The ポルノ映画 魔性のDanes edged out a close series against OG, whilst Virtus.pro took advantage of two slow starts by Copenhagen Flames.

The IEM Katowice group stage kicked off with two entertaining series, with HEROIC taking down OG 2-1 in an intense battle and Virtus.pro putting Copenhagen Flames to bed 2-0.

OG made a few too many small mistakes to get over the line in their series, and HEROIC were ruthless in exposing them, particularly on the final map of Inferno. As for Copenhagen Flames, they had two shocking first halves in their series, a stark departure from their performance in the Play-in, where they overran the opposition.

stavn was the star of the show for Heroic

The A stream hosted the anticipated matchup between OG and HEROIC, an international squad on a hot streak with their new IGL and a Danish roster seeking to improve on the stagnation that they ended 2021 with.

The first map of the series was the OG pick of Ancient, and they started terribly on the favoured CT side of their own map; HEROIC were incredibly successful in finding opening kills, and OG were struggling individually, falling to a 1-9 deficit. It was at this point that Nikolaj "?niko?" Kristensen and Shahar "?flameZ?" Shushan came to life, picking up a series of multi-kills and impact frags each to drag their team to a 6-9 half.

Moving into second half OG were clearly warmed up, and flipped the script by winning seven of the first eight to put themselves on 13 and in the driver's seat to take the map. HEROIC then managed to put some rounds together, largely off the back of key kills from Martin "?stavn?" Lund, to get themselves up to 14-13; once again niko and flameZ decided to put their teammates on their backs, picking up key frags to grab the last few rounds and secure a narrow 16-14 win.

Overpass started as well as Ancient had ended for OG, and they ran up a 6-2 lead early with some bold plays on the defence, often heavily stacking B and getting the better of early duels there; Valdemar "?valde?" Bj?rn Vangs? in particular started hot.

valde was a consistent presence throughout the series

Once the early duels started to shift in HEROIC's favour the defence became more passive, and HEROIC took advantage of the extra space and started finding more success. Ismail "?refrezh?" Ali and stavn were monsters for the Danish squad, granting their team a slim 8-7 half win.

HEROIC continued their strong run into the second half, getting themselves all the way to 15-9 before OG really mounted a serious offence; by then it was too late, the Danes closing out the map 16-12 and taking the series to the decider.

The intense battle of this series continued onto Inferno, with HEROIC opening this one on the front foot; they bagged themselves an 8-2 lead on their T half off the back of a pistol win. OG managed to find some fight, largely due to some high impact frags from Mateusz "?mantuu?" Wilczewski, picking up four of the next five to earn a 6-9 score going into the second period.

OG won an all-important T pistol and converted to a 10-9 lead before the Danes came online, and come online they did; Casper "?cadiaN?" M?ller did a great job reading the OG attack, and it seemed HEROIC had all the right setups to counter OG. The international squad did manage to find a few more rounds towards the end of the half, but it wasn't enough as HEROIC secured a 16-13 victory on the map and a 2-1 victory in the series.

That result sends OG down to the lower bracket where they await the loser of the series between MOUZ and Vitality; OG will play that elimination game on Friday at 16:00 . HEROIC will move on to play the winner of the aforementioned series, with that game also taking place on Friday at 16:00 .

The B stream was host to Copenhagen Flames taking on Virtus.pro, with both teams looking to capitalise on strong recent runs of form, Flames at the play-in and VP during the recent ESL Challenger event.

YEKINDAR picked up an impressive three aces against Copenhagen Flames

The series opened on the Danes' pick of Vertigo and they were made to immediately regret their pick as they started woefully on their T side, struggling to get anything going and falling 3-12 to a Mareks "?YEKINDAR?" Ga?inskis inspired defence from the CIS squad.

The second half was better, with Flames bouncing back after a pistol loss to run the score back to 13-8 to make the map competitive, but unfortunately they had left themselves simply too much to do, and eventually Virtus.pro put together a few T rounds to take the first map relatively comfortably, 16-9.

Next up was the Virtus.pro pick of Inferno, and once again Copenhagen Flames completely hamstrung themselves with a terrible first half, this time on their CT side. Virtus.pro were slick and coordinated in their attack, with Evgenii "?FL1T?" Lebedev being a constant menace with his aggressive lurks, and Flames struggled to read their counterparts; this earned Virtus.pro an 11-4 score at the half.

