -16 | BIG (7) 16-11 Mirage |
High match Natus Vincere (3) 22-25 Mirage |
Mid match Cloud9 (12) 16-14 Mirage |
High match Renegades (5) 1-2 |
Ninjas in Pyjamas (8) 1-2 | |
| AVANGAR (15) |
2-3 | -26 | Team Liquid (2) 12-16 Overpass |
Low match NRG Sports (6) 16-13 Overpass |
Mid match FaZe Clan (4) 16-13 Mirage |
High match Natus Vincere (3) 0-2 |
ENCE eSports (7) 0-2 | |
| 12–14 | compLexity Gaming (16) |
1-3 | -10 | Astralis (1) 6-16 Nuke |
Low match MIBR (5) 9-16 Mirage |
Low match NRG Esports (6) 2-0 |
Low match FaZe Clan (6) 1-2 |
Eliminated |
| G2 Esports (14) |
1-3 | -18 | Natus Vincere (3) 7-16 Inferno |
Low match BIG (7) 16-13 Mirage |
Mid match MIBR (5) 12-16 Inferno |
Low match ENCE eSports (8) 2-0 |
Eliminated | |
| HellRaisers (12) |
1-3 | -31 | FaZe Clan (5) 4-16 Train |
Low match ENCE eSports (9) 16-12 Dust II |
Mid match Ninjas in Pyjamas (10) 5-16 Overpass |
Low match Cloud9 (11) 0-2 |
Eliminated | |
| 15–16 | BIG (7) |
0-3 | -5 | Team Vitality (10) 11-16 Mirage |
Low match G2 Esports (14) 13-16 Mirage |
Low match ENCE eSports (9) 1-2 |
Eliminated | Eliminated |
| NRG Esports (6) |
0-3 | -11 | Ninjas in Pyjamas (11) 14-16 Nuke |
Low match AVANGAR (15) 13-16 Overpass |
Low match compLexity Gaming (16) 0-2 |
Eliminated | Eliminated |
| Round 3 matches | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astralis |
17 | Mirage | 19 | Renegades |
| Astralis |
16 | Nuke | 9 | Renegades |
| Astralis |
16 | Inferno | 2 | Renegades |
| ENCE eSports |
5 | Dust II | 16 | BIG |
| ENCE eSports |
16 | Train | 14 | BIG |
| ENCE eSports |
16 | Overpass | 10 | BIG |
| Team Liquid |
16 | Mirage | 14 | Natus Vincere |
| Team Liquid |
16 | Dust II | 9 | Natus Vincere |
| Team Liquid |
– | Nuke | – | Natus Vincere |
| NRG Esports |
19 | Nuke | 22 | compLexity Gaming |
| NRG Esports |
16 | Cache | 19 | compLexity Gaming |
| NRG Esports |
– | Inferno | – | compLexity Gaming |
| Round 4 matches | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renegades |
16 | Dust II | 5 | Team Vitality |
| Renegades |
11 | Cache | 16 | Team Vitality |
| Renegades |
16 | Inferno | 12 | Team Vitality |
| Natus Vincere |
16 | Dust II | 6 | AVANGAR |
| Natus Vincere |
16 | Train | 11 | AVANGAR |
| Natus Vincere |
– | Mirage | – | AVANGAR |
| MIBR |
16 | Train | 6 | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
| MIBR |
16 | Inferno | 14 | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
| MIBR |
– | Mirage | – | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
| ENCE eSports |
19 | Dust II | 17 | G2 Esports |
| ENCE eSports |
16 | Mirage | 10 | G2 Esports |
| ENCE eSports |
– | Nuke | – | G2 Esports |
| FaZe Clan |
8 | Cache | 16 | compLexity Gaming |
| FaZe Clan |
16 | Mirage | 11 | compLexity Gaming |
| FaZe Clan |
16 | Dust II | 14 | compLexity Gaming |
| Cloud9 |
16 | Inferno | 8 | HellRaisers |
| Cloud9 |
16 | Cache | 12 | HellRaisers |
| Cloud9 |
– | Mirage | – | HellRaisers |
| Round 5 matches | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENCE eSports |
16 | Mirage | 12 | AVANGAR |
| ENCE eSports |
16 | Train | 7 | AVANGAR |
| ENCE eSports |
– | Overpass | – | AVANGAR |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
16 | Cache | 7 | Team Vitality |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
8 | Overpass | 16 | Team Vitality |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
16 | Mirage | 7 | Team Vitality |
| FaZe Clan |
16 | Cache | 14 | Cloud9 |
| FaZe Clan |
16 | Dust II | 9 | Cloud9 |
| FaZe Clan |
– | Nuke | – | Cloud9 |
Team Vitality took on BIG to start off the New Legends stage. In his return with BIG, Johannes "nex" Maget had a good game with 22 kills, but BIG's star İsmailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş only had half the kills nex had. Meanwhile, apEX dropped 30 kills as Vitality put up a strong counter-terrorist side. On the other stream, ENCE eSports took a good lead over Renegades in the New Challengers rematch with a 10-5 half. However, Renegades put up an even better half in the second at 11-3 as the Australians shut down most of what ENCE had to offer. Many looked at what HellRaisers could do after not being active in tournaments for a long time, but Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow's team fell flat. Abay "HObbit" Khasenov played well in his HellRaisers Majors debut, but the team's star players Issa "ISSAA" Murad and Özgür "woxic" Eker did not have the impact the team wanted. Meanwhile, FaZe Clan's Nikola "NiKo" Kovač put up big numbers against HellRaisers, with Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács close behind him. Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) had an unexpected performance from Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev with 23 kills and everyone on the team had a good game, limiting the impact kennyS had for G2 Esports. After AVANGAR took the halftime lead, Team Liquid went to work. Despite qikert's 27 kills, the Canadians Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and Keith "NAF" Markovic both performed well to limit the Kazakhs to just four rounds in the second half. Ninjas in Pyjamas took a huge halftime lead on Nuke at 11–4, but did start on the much more favored side, giving NRG Esports a chance. NRG did start the comeback, but at 15–14, NiP managed to sneak in that last round to pull off the win, the REZ's 33 kills to lead the way. compLexity Gaming decided to strike to Astralis's best map Nuke. Despite starting on the more favored side, compLexity could not get anything going, even with Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz's 18 kills. Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth had huge game with 26 kills and with 131.1 average damage per round. Cloud9 completely spoiled MIBR's debut with its new lineup as the Brazlians could not get past defense of Cloud9. Even with Marcelo "coldzera" David leading the scoreboard for MIBR, everyone on Cloud9 had more kills than the star Brazilian.
XANTARES did turn things around from his last game as he led BIG to a 9–6 lead. However, shox's crew, lead by kennyS's 25 kills, took control and won 10 rounds in the second half to BIG's 4 and sent the German team to 0–2. Even with Fatih "gob b" Dayik's 25 kills, BIG's other star player Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz only had 15 kills in the map. woxic went huge in the first half as he led HellRaisers to an 13-2 halftime lead, but ENCE managed to fight back and suddenly make it 15–12. In the following round, things looked good for ENCE to make the comeback, but HObbit and ISSAA managed to secure two kills each and HellRaisers staved off the comeback. compLexity tried to surprise the world again and head back to the playoffs and it took an 8–7 lead against MIBR. However, MIBR found a strategy to counter compLexity in the second half and easily won it out and avoided the 0–2. AVANGAR took a huge lead at 11-4 and then at 12–6. NRG decided to take a risk and bought with low money and it paid off and eventually tied the game at 13. However, AVANGAR figured out the defense in the end and upset NRG. Renegades pulled off another upset and went up 9–0 in series since the Asia Minor as AZR had another huge game. FaZe's Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer, named the best player in 2015, struggled with just 10 kills. Astralis pulled off the second 16–0 in Major history, lead by Emil "Magisk" Reif and Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz, against Cloud9; the Danes had the only other 16–0, which was against MIBR in the last Major in the New Legends stage. Vitality and Na'Vi was a thriller that headed to triple overtime. Vitality had chances, but Denis "electronic" Sharipov and Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev bailed Na'Vi out to barely survive. Team Liquid had a hot start, but NiP settled in and eventually took the lead late into the game. However, Liquid stabilized towards the end and shut down whatever NiP had to offer despite f0rest's 26 kills. Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella lead all players with 28 kills.
