IEM Katowice day 3 recap

IEM Katowice's 2020 edition has brought us many spectacular games in the group stage so far, and the third day of the event also didn't disappoint. Here's what went down in Poland on Wednesday.

Though VP made it close, MAD Lions' excellent T side on the Dust 2 decider ensured a vintage victory for the Danish side, making the Berlin Major finalists slide into further irrelevance.

100Thieves comfortably dispatched TYLOO in two (16-9 Inferno, 16-10 Vertigo) to set up a barnburner with EG for their tournament survival.

The Ninjas couldn't put up any serious resistance against s1mple and co., only getting 13 rounds across the two maps played. 2019's #2 player had a stellar performance in the series, especially on the opening map, finishing with a +26 K-D and a 1.56 HLTV 2.0 rating. None of NiP's players even finished in the green.

Though G2 were the victim of a massive T side comeback on their own map pick of Dust 2, they held firm even after losing five out of six rounds on the CT side of Inferno to completely turn the series around, eventually winning 16-6 on mouz's map choice before scoring a decisive 16-7 win on Nuke with an impressive 9 rounds on their T half.

FaZe Clan continued their resurgence with a win over Team ZywOo, also known as Team Vitality. Though the Frenchmen managed to take their opponents' map pick by the smallest of margins, winning Mirage 16-14, FaZe managed to turn the series around on Nuke and Inferno. Notably, broky way the top-fragger of the international side, going +20 across the three maps. ZywOo finished +25 on the other side, but with ALEX's -2 K-D making him the second best player on Vitality, his heroics weren't quite enough in the end. With this, FaZe are set for a rematch with Na'Vi for a playoff spot.

The North American derby had many twists and turns with a strong 6-0 T-side start by Liquid on Overpass countered by a firm defense by EG to claw back six of their own seemed to suggest a balanced second half. Instead, nitr0 and co. ran away with the map, only dropping a single round en route to t a 16-7 win on their own map pick. EG managed to strike back on Nuke in overtime after a grueling comeback, with both sides posting 11 CT sides in regulation. However, Liquid's strong T half on Inferno put them in the driver's seat, and the final 16-10 scoreline was a fair reflection of the series as a whole.

Photo credit: HLTV

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