Currently, the 2023 IEM timetable already has eight CS:GO teams that have qualified for the main tournament; the rest of the teams will try to qualify for the main event in the play-ins, which are scheduled to be held on February 1st.

Below is the schedule for the 16 CS:GO teams that will compete against each other in the play-ins:

Counter-Strikes 2023 IEM Katowice Teams

Team SpiritGrayhound Gaming
�� Simon “Sico” Williams
�� Joshua “INS” Potter (IGL)
�� Alistair “aliStair” Johnston
�� Jay “Liazz” Tregillgas
�� Declan “Vexite” Portelli
�� David “Kingfisher” Kingsford (Coach)

MIBR
�� Raphael “exit” Lacerda (IGL)
�� Matheus “Tuurtle” Anhaia
�� Breno “brnz4n” Poletto
�� Henrique “HEN1″ Teles
�� Felipe ” insani” Yuji
�� Bruno “BIT” Lima (Coach)

Ninjas in Pyjamas
�� Fredrik “REZ” Sterner
�� Hampus “hampus” Poser
�� Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
�� Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen (IGL)
�� Danyyl “headtr1ck” Valitov
�� Daniel “djL” Narancic (Coach)

IHC Esports
�� Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren (IGL)
�� Sodbayar “Techno4K” Munkhbold
�� Baatarkhuu “Bart4k” Batbold
�� Bat-Enkh “kabal” Batbayar
�� Tengis “sk0R” Batjargal
�� Tuvshintugs “ANNIHILATION” Nyamdorj
�� Erdenedalai “maaRaa” Bayanbat (Coach)

Cloud9
�� Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov (IGL)
�� Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov
�� Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov
�� Abai “HObbit” Hasenov
�� Timur “buster” Tulepov
�� Konstantin “groove” Pikiner (Coach)

BIG
�� Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz (IGL)
�� Florian “syrsoN” Rische
�� Josef “faveN” Baumann
�� Karim “Krimbo” Moussa
�� Nils “k1to” Gruhne
�� Fatih “gob b” Dayik (Coach)

Complexity Gaming
�� Ioannis ‘Johnny’ “JT” Theodosiou (IGL)
�� Justin “FaNg” Coakley
�� Ricky “floppy” Kemery
�� Michael “Grim” Wince
�� H?kon “hallzerk” Fj?rli
�� Tiaan “T.c” Coertzen (Coach)

FURIA Esports
�� Yuri “yuurih” Boian
�� Andrei “arT” Piovezan (IGL)
�� Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato
�� Andr�� “drop” Abreu
�� Rafael “saffee” Costa
�� Nicholas “guerri” Nogueira (Coach)

Permitta Esports
�� Patryk “OLIMP” Wo?niak
�� Rafa? “sNx” Snopek
�� Dawid “Layner” Falczy��ski
�� Rafa? “iso” Tync
�� Mariusz “casey” Jarz?b

Fnatic
�� William “mezii” Merriman (IGL)
�� Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson
�� Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi
�� Fredrik “roeJ” J?rgensen
�� Dion “FASHR” Derksen
�� Jamie “keita” Hall (Strategic Coach)

Evil Geniuses
�� Sanzhar “neaLaN” Iskhakov (IGL)
�� Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte
�� Timothy “autimatic” Ta
�� Jadan “HexT” Postma
�� Jerric “wiz” Jiang
�� Daniel “Vorborg” Vorborg (Coach)

SPROUT
�� Ismail “refrezh” Ali (IGL)
�� Victor “Staehr” Staehr
�� Lauren?iu “lauNX” ?arlea
�� Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss
�� Adrian “XELLOW” Gu??
�� Danny “BERRY” Kr��ger (Coach)

OG
�� Shahar “flameZ” Shushan
�� Nemanja “nexa” Isakovi? (IGL)
�� Maciej “F1KU” Miklas
�� Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar
�� Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov
�� Casper “ruggah” Due (Coach)

ENCE
�� Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer (IGL)
�� Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia
�� Pawe? “dycha” Dycha
�� Pavle “maden” Bo?kovi?
�� Valdemar “valde” Vangs?
�� Eetu “sAw” Saha (Coach)

paiN Gaming
�� Vin��cios “PKL” Coelho (IGL)
�� Romeu “zevy” Rocco
�� Felipe “skullz” Medeiros
�� Wesley “hardzao” Lopes
�� Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt
�� Henrique “rikz” Waku (Coach)

2023 IEM Katowice Opening Fixtures

The following are the opening fixtures for the 2023 IEM Katowice Play-Ins:

�� Team Spirit vs. Grayhound Gaming
�� Win Odds $1.16 | $4.96 odds (GG.BET)

�� MIBR vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
�� Win Odds $2.79 | $1.42 (GG.BET)

�� IHC vs. Cloud9
�� Win Odds $1.08 | $6.94 (GG.BET)

�� BIG vs. Complexity
�� Win Odds $1.68 | $2.13 (GG.BET)

�� FURIA vs. Permitta
�� Win Odds $1.1 | $6.21 (GG.BET)

�� Fnatic vs. Evil Geniuses
�� Win Odds $1.3 | $3.4 (GG.BET)

�� Sprout vs. OG
�� Win Odds $2.32 | $1.58 (GG.BET)

�� ENCE vs. paiN Gaming
�� Win Odds $1.3 | $3.4 (GG.BET)

Three of the eight direct invites were already confirmed, as FaZe Clan won IEM Cologne, Team Vitality won ESL Pro League Season 16, and Outsiders won the IEM Rio Major in 2022.

As well as those three direct invites, there were two confirmed play-in invitations going to Fnatic, who won the Elisa Masters Espoo, and Permitta, who won the ESL Polish Championship Autumn.

The other five direct invites to IEM Katowice have come as no surprise to many, with Heroic, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere, MOUZ and G2 Esports all earning their spot due to consistent performances throughout 2022.

As for the other 14 play-in invitations, six spots were given out to teams based on their overall world rankings, and the final eight were handed to teams based on their region-specific ranking, with three going to European teams, two to North American teams, and one each to South American, Asian and Oceanic organisations.

One big name that is missing from either of the invitation lists is that of two-time IEM Katowice champions Astralis, who had to win either CCT Central Europe Series 4 or Elisa Masters Espoo at the back end of the year to stay in contention.

FaZe Clan have opened as the early favourite at +400 with esports betting sites.

The direct invites for IEM Katowice are as follows:

The invites for the play-in are as follows:

HERE ARE YOUR 24 TEAMS INVITED TO #IEM KATOWICE 2023!

:https://t.co/oDPQT4mZCW pic.twitter.com/T8Skso5nLA

— Intel? Extreme Masters (@IEM) December 19, 2022

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Outsiders played the first quarter-final of the Champions Stage in Rio de Janeiro, where they took down Fnatic in quick 2-0 fashion, to roll on into the semi-finals.

The majority-Russian team took Fnatic��s map pick,16-11, after they shot out to a quick 10-5 lead at half-time.

Outsiders were given a bit more of contest in the second half of map one by Fnatic, but ultimately the first half lead was too great for Fnatic to threaten the world no.6.

The second map, Mirage, turned out to be much of the same as the first map, with Outsiders taking a 9-6 first half lead, however, they then put the foot down in the second half to run out 16-8 winners and punched their ticket into the semi-final.

Outsiders were lead by their rifler, Evgenii ��FL1T�� Lebedev, who amassed the server-high rating of 1.41 out of 2, recording 43 kills and 29 deaths in their swift 2-0 victory.

In a post-match interview the Outsiders in-game leader, Dzhami ��Jame�� Ali, spoke about how tough it was to beat Fnatic.

��You couldn��t see this because of the score, but playing versus Fnatic was hard.��

Jame explained post-match that even though the scoreboard looked like it was an easy win to Outsiders, there was nothing easy about it for his team.

Outsiders next opponent in the semi-finals will be MOUZ, who upset the online bookmakers favourite, Cloud9, in a thrilling three-map series.

Cloud9 came out looking the goods in the first map, Inferno, by running away with a 16-11 win on MOUZ��s map pick to start the series.

Many people were thinking that this could be another swift 2-0 victory to the favourites.

However, MOUZ started the second map, Overpass, with a renewed fire in their belly as they rattled off six consecutive round in a row on their Counter-terrorist side, to shoot out to a 6-0 lead early.

At the half-time break, Cloud9 had rallied back slightly to go into the break down 5-10, but MOUZ once again started the second half strong, winning the first four rounds to go up 14-5 and looked as though we were destined for a third map in a matter of minutes.