Day 2 started with MIBR against G2 Esports and the Brazilians took a strong 8–1 lead before G2 recovered and only were down 6-9 by the end of the half. G2 kept the half close at 13–11, but coldzera and Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo put up kills in crucial moments, including winning a 2 vs 4, as MIBR took the map win. AVANGAR stunned FaZe despite GuardiaN and Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev's best efforts, as, after falling behind 11–13, AVANGAR the last five rounds to steal the map win as Jame denying the bomb plant at the aforementioned score started the small comeback. Håvard "rain" Nygaard struggled with just 10 kills. NiP completely shut down HellRaisers on Overpass as REZ and GeT_RiGhT had more than 20 kills each. Even though Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz had a better than usual performance, ISSAA struggled massively with just 8 kills for HellRaisers. Vitality, lead by apEX and ZywOo, just barely won out over Cloud9, even though flusha had 27 kills and Zellsis with 24 as the Frenchmen went up 2–1. Astralis looked like it put a halt onto Renegades's Cinderella run as the world's number one put up a 12-3 halftime lead and then a 14–5 lead. However, Renegades showed that it could compete with the best and put up ten unanswered to suddenly take a 15–14 lead before Astralis tied it up and the game headed to overtime. Renegades then continued its streak and then took down the Danish giants in map one. Renegades then took a 9-6 halftime lead on Nuke, a map Astralis had not lost in over a year. However, Astralis's defense combined with some big mistakes from Renegades completely shut down whatever the Oceanic team had to offer and Astralis cruised in the second half. Astralis did not look back in the third map and dominated and the Danes were the first team to the playoffs; in addition, Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander's team was the first team to beat Renegades during this Katowice run, as dev1ce and Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann were instrumental in the victory. BIG looked to end ENCE's Major hopes as the German team completely ran over the Finns. BIG then took a 14–10 lead on Train, but ENCE managed to take six straight to close out the game to edge by BIG 16–14. ENCE then took a big 11–4 lead. BIG made it relatively close in the second half, but the lead was too far gone and BIG was eliminated. The first map between Liquid and Na'Vi was a back and forth affair, but the halftime score went in favor of Liquid 9–6. Despite Liquid limiting s1mple, Egor "flamie" Vasilyev stepped up with 26 kills. However, Liquid's teamwork proved to be more effective, with its newest acquisition Jake "Stewie2K" Yip leading the way with 21 kills and Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski followed up also with 21 kills as Liquid barely sneaked by. The second map also featured a close first half, as Liquid only lead 8–7. Even though s1mple stepped up compared to the last map, Liquid's terrorist side was too much for Na'Vi to handle as Liquid was the second team to move on. The last series of day two was a thriller between NRG and compLexity. On Nuke, NRG had an 8–7 lead while in the terrorist side, meaning its second half would be on the much more favored side. However, despite a good start, NRG could not follow through as stanislaw put up big numbers, ending the game with 45 kills. The game headed to double overtime, where compLexity pulled out the upset. On Cache, NRG once again had an 8–7 lead while on the less favored side. However, compLexity started off with six in a row before NRG found a rhythm and went up 15–14, only for compLexity to tie it as Rory "dephh" Jackson defused the bomb in round 30. In overtime, compLexity found itself in a winning position and secured the set as Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan found a kill onto daps.
Renegades continued to flaunt their top form as it started off with a 10–1 lead over Vitality. The French somewhat recovered to make it 11–4, but there was no stopping the Renegades train as the Australian team easily took the first map. Renegades took the halftime lead again in the second map, but it was much closer at 8–7. Vitality's terrorist side in the second half then took over and NBK- and his team tied up the series at one. After a close first half, Renegades suddenly took a 14–7 lead. Vitality looked like it could make up the deficit with five in a row, but Renegades were able to close out the map. With Renegades moving on, Gratisfaction was the first New Zealander to become a Legend and his four teammates were the first Australians to become Legends. Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko lead Na'Vi to another as the CIS team dismantled AVANGAR. Although electronic had a subpar game, flamie and s1mple continued to put up good performances and Na'Vi advanced. MIBR took a 10–5 lead on Train, but was on the much more favored side, giving NiP a chance. However, NiP could not get anything going in the second half, which started with a Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and João "felps" Vasconcellos embracing his new role. MIBR continued with a 6–0 lead, but NiP brought it back within three rounds by then end of the half. NiP then took the lead at 11-9 and then 14–12. However, players like fer, coldzera, and Epitácio "TACO" de Melo stepped up as MIBR continued its success at the Majors, being the only core with a one hundred percent success rate at top eight since its Major debut. The first match of day 4 started on Dust II, one of G2's strongest map. The French started with a 5–2 lead, but ENCE won seven in a row before G2 took the last round of the half. G2 matched ENCE's score in the second half, which included winning the last four rounds in regulation, to send the game to overtime. However, Aleksib's 31 kills were able to help ENCE defeat G2 in the first map. ENCE then jumped to a 12–5 lead in the second map. G2 had some momentum starting then, but the Finns were able to win out the map and the series to stay alive in the tournament. compLexity started very strong against FaZe as it took a 11–4 lead at the half. FaZe had a good start to the second half, but compLexity's team effort allowed the North American squad to take the first map. On verge of pulling off another upset, compLexity took a 5–3 lead, but FaZe pulled it back to win out the half 9–6. Although stanislaw and Ricky "Rickeh" Mulholland gave FaZe some trouble, the Europeans tied the series up at one. The third map would prove to be a thriller. After compLexity took an 10–7 lead, FaZe started to crawl back and take the lead at 13–10. Lead by Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert's crucial plays, compLexity took back the lead at 14–13. NiKo then went on a tear and put FaZe behind his back as he overcame compLexity's defense and FaZe barely survived to the next day. After HellRaisers took an early lead, Cloud9 jumped back into the game and took a 9-6 halftime lead. HellRaisers struggled in the second half as Cloud9 easily took the first map. In the second map, Cloud9 continued to perform and took an 11–4 lead. However, seven unanswered from HellRaisers suddenly tied up the game. Cloud9 then took time to adjust and then took down HellRaisers as another Legend fell.
The last day of the group stage began with ENCE against AVANGAR. AVANGAR took the pistol round, but ENCE struck back with four rounds before AVANGAR took four of its own. ENCE would then respond with five rounds before AVANGAR took the last round of the half. ENCE then jumped out to a 15–9 lead and close out the map with a brief scare after AVANGAR took three more rounds. Train started out well for AVANGAR, but ENCE's terrorist side, lead by allu, took over the half. AVANGAR's struggled continued as it could not take a single gun round in the second half and ENCE cruised to the playoffs after starting 0–2. Vitality and NiP started on Cache, historically a good NiP map, and it showed why as the Swedes took 11 rounds on the less favored side in the first half. Vitality took the first three rounds of the half, but with dennis stepping up for his team, NiP was easily able to take the win. NiP took the pistol and anti-economy rounds in the second map, but Vitality put up 11 rounds of its own, but the French did start on the more favored side, giving NiP a silver lining. However, Vitality quickly reached 15 rounds and then won the game after NiP took four more rounds. NiP rebounded as it took a massive 14–1 lead at the half. Vitality made a comeback look possible it took six rounds, but NiP was able to close it out and move on to the playoffs, with dennis leading the way with 23 kills. The first map between FaZe and Cloud9 looked like a blowout, as FaZe took a 12–3 lead and then a 15–4 lead. However, everyone on Cloud9 started contributing and mounted a massive comeback. In the end, a fake execute by FaZe on the B bombsite when the team was going A opened up an avenue for FaZe and the European squad just barely denied the comeback. FaZe had another strong first half, this time at 11–4. However, Cloud9 started to come back and reached nine rounds, which was capped with an autimatic 1 vs 4. FaZe then took a timeout and recovered to move on to the playoffs as Cloud9 was eliminated.
New Champions stage
The New Champions Stage, also known as the Playoffs, is a best of three double elimination bracket. Teams play until a winner is decided. This stage is taking place at the Spodek from February 28 to March 3, 2019. Brackets were revealed shortly after FaZe defeated Cloud9 in the last map of the group stages. Teams were seeded first based on their record in the New Legends stage and based on the strength of their schedule.
