At the end of last week, the group stage at the IEM Katowice Championships came to an end. The playoffs, which will feature the remaining six teams, will take place at the end of the week. The final round of the tournament will begin on Friday with a match between Natus Vincere and Gambit. The last time these teams played against each other was four months ago, in the quarterfinals of IEM New York. The winner of this match will play against Spirit, who has never had to play against CIS teams in the previous matches of the tournament.
Later in the day, Astralis and Virtus.pro, who have not played against each other since the StarLadder Major Final in Berlin in 2019, when the CIS squad was still playing under the AVANGAR tag, will face off. The winner of this match will face off against Liquid. Interestingly, the latter have not defeated the Danish team for a long time: perhaps if Liquid make it to the semifinals, they will have a chance to break the series of defeats by Astralis, which at this point has already nine matches.
Thus, the two quarterfinal matches will take place on Friday, February 26. Their winners will play in the semifinals against Spirit and Liquid, who were higher in the tournament grid thanks to better performance in the groups. Finally, the grand final, which will determine the final winner of the tournament, will be held on Sunday, February 28.