Realistically the Danes again had too much to do in the second half but they were again much improved, with Rasmus "?HooXi?" Nielsen stepping up and contributing after a particularly poor CT side individually, providing more support to the stellar performances of Nico "?nicoodoz?" Tamjidi and Rasmus "?Zyphon?" Nordfoss. This time they managed to make it ten rounds before the VP defence came online, the CIS squad closing out the game 16-10 and the series 2-0 to send their Danish opposition down to the lower bracket.

Copenhagen Flames play the loser of the Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Gambit series on Friday at 19:30 , with Virtus.pro awaiting the winner of that series for an upper bracket game at the same time, same day.

IEM Katowice 2022Best of 3 HEROICMatchpage 2 1 17th February 2022 OG 14Ancient 16 16Overpass 12 16Inferno 13

?HEROIC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Martin 'stavn' Lundstavn	77 - 51	+26	98.8	1.43
Ismail 'refrezh' Alirefrezh	61 - 60	+1	78.1	1.11
Rasmus 'sjuush' Becksjuush	59 - 59	0	78.9	1.09
Casper 'cadiaN' M?llercadiaN	43 - 51	-8	55.5	0.94
René 'TeSeS' MadsenTeSeS	38 - 58	-20	48.2	0.77

?OG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanflameZ	68 - 60	+8	93.1	1.21
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensenniko	59 - 59	0	79.7	1.08
Valdemar 'valde' Bj?rn Vangs?valde	57 - 55	+2	71.8	1.06
Mateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewskimantuu	48 - 51	-3	60.3	1.00
Nemanja 'nexa' Isakovi?nexa	45 - 55	-10	57.7	0.84

IEM Katowice 2022Best of 3 Virtus.proMatchpage 2 0 17th February 2022 Copenhagen Flames 16Vertigo 9 16Inferno 10

?Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Timur 'buster' Tulepovbuster	42 - 30	+12	82.3	1.28
Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevFL1T	35 - 27	+8	80.4	1.25
Dzhami 'Jame' AliJame	38 - 24	+14	62.1	1.25
Alexey 'Qikert' GolubevQikert	38 - 29	+9	73.9	1.15
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Ga?inskisYEKINDAR	35 - 38	-3	86.4	1.14

?Copenhagen Flames	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidinicoodoz	36 - 34	+2	75.6	1.08
Rasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossZyphon	38 - 38	0	76.6	1.02
Fredrik 'roeJ' J?rgensenroeJ	32 - 41	-9	83.8	0.99
Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaardjabbi	25 - 39	-14	55.5	0.73
Rasmus 'HooXi' NielsenHooXi	15 - 38	-23	52.0	0.60

Ninjas in Pyjamas #6 Patrick 'es3tag' HansenFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez ZamoraLove 'phzy' Smidebrant Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi Age: 21 Team: Copenhagen Flames Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 621 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.62 Virtus.pro #4 Timur 'buster' TulepovEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliMareks 'YEKINDAR' Ga?inskis Mateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski Age: 24 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 662 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.62 Valdemar 'valde' Bj?rn Vangs? Age: 26 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1210 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65 Vitality #3 Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier MOUZ #33 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittChristopher 'dexter' NongDavid 'frozen' ?erňanskyádám 'torzsi' TorzsásAurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen Age: 26 Team: Copenhagen Flames Rating 1.0: 0.87 Maps played: 712 KPR: 0.59 DPR: 0.69 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone OG #11 Valdemar 'valde' Bj?rn Vangs?Nemanja 'nexa' Isakovi?Nikolaj 'niko' KristensenMateusz 'mantuu' WilczewskiShahar 'flameZ' Shushan Ismail 'refrezh' Ali Age: 23 Team: HEROIC Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 916 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.65 Martin 'stavn' Lund Age: 19 Team: HEROIC Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1051 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.68 HEROIC #8 Casper 'cadiaN' M?llerIsmail 'refrezh' AliMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' Beck Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan Age: 18 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 350 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67 Gambit #2 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen Age: 23 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1193 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.66 Rasmus 'Zyphon' Nordfoss Age: 18 Team: Copenhagen Flames Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 329 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Ga?inskis Age: 22 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1048 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.70 Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev Age: 21 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1184 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 Casper 'cadiaN' M?ller Age: 26 Team: HEROIC Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1406 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.63 Copenhagen Flames #18 Rasmus 'HooXi' NielsenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' J?rgensenJakob 'jabbi' NygaardRasmus 'Zyphon' Nordfoss