Bracket
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Natus Vincere
| 2 | ||||||||||||
| 6 | FaZe Clan
| 0 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Natus Vincere
| 1 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | ENCE eSports
| 2 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Team Liquid
| 0 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | ENCE eSports
| 2 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | ENCE eSports
| 0 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Astralis
| 2 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | MIBR
| 2 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Renegades
| 0 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | MIBR
| 0 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Astralis
| 2 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Astralis
| 2 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Ninjas in Pyjamas
| 0 | ||||||||||||
Natus Vincere vs. FaZe Clan
Casters: HenryG & Sadokist
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FaZe Clan | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Train | Cache | Inferno | Mirage | Nuke | Overpass | Dust II | |
| Natus Vincere | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Natus Vincere vs. FaZe Clan scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
| Natus Vincere |
16 | Inferno | 13 | FaZe Clan |
| Natus Vincere |
16 | Mirage | 7 | FaZe Clan |
| Natus Vincere |
– | Dust II | – | FaZe Clan |
Team Liquid vs. ENCE eSports
Casters: Vince Hill & moses
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENCE eSports | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Cache | Train | Mirage | Inferno | Nuke | Dust II | Overpass | |
| Team Liquid | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Team Liquid vs. ENCE eSports scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
| Team Liquid |
11 | Mirage | 16 | ENCE eSports |
| Team Liquid |
16 | Inferno | 19 | ENCE eSports |
| Team Liquid |
– | Overpass | – | ENCE eSports |
MIBR vs. Renegades
Casters: HenryG & Sadokist
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renegades | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Overpass | Nuke | Dust II | Train | Cache | Inferno | Mirage | |
| MIBR | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| MIBR vs. Renegades scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
| MIBR |
16 | Dust II | 6 | Renegades |
| MIBR |
16 | Train | 12 | Renegades |
| MIBR |
– | Mirage | – | Renegades |
Astralis vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
Casters: Vince Hill & moses
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ninjas in Pyjamas | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Nuke | Cache | Mirage | Dust II | Train | Inferno | Overpass | |
| Astralis | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Astralis vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
| Astralis |
16 | Mirage | 2 | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
| Astralis |
16 | Dust II | 14 | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
| Astralis |
– | Overpass | – | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
Natus Vincere vs. ENCE eSports
Casters: HenryG & Sadokist
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENCE eSports | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Overpass | Cache | Train | Dust II | Nuke | Inferno | Mirage | |
| Natus Vincere | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Natus Vincere vs. ENCE eSports scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
| Natus Vincere |
14 | Train | 16 | ENCE eSports |
| Natus Vincere |
16 | Dust II | 3 | ENCE eSports |
| Natus Vincere |
14 | Mirage | 16 | ENCE eSports |
MIBR vs. Astralis
Casters: Vince Hill & moses
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIBR | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Nuke | Cache | Overpass | Inferno | Mirage | Dust II | Train | |
| Astralis | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| MIBR vs. Astralis scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
| MIBR |
14 | Overpass | 16 | Astralis |
| MIBR |
7 | Inferno | 16 | Astralis |
| MIBR |
– | Train | – | Astralis |
Finals
Casters: HenryG & Sadokist
| Map Vetoes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENCE eSports | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| Nuke | Cache | Train | Inferno | Mirage | Dust II | Overpass | |
| Astralis | BAN | PICK | BAN | ||||
| ENCE eSports vs. Astralis scores | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Score | Map | Score | Team |
| ENCE eSports |
11 | Train | 16 | Astralis |
| ENCE eSports |
4 | Inferno | 16 | Astralis |
| ENCE eSports |
– | Overpass | – | Astralis |
Final standings
The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, seed for the next major, roster, and coaches are shown. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.
| Place | Prize Money | Team | Seed | Roster | Coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | US$500,000 | Astralis |
Berlin 2019 Legends | gla1ve, dev1ce, dupreeh, Magisk, Xyp9x |
zonic |
| 2nd | US$150,000 | ENCE |
Aleksib, Aerial, allu, sergej, xseven |
Twista | |
| 3rd – 4th | US$70,000 | MIBR |
FalleN, coldzera, felps, fer, TACO |
zews | |
| Natus Vincere |
Zeus, Edward, s1mple, electronic, flamie |
kane | |||
| 5th – 8th | US$35,000 | FaZe Clan |
 NiKo, AdreN,  GuardiaN, olofmeister,  rain |
YNk | |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
Lekr0, dennis, f0rest, GeT RiGhT, REZ |
pita | |||
| Renegades |
AZR, jks, Liazz,  Gratisfaction, jkaem |
kassad | |||
| Team Liquid |
nitr0, ELiGE, Stewie2K, NAF, Twistzz |
adreN | |||
| 9th – 11th | US$8,750 | AVANGAR |
Berlin 2019 Challengers | Jame, buster, fitch, KrizzeN, qikert |
dastan |
| Cloud9 |
Zellsis , autimatic, RUSH, flusha, kioShiMa |
– | |||
| Team Vitality |
NBK-, apEX, Rpk, ZywOo, ALEX |
XTQZZZ | |||
| 12th – 14th | US$8,750 | compLexity Gaming |
stanislaw, n0thing, ShahZaM, dephh, Rickeh |
Warden | |
| G2 Esports |
shox, bodyy, JaCkz, kennyS, Lucky |
maLeK | |||
| HellRaisers |
ANGE1,  DeadFox, HObbit,  ISSAA,  woxic |
ami | |||
| 15th – 16th | US$8,750 | BIG |
– | gob b, nex, tabseN, tiziaN, XANTARES |
 kakafu |
| NRG Esports |
daps, Brehze, Ethan, FugLy,  CeRq |
ImAPet | |||
| 17th – 19th | – | TyLoo |
Attacker, somebody, Summer,  xccurate, BnTeT |
Johnta | |
| ViCi Gaming |
advent, aumaN, zhokiNg,  Freeman,  kaze |
– | |||
| Winstrike Team |
Boombl4, n0rb3r7, WorldEdit,  Kvik, wayLander |
iksou | |||
| 20th – 22nd | – | Fnatic |
Xizt, Brollan, JW, KRiMZ, twist |
Jumpy | |
| FURIA Esports |
arT, ableJ, KSCERATO, VINI, yuurih |
guierri | |||
| Vega Squadron |
chopper, hutji, tonyblack, crush, jR |
Fierce | |||
| 23rd – 24th | – | Grayhound Gaming |
dexter, DickStacy, malta, sterling,  erkaSt |
– | |
| Team Spirit |
S0tF1k, DavCost, Dima, COLDYY1, somedieyoung |
Certus |
Post-Major ranking
The rankings shown below reflect the March 4, 2019 rankings, the first ranking after the Major.[26]
| World ranking | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Team | Points | Move1 | ||||
| 1 | Astralis |
986 | | ||||
| 2 | Team Liquid |
534 | | ||||
| 3 | Natus Vincere |
464 | | ||||
| 4 | ENCE |
435 | 7 | ||||
| 5 | MIBR |
352 | 4 | ||||
| 6 | FaZe Clan |
310 | 2 | ||||
| 7 | Renegades |
275 | 6 | ||||
| 8 | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
252 | 6 | ||||
| 9 | Cloud9 |
196 | 1 | ||||
| 10 | Team Vitality |
184 | 5 | ||||
| 11 | NRG Esports |
172 | 6 | ||||
| 13 | AVANGAR |
149 | 5 | ||||
| 14 | Fnatic |
147 | 8 | ||||
| 16 | G2 Esports |
132 | 3 | ||||
| 18 | BIG |
122 | 6 | ||||
| 19 | HellRaisers |
88 | 2 | ||||
| 21 | FURIA Esports |
83 | 2 | ||||
| 22 | Winstrike Team |
83 | 6 | ||||
| 23 | TyLoo |
71 | 44 | ||||
| 25 | ViCi Gaming |
67 | 10 | ||||
| 27 | compLexity Gaming |
63 | 12 | ||||
| 28 | Grayhound Gaming |
53 | 6 | ||||
| 31 | Team Spirit |
– | 14 | ||||
| 38 | Vega Squadron |
– | 15 | ||||
1Change since February 11, 2019 ranking
Showmatch
The showmatch featured Counter-Strike's newly implemented game mode Danger Zone, a multiplayer battle royale game. Eight duos fought in three rounds and the winner would be immortalized on the Danger Zone map in the form of graffiti.
