The first day of group play at IEM Katowice saw #1 overall seed TY qualify for playoffs as the 1st place player from group A, trailed by two more Terrans in Maru and Clem. The race for 1st place—and the invaluable quarterfinal seed it confers—ended up being very competitive, with a three-way tie seeming likely as the final series of games neared its end. However, Clem's 1-2 defeat at the hands of an already eliminated Solar determined the standings without any need for coinflips or tiebreakers.
Despite not qualifying, the KaiZi Gaming Zerg was the most compelling player of the group. Starting the group off 1-1 with a loss to TY and victory against ShoWTimE, Solar headed into a pivotal match against Maru in the third round of games. After a grueling 40 minute battle against Maru, it seemed as if Solar would finally crack open the Terran defenses with Brood Lords and take a 1-0 lead. But in an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime maneuver, Maru managed to land a desperation nuke directly on top of Solar's Brood Lords, turning a certain loss into a victory. Solar looked visibly shaken on stream, and the ruthless Maru followed up with a proxy-barracks into fast stim strategy in game two to seal the series.
It wouldn't have surprised anyone if Solar had become completely broken by that defeat and lost his remaining games to end his IEM Katowice run. However, Solar showed remarkable composure and poise to gather himself in time for his next series with ByuN, where he calmly collected a 2-0 victory in macro games. While Solar's elimination was already confirmed by the time of his final match against Clem, he gave it his all until the very end to take a 2-1 victory over the French Terran and decide the final group standings.
IEM Katowice continues on Monday, Feb 22 2:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) with Group B of the RO24, featuring Serral, INnoVation, SpeCial, Dark, TIME, and Bunny.
Sad for Solar. He's such a strong player but never quite gets the results it seems like he should. Probably could have advanced in any other group--even having ByuN or ShoWTimE perform better might have done it.
Sad for Byun. Felt like a lot of uncharistic mistakes from him. Maybe because he also played the days before? Also sad for Showtime not winning a series
Really interesting day, am i right or is the nuke at the end really the thing that keeps rogue from advancing? That makes it even more dramatic. But i think Maru, TY and Clem are the best terrans left, so it is fine that they adavnced.
On February 23 2021 11:40 RKC wrote: So who was the best TvT performer? Seeing that TY, Clem and Maru all took games off each other in circular fashion.
well Maru lost a game to Byun so he can't be it, Clem and TY both 2-0'd Byun
On February 23 2021 11:40 RKC wrote: So who was the best TvT performer? Seeing that TY, Clem and Maru all took games off each other in circular fashion.
well Maru lost a game to Byun so he can't be it, Clem and TY both 2-0'd Byun
? And ByuN lost to Clem, and Clem lost to Maru, and Maru lost to TY. Each one of them lost to each other. For me, it's either TY or Maru. Both of them seem just that bit better than the rest, which is why they are 1st and 2nd.
On February 23 2021 11:40 RKC wrote: So who was the best TvT performer? Seeing that TY, Clem and Maru all took games off each other in circular fashion.
well Maru lost a game to Byun so he can't be it, Clem and TY both 2-0'd Byun
? And ByuN lost to Clem, and Clem lost to Maru, and Maru lost to TY. Each one of them lost to each other. For me, it's either TY or Maru. Both of them seem just that bit better than the rest, which is why they are 1st and 2nd.
His point was that Maru lost to TY And lost a game to ByuN so the best tvt plays of group A can't be Maru. so Clem and TY remains, and well, clem stomped TY so if we had to pick only one, that would be clem
Ofc it does not mean anything I'm glad those 3 came out of group A
I watched the vod of the group A games on the ESL twitch channel and I loved the soundtrack. Can anyone tell me if there is a way to know the song names? I especially would like to know the name of the song which starts at 06:04:45 on this twitch vod https://www.twitch.tv/videos/924117600 I'm sorry I know it has nothing to do with the games but I have no idea where to ask. I tried to find but to no avail. The IEM playlist I found on spotify does not include this song.
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/Katowice2021/katowicero24groups2.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/Katowice2021/groupagames.png)
I'm glad those 3 came out of group A
