ESL revealed the bracket for the play-in stage of IEM Katowice 2021. Sixteen players will compete in a double-elimination bracket, with the top four players advancing to the main event. This is similar to the 'open bracket' stage of previous IEM tournaments, but with just a single bracket being played instead of four.
The main event will be held in the familiar IEM Katowice format, starting with a 24-player group stage (four groups of six players), followed by a 12-player single-elimination bracket.
IEM Katowice will be held from February 20th to February 28th, with $250,000 in total prize money on the line. Due to ongoing complications from the global pandemic, the competition will be held entirely online (more info here).
While the bracket isn't exactly stacked, it's definitely super competitive. Byun feels like the only person that's almost certain to advance. Hurricane, Elazer, sOs, Armani, Bunny, Elazer, DRG, Ragnarok, and Dream all seem like real contenders for the last three spots, but Uthermal or Scarlett could also make it if they have great days.
This is a great bracket for Scarlett. I hope she advances to the Ro24.
I was anxious about the possibility of a bracket from hell, like the ones from 2018 that paired Scarlett against Serral multiple WCS seasons in a row. I'm glad those fears were unfounded. It's great seeing ESL giving much thought and love to their tournament set up.
On February 04 2021 08:11 ShowTheLights wrote: bottom half has DRG Dream Byun vs the top is a joke
also we wait all fucking year for Foreigner vs Korean and we get a bunch of FvF and KvK... classic
just make an ESL rule that this cannot happen in the first round
There are 6 Foreigner vs Korean matches in the first round. Unless you just want to see Foreigners get smashed this is about as good as you're gonna get.
On February 04 2021 10:08 Darkhorse wrote: Oh also I think Bunny stands a good chance of coming through the top half. Which is awesome I really enjoyed him at DH and the last Super Tournament
Based on his performances there, I'm expecting him to crush everyone in the Ro36 and then bomb out in the tournament proper.
On February 04 2021 08:11 ShowTheLights wrote: bottom half has DRG Dream Byun vs the top is a joke
also we wait all fucking year for Foreigner vs Korean and we get a bunch of FvF and KvK... classic
just make an ESL rule that this cannot happen in the first round
The bracket is simply set by the standing points AFAIK. Top 4 get guaranteed bottom 4 and are split to the edges and so on. There is a bit of randomness cause it's not 1v16, 2v15
Does anyone know, if the winner and loser brackets are consistent, so that the upper 8 and lower 8 players will never meet each other? Or is it mixed up?
On February 05 2021 17:12 gogOri wrote: Does anyone know, if the winner and loser brackets are consistent, so that the upper 8 and lower 8 players will never meet each other? Or is it mixed up?
They're mixed.
Specifically, the mixing occurs at Loser's round 2 and Loser's round 4, where the loser from the winner's bracket drops down to the opposite half in the loser's bracket. No mixing occurs in Loser's round 1.
On February 06 2021 08:25 ThunderJunk wrote: Dream / Byun will be a really tight series. Dream is on the upswing.
sOs vs Probe is interesting. If Probe beats sOs, that's a HUGE result for him.
Haven't seen much of Hurricane recently. But I think he's one of the most dangerous consistent mid-tier Koreans.
I'm guessing the players to advance to the Ro24 will be Ragnarok, Dream, Byun, and La Cucaracha.
If Probe wins vs sOs, I'll be very happy for the OCE region but given the recent match history, I don't see it. Esp he might have to see ByuN down the road, and depends of who he encounters in the losers bracket if he gets down there.
I would like to watch all Ro36 matches without spoilers, from VODs if necessary.
There seem to be two simultaneous A and B streams. In previous tournaments with a similar setup, casters of one stream often spoilt the results of the other stream while casting a match.
So I have a request to the casters of IEM Katowice: While casting a match, can you not talk about results of matches of the other stream from the same day?
Talking about any results from previous days is fine of course. I can also skip the analysis parts between matches. I hope this request is reasonable and I did not miss anything obvious.
Bunny tvz looked amazing, I think he'll get through Elazer / Armani then Ragnarok or Scarlett. The toughest is probably Elazer first round. very sad for the bottom half, I don't think sOs can make it even tho he's looking pretty strong too in his stream lately.
On February 16 2021 19:24 Crocolisk Dundee wrote: I would like to watch all Ro36 matches without spoilers, from VODs if necessary.
There seem to be two simultaneous A and B streams. In previous tournaments with a similar setup, casters of one stream often spoilt the results of the other stream while casting a match.
So I have a request to the casters of IEM Katowice: While casting a match, can you not talk about results of matches of the other stream from the same day?
Talking about any results from previous days is fine of course. I can also skip the analysis parts between matches. I hope this request is reasonable and I did not miss anything obvious.
I love beening up to date and often times even watch multiple streams at the same time. I also like the analysis to show who can still make it out of the group and who is allready out.
So I have a request to the casters of IEM Katowice: While casting a match, can you talk about results of matches of the other stream from the same day?
On February 17 2021 21:03 Harris1st wrote: The solution for both of you would probably be to watch the vods alternating. One game stream A, then a game stream B and so forth
It tried this in the past, but then the casters of a match in stream A would say something like “Oh, wow. Did you see the result from stream B coming in right now?”
I don’t think it can be helped. I’ll probably just watch one livestream and accept it when results from other livestreams are spoilt by the casters.
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/Katowice2021/ro36playin.png)