| # | Team | Total | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | K | P | K | P | K | |||
| 1 |  Furlan GruBy |
97 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | seang@res Twistzz |
83 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| 3 | Gratisfaction HenryG |
75 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 4 | NAF Sadokist |
73 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| 5 | jks SPUNJ |
57 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 6 | CAth rain |
51 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| 7 | Pimp Rushly |
22 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| 8 | Stewie2K stunna |
22 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
Country representation
The major featured players representing 27 countries around the world.[29][30]
| # | Country | Number of Players | ΔPrev. Major | Players |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia |
13 | -1 | flamie, electronic, chopper, hutji, tonyblack, Jame, S0tF1k, DavCost, Dima, Boombl4, n0rb3r7, WorldEdit, WayLander |
| 2 | Sweden |
12 | 0 | olofmeister, f0rest, GeT RiGhT, REZ, dennis, Lekr0, KRiMZ, JW, Xizt, twist, Brollan, flusha |
| 3 | United States |
11 | -2 | nitr0, EliGE, Stewie2K, n0thing, ShahZaM, autimatic, RUSH, FugLy, Brehze, nahtE, Zellsis |
| 3 | France |
10 | +6 | shox, bodyy, kennyS, Lucky, JaCkz, kioShiMa, NBK-, apEX, RpK, ZywOo |
| 3 | Brazil |
10 | +6 | FalleN, fer, coldzera, TACO, felps, yuurih, arT, VINI, kscerato, AbleJ |
| 6 | Ukraine |
8 | -1 | Edward, s1mple, Zeus, jR, crush, ANGE1, COLDYY1, somedieyoung |
| 7 | Australia |
7 | +6 | Rickeh, AZR, jks, liazz, dexter, DickStacy, malta |
| 8 | Kazakhstan |
6 | +3 | Hobbit, AdreN, buster, qikert, KrizzeN, fitch |
| 8 | China |
6 | +3 | Summer, Attacker, somebody, aumaN, advent, zhokiNg |
| 10 | Denmark |
5 | -12 | device, dupreeh, Xyp9X, gla1ve, Magisk |
| 10 | Finland |
5 | +4 | allu, Aleksib, sergej, Aerial, xseveN |
| 12 | Canada |
4 | 0 | Twistzz, NAF, stanislaw, daps |
| 12 | Germany |
4 | 0 | gob b, tabseN, tiziaN, nex |
| 14 | United Kingdom |
2 | 0 | dephh, ALEX |
| 14 | Indonesia |
2 | 0 | BnTeT, xccurate |
| 14 | New Zealand |
2 | +2 | Gratisfaction, sterling |
| 14 | Norway |
2 | 0 | rain, jkaem |
| 14 | Turkey |
2 | -4 | XANTARES, woxic |
| 19 | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
1 | 0 | NiKo |
| 19 | Hungary |
1 | 0 | DeadFox |
| 19 | Jordan |
1 | 0 | ISSAA |
| 19 | Slovakia |
1 | -1 | GuardiaN |
| 19 | Mongolia |
1 | +1 | erkaSt |
| 19 | Bulgaria |
1 | +1 | CeRq |
| 19 | Hong Kong |
1 | +1 | Freeman |
| 19 | Malaysia |
1 | +1 | kaze |
| 19 | Lithuania |
1 | 0 | Kvik |
References
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- "ESL to host Major at IEM Katowice". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
- "Valve Grants ESL the First CS:GO Major of 2019 for IEM Katowice - The Esports Observer". The Esports Observer. 2018-07-12. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
- "IEM Katowice 2019". Red Bull. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
- Chiu, Stephen. "Retrospective of the Majors: Lineups with 2 Major Wins and Players with 3". VPEsports. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
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- "The IEM Katowice 2019 CS:GO Major format explained". www.eslgaming.com. Retrieved 2018-12-16.
- "Winning is Everything". Valve. 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
- Mira, Luís. "ESL announces IEM Katowice Major format and seeding method". HLTV.org. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
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- Cropley, Steven (December 21, 2018). "ESL Reveals Change to Minor Format, Eliminates Grand Final". VPEsports. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
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- Švejda, Milan "Striker". "Cloud9 list Zellsis as coach for IEM Katowice 2019". HLTV. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- Švejda, Milan "Striker". "refrezh to step in for Cloud9 at BLAST Pro Series Lisbon as Golden is ruled out". HLTV. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- "Teams - IEM Katowice 2019". Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- "Teams Minor Championship - IEM Katowice 2019". Retrieved 2019-01-30.