IEM Katowice reaches playoffs

We are down to the last six teams in the prestigious competition, with the playoffs set to start only on Friday.

The four-day group stage came to a close on Sunday evening, with Liquid and Spirit booking the first spots in the semi-finals after winning their respective groups.

The first round of the playoffs, featuring the runners-up and the third-placed finishers, will begin with a CIS derby between Natus Vincere and Gambit, two teams who last faced each other in the quarter-finals of IEM New York, four months ago. The winner of this clash will go on to face the red-hot Spirit, who still haven't faced CIS opposition since they began their campaign in the tournament.

IEM Katowice will resume on Friday

Later that day, Astralis and Virtus.pro will face off in a rematch of the StarLadder Major Final, when the CIS team still played under AVANGAR. The winner of that match will lock horns with Liquid, who haven't faced Virtus.pro since last year's IEM Katowice and Astralis since the IEM Global Challenge grand final.

In case Liquid are pitted against Astralis, they will be relishing the chance to finally end a nine-match losing streak against the Danes that began at the Berlin Major.

Below you can find the complete schedule for the playoffs:

Friday, February 26

15:00 Natus Vincere vs. Gambit
18:30 Astralis vs. Virtus.pro

Saturday, February 27

15:00 Spirit vs. Natus Vincere/Gambit
18:30 Liquid vs. Astralis/Virtus.pro

Sunday, February 28

15:00 Grand final (BO5)

Spirit #16 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovNikolay 'mir' BityukovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevAbdul 'degster' GasanovBoris 'magixx' Vorobiev Natus Vincere #1 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Gambit #19 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Astralis #2 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif AVANGAR Virtus.pro #5 Sanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Time is adjusted to your selected timezone Liquid #7 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince