Heroic and Singularity earn IEM Katowice Closed Qualifier spots

The IEM Katowice 2018 European Open Qualifier #1 was heavily contested, with notable top-30 teams such as HEROIC, Windigo and AGO having to earn their place in the Closed Qualifie— where the likes of Natus Vincere, MOUZ and fnatic are waiting.

One of the favorites to make it far, AGO, ended up being stopped in the round of 16 after a defeat to Pompa. The Polish team, currently ranked #273, was powered by the 28-year-old Bartosz "⁠Hyper⁠" Wolny, who dropped 30 kills against his countrymen.

Heroic, who finished 3-4th in Katowice last year, made the Closed Qualifier

HEROIC's Top 16 matches started with a game against EPG, who recently swapped a player, with the Danish side earning a 16-11 victory on Mirage. Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer's team had an easier time against Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg's dreamchasers, defeating them 16-7 on Train, with their deciding game being a BO3 against the European mixture MANS NOT HOT.

The Danes started the series on the wrong foot, losing on Mirage (16-10), but equalizied the score on Overpass (16-8) and selead the deal with a dominant, 14-round Terrorist half on Inferno (16-2).

IEM Katowice 2018 Europe Open Qualifier #1Best of 3

HEROIC

Matchpage

2

1

24th January 2018

MANS NOT HOT

10

Mirage

16

16

Overpass

8

16

Inferno

2

HEROIC	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferSnappi	53 - 47	+6	86.6	76.5%	1.34
Jakob 'JUGi' HansenJUGi	56 - 33	+23	76.1	77.9%	1.32
Andreas 'MODDII' FridhMODDII	51 - 36	+15	80.0	76.5%	1.24
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensenniko	50 - 38	+12	76.7	79.4%	1.23
Patrick 'es3tag' Hansenes3tag	39 - 44	-5	71.3	76.5%	1.02

MANS NOT HOT	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Jesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannTENZKI	47 - 46	+1	76.8	67.6%	1.08
Rokas 'EspiranTo' MilasauskasEspiranTo	44 - 47	-3	60.8	70.6%	0.94
Žygimantas 'nukkye' Chmieliauskasnukkye	40 - 49	-9	65.9	73.5%	0.90
Asger 'AcilioN' LarsenAcilioN	35 - 56	-21	71.6	58.8%	0.79
Nemanja 'nexa' Isakovićnexa	31 - 52	-21	56.6	63.2%	0.68

Singularity eased past KPI in the quarter finals and pulled off a massive T-side comeback on Mirage against dizLown, turning a 4-11 half into 16-12 victory. To earn a spot in the Closed qualifier, Singularity took on ALTERNATE aTTaX in a BO3.

The Swedish side edged out the first map after overtime but lost the second one to a strong CT-side display by the German team. Inferno was the decider, where, after a solid first half, André "⁠BARBARR⁠" Möller and co. were able to close it out as Terrorists.

IEM Katowice 2018 Europe Open Qualifier #1Best of 3

ALTERNATE aTTaX

Matchpage

1

2

24th January 2018

Singularity

15

Cobblestone

19

16

Mirage

9

9

Inferno

16

ALTERNATE aTTaX	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Florian 'syrsoN' RischesyrsoN	72 - 47	+25	76.8	83.3%	1.33
Lukas 'ecfN' KauerecfN	69 - 50	+19	85.1	77.4%	1.31
Tizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschtiziaN	52 - 55	-3	74.5	72.6%	1.03
Stefan 'stfN' SeierstfN	48 - 55	-7	69.2	73.8%	0.99
Nicolai 'HUNDEN' PetersenHUNDEN	42 - 61	-19	58.6	70.2%	0.82

Singularity	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
André 'BARBARR' MöllerBARBARR	65 - 55	+10	76.2	73.8%	1.16
Alfred 'RuStY' KarlssonRuStY	63 - 60	+3	81.0	69.0%	1.12
Hugo 'HugoXD' HallgrenHugoXD	45 - 54	-9	70.2	73.8%	1.00
Benjamin 'BENDJI' SöderenaBENDJI	44 - 51	-7	62.6	69.0%	0.93
Saif 'Sayf' JibraeelSayf	49 - 63	-14	65.0	67.9%	0.84

The following teams are now in the European Closed qualifier for IEM Katowice 2018:

North	Natus Vincere
Gambit	MOUZ
fnatic	HellRaisers
Envy	BIG
HEROIC	Singularity
Qualifier #2	Qualifier #2

Eight teams for the $500,000 tournament that will take place at the end of February are already known, while the rest will be decided through European, North American and Oceaniac qualifiers:

FaZe	SK
Astralis	G2
Cloud9	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Virtus.pro	TYLOO