Cloud9 did get themselves back into the second map but ultimately they couldn��t overturn the nine round deficit and MOUZ took the second map 16-13, sending the series to a third and final map on Ancient.

MOUZ had the momentum, the crowd and the luck on their side as they destroyed Cloud9 on Ancient, running out 16-8 winners in the final map to book a date with Outsiders in the semi-finals and send the world no.5 home from IEM Rio.

This MOUZ roster is the first roster to make the semi-finals of any Major in their organisation’s history, with their superstar rifler, David ��frozen�� Cernansky, leading his young team to another upset at the IEM Rio Major with massive 1.40 plus ratings in their two map wins.

Outsiders and MOUZ will face each other in the first semi-final on Saturday at 14:00pm BRT, where Outsiders are -175.44 favourites with BetOnline to take out the best-of-three series.

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The first quarter-final for the IEM Rio Major will feature Outsiders, ranked no.6 in the world, and Fnatic, ranked no.16 in the world. These two met most recently in the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage, where Outsiders took the series 2-0 (16-1, 16-14).

Outsiders were the third team to qualify for the Champions Stage behind Cloud9 and FURIA. Outsiders lost their first match to Heroic (9-16), before going on to win their next two matches over Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-12) and Team Spirit (16-14). After finishing the first three rounds of the Swiss Stage with a 2-1 record, they were then matched up with another team who has the exact same record and that was MOUZ. However, MOUZ were no match for the majority-Russian team, as they went onto to win 16-10 on both maps to take the series 2-0. The in-game leader Dzhami ��Jame�� Ali has really stepped up his game at the Major, recording the fourth-best rating of any player at the event (1.30).

Fnatic were the very last team to qualify for the Legends Stage of the IEM Rio Major after beating 9z in the last series of the Challengers Stage. Nevertheless, the boys from Fnatic obviously didn��t see that as a problem as they came out in their first match of the Legends Stage and beat one of the tournament fancies, Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-13). Fnatic ran into Heroic in their second match, just like their opponents for this series, and they were convincingly beaten (2-16). Fnatic were then matched up with ENCE in their final best-of-one series and they breezed past them (16-7). Their fourth and final series of the Legends Stage came against BIG and they turned out to be no match for Fnatic as they took the series 2-0 (16-14, 16-7).

Both of these teams are in great form at the moment and even though Outsiders smashed Fnatic at their most recent clash, we think Fnatic will have taken a lot from that loss and we will see a much closer series on Thursday.

The second quarter-final of the day will be between the bookmakers’ favourite to take out the IEM Rio Major, Cloud9, and MOUZ, who are currently ranked no.7 in the world.

MOUZ were one of the first two teams to qualify for the Legends Stage, with a 3-0 record from their first three series in the Challengers Stage. They were dominant in their first two series of the Challengers Stage, defeating Outsiders (16-6) and Evil Geniuses (16-10), before going on to beat Fnatic in their third series 2-1. MOUZ have had a chequered passage through the Legends Stage, winning their first series over Liquid (16-2), then losing to BIG (7-16). However, they then went onto beat the no.2 team in the world, Vitality, 19-17 in overtime in a very tight contest. They lost their first best-of-three series to Outsiders 0-2, but they then qualified for the Champions Stage by defeating ENCE (2-1). MOUZ would have to be one of the most inconsistent teams to make the Champions Stage, which makes this series against Cloud9 more interesting than it probably should be.

Cloud9 only just qualified for the Challengers Stage after finishing fifth in their RMR and they continued that average form going into their first two matches to start the Challengers Stage, losing to Grayhound (17-19) and Fnatic (17-19). However, those two losses must have woken up the sleeping giant, world number five, as they went onto win three straight series, winning 2-0 over Imperial, Evil Geniuses and GamerLegion. Cloud9 then went onto win another three straight series, making it six in a row now, defeating the world no.1 and no.4 in the Legends Stage, FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere, before defeating Heroic 2-0 to qualify for the Champions Stage. Cloud9 are the most in-form team at IEM Rio and it makes them very tough to bet against, especially as they are now the bookies favourite to take out the Major at +275.

Cloud9 should be winning this series over a very inconsistent MOUZ and we expect to see the moneyline favourites to take the series 2-0.

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