IEM XVI Katowice: NAVI the team to beat in first major CS:GO tourney of 2022

Intel Extreme Masters XVI Katowice, which runs from Feb. 15 to Feb. 27, is the first major Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament of the year. It’s the first big LAN and first million-dollar tournament of 2022. Competition in Katowice, Poland will involve 24 teams and be divided into three stages. The first stage is the play-in stage, and eight of the 16 teams will advance to a group stage. The eight teams qualified from the play-in stage will join eight teams already directly qualified for the group stage. After that, eight teams will advance to a single-elimination playoff stage which will take place at Spodek Arena. Below are all the qualified teams and a breakdown of five teams to watch.

Teams directly qualified for the group stage

• Natus Vincere
• Gambit Esports
• G2 Esports
• Team Vitality
• Heroic
• Virtus.pro
• FURIA Esports
• Team Liquid

Teams competing in the play-in stage

• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• Astralis
• FaZe Clan
• Godsent
• Complexity
• MIBR
• Renegades
• BIG
• Entropiq
• OG
• Copenhagen Flames
• Fnatic
• ENCE
• MOUZ
• Wisla Krakow
• Sprout

Five teams to watch

Natus Vincere

The best team in the world

Photo credit: ESPAT

NAVI is the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team in the world right now with the best player in the world, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev. They had a fantastic 2021 with numerous trophies in major tournaments, including the Blast Premier Global Final 2020, IEM XVI - Cologne, ESL Pro League Season 14, the PGL Major Stockholm and the Blast Premier Global Final 2021. The last IEM event in Katowice was the IEM XIV World Championship in early 2020, one of the last events before the world went on lockdown due to COVID. Of course, NAVI won that tournament too. