AGO, MAD Lions finalize IEM Katowice Europe closed qualifier list

With the second open qualifier reaching its conclusion, the eight IEM Katowice Europe closed qualifier teams have been decided.

After the four invited teams — including FaZe, G2, and ENCE —, were revealed earlier this week and joined the first open qualifier teams ARCY and HEROIC, the second and final open qualifier for IEM Katowice took place.

MAD Lions earned a spot in the closed qualifier by beating North

The most notable names to make it into the top16 were North, MAD Lions, and OG. Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt's team beat SKADE in round-of-16, but were denied a chance to compete in Poland by AGO, who took them down 16-10 on Inferno. AGO then faced Hard Legion in the decider BO3, securing a comfortable 2-0 win (16-5 Inferno, 16-10 Dust2).

On the other side of the bracket, North beat two CIS teams, Nemiga and Gambit Youngsters, to reach the semis, where they encounter their countrymen MAD Lions. In the Danish derby, Nicolai "⁠HUNDEN⁠" Petersen's team secured a dominant 2-0 victory (16-8 Overpass, 16-4 Mirage) and advanced to the closed qualifier.

Now, all eight teams that will compete in the IEM Katowice Europe closed qualifier are known, with a total of three Polish teams in contention for the three spots at the event on their home soil:

FaZe
ENCE
ARCY
AGO G2
Illuminar
HEROIC
MAD Lions

The double-elimination bracket has also been decided, with the initial matches played today according to the following schedule:

18:00 G2 vs. AGO (BO3)
18:00 HEROIC vs. MAD Lions (BO3)
18:00 ENCE vs. Illuminar (BO3)
18:00 FaZe vs. ARCY (BO3)

The team list for the $500,000 event in Katowice, Poland will look as follows:

Astralis
MOUZ
Vitality
Natus Vincere
Ninjas in Pyjamas
EU Qualifier
EU Qualifier
EU Qualifier fnatic
Liquid
Evil Geniuses
100 Thieves
Virtus.pro
NA Qualifier
Asia Qualifier
Oceania Qualifier Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt Age: 25 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1667 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.66 Evil Geniuses #5 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov 100 Thieves #7 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas FaZe #8 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' NygaardMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Hard Legion #37 Semyon 'kinqie' LisitsynSvyatoslav 'svyat' DovbakhVladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoIgor 'Forester' BezotecheskiyDmitry 'rAge' Bolotov AGO #41 Damian 'Furlan' KislowskiEryk 'leman' KocębaDominik 'GruBy' SwiderskiPatryk 'Sidney' KorabMiłosz 'mhL' Knasiak North #20 René 'cajunb' BorgPhilip 'aizy' AistrupMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeJakob 'JUGi' HansenNicklas 'gade' Gade Illuminar #30 Paweł 'innocent' MocekPaweł 'reatz' JańczakOskar 'oskarish' StenborowskiMichał 'mono' GabszewiczDaniel 'STOMP' Płomiński ARCY #49 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasFilip 'NEO' KubskiKarol 'rallen' RodowiczMikołaj 'mouz' KarolewskiOlek 'hades' Miskiewicz G2 #11 Audric 'JACKZ' JugNemanja 'huNter-' KovačKenny 'kennyS' SchrubFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayNemanja 'nexa' Isaković OG #26 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenIssa 'ISSAA' MuradMateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski Ninjas in Pyjamas #10 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergSimon 'twist' EliassonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonFredrik 'REZ' SternerNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora fnatic #4 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonMaikil 'Golden' SelimLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin ENCE #12 Aleksi 'allu' JalliJani 'Aerial' JussilaMiikka 'suNny' KemppiSami 'xseveN' LaasanenJere 'sergej' Salo HEROIC #16 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferCasper 'cadiaN' MøllerPatrick 'es3tag' HansenJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupMartin 'stavn' Lund Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif MOUZ #2 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongÖzgür 'woxic' EkerDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' Kool Virtus.pro #17 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevSanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali SKADE #42 Ivan 'Rock1nG' StratievTeodor 'SPELLAN' NikolovDenislav 'dennyslaw' DimitrovKostadin 'rafftu' TurbinovAleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov Natus Vincere #9 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov Vitality #6 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlex 'ALEX' McMeekinMathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut Liquid #3 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Nicolai 'HUNDEN' Petersen Age: 28 Team: MAD Lions Rating 1.0: 0.81 Maps played: 1546 KPR: 0.55 DPR: 0.70 MAD Lions #21 Nicolai 'HUNDEN' PetersenLucas 'Bubzkji' AndersenFrederik 'acoR' GyldstrandRasmus 'sjuush' BeckFredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen Time is adjusted to your selected timezone Nemiga #54 Aleksandr 'mds' RubetsRassim 'Jyo' ValijevAnton 'boX' BurkoIgor 'lollipop21k' SolodkovDiyar 'spellfull' Issakhanov Gambit Youngsters #38 Timofey 'interz' YakushinAnton 'supra' TšernobaiSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov