IEM has announced the brackets for the round-of-76 (the "open qualifier") of IEM Katowice, which is set to take place during February 24th-25th. Twelve players from the Ro76 will join twelve seeded players in the Ro24 of the tournament.
IEM Katowice is the first major event of the new ESL Pro Tour, the successor to Blizzard's World Championship Series system. IEM Katowice features a total prize pool of $400,000, with the champion winning $150,000 and a seed at the Masters Finals (equivalent to the old WCS Global Finals).
Qualifier 1: sOs, Heromarine and Denver/Showtime Pretty obvious unless Mana pulls a miracle run.
Qualifier 2: Neeb, Innovation and Time Time/Neeb/Innovation have an easy bracket, Time has almost no competition in the top bracket (unless Impact shows up big), and the only player that should pose a threat to Neeb/Innovation is each other, so one of them wins their part of the bracket and the other one wins the lower bracket
Qualifier 3: Special/Clem, Taeja and soO this bracket is more yikes, with better *mediocre* players and not really top tier 'obvious would advance' players. Top bracket is between soO and Taeja in my opinion. Special should take the bottom bracket, maybe Clem can one up him but I doubt it.
Qualifier 4: Trap, Ragnarok and Dear Trap has an easy top bracket and the bottom bracket is probably decided between Dear and Ragnarok. the loser takes the win in the loser bracket.
On January 30 2020 08:50 AzAlexZ wrote: My Predictions for the Offline Qualifiers:
Qualifier 1: sOs, Heromarine and Denver/Showtime Pretty obvious unless Mana pulls a miracle run.
Qualifier 2: Neeb, Innovation and Time Time/Neeb/Innovation have an easy bracket, Time has almost no competition in the top bracket (unless Impact shows up big), and the only player that should pose a threat to Neeb/Innovation is each other, so one of them wins their part of the bracket and the other one wins the lower bracket
Qualifier 3: Special/Clem, Taeja and soO this bracket is more yikes, with better *mediocre* players and not really top tier 'obvious would advance' players. Top bracket is between soO and Taeja in my opinion. Special should take the bottom bracket, maybe Clem can one up him but I doubt it.
Qualifier 4: Trap, Ragnarok and Dear Trap has an easy top bracket and the bottom bracket is probably decided between Dear and Ragnarok. the loser takes the win in the loser bracket.
I wouldn't sleep on Scarlett in the fourth bracket(uThermal is in great shape, too).
On January 30 2020 08:50 AzAlexZ wrote: My Predictions for the Offline Qualifiers:
Qualifier 1: sOs, Heromarine and Denver/Showtime Pretty obvious unless Mana pulls a miracle run.
Qualifier 2: Neeb, Innovation and Time Time/Neeb/Innovation have an easy bracket, Time has almost no competition in the top bracket (unless Impact shows up big), and the only player that should pose a threat to Neeb/Innovation is each other, so one of them wins their part of the bracket and the other one wins the lower bracket
Qualifier 3: Special/Clem, Taeja and soO this bracket is more yikes, with better *mediocre* players and not really top tier 'obvious would advance' players. Top bracket is between soO and Taeja in my opinion. Special should take the bottom bracket, maybe Clem can one up him but I doubt it.
Qualifier 4: Trap, Ragnarok and Dear Trap has an easy top bracket and the bottom bracket is probably decided between Dear and Ragnarok. the loser takes the win in the loser bracket.
I think taeja probably got defeated by bunny and dns and drogo can take him down in the loser bracket
TaeJa vs Bunny in the first round, that is probably a Bunny win. Aligulac says that they have about equal terran score. They are within eachother's confidence intervals. No matter who wins, they'll lose to soO in the end.