One of the favorites to win IEM Katowice has been sent home earlier than expected. 100 Thieves beat Evil Geniuses 2-1 today in IEM Katowice’s Group B lower bracket semifinal.
The Australian CS:GO squad reverse swept EG to stay alive in the tournament. 100 Thieves will have to win one more best-of-three series to qualify for the quarterfinals, this time against another favorite, mousesports.
Although EG won the first map, they actually lost the first half 10-5 and got back into the game due to an incredible effort on their T-side, winning the first seven rounds. EG’s captain, stanislaw, was the top fragger with 24 kills and a 1.44 rating, which helped his team win 16-12.
Nuke was equally balanced on the scoreboard, but 100 Thieves dominated the first half and won it 12-3, shutting down all of EG’s T-side strategies. With that much of a lead, 100 Thieves slowly closed out the map 16-12. This time, it was 100 Thieves’ captain, AZR, who top fragged with 27 kills.
On Dust II, EG kept going for the double AWP setup on their CT-side, which damaged their economy because the risk didn’t pay off. 100 Thieves mostly abused A bombsite executions, making CeRq’s life difficult since EG didn’t throw counter-attack grenades in most of the rounds. Jkaem led the charge for 100 Thieves with 23 kills in another 16-12 victory.
After winning two big tournaments in 2019 and even becoming the best CS:GO team in the world for a short time, fans and the community, in general, expect bigger things from EG in 2020. An early elimination at IEM Katowice, one of the biggest tournaments of the year, certainly wasn’t something the players were anticipating.
100 Thieves will play the decider match against mousesports at 12pm CT. You can keep track of the IEM Katowice results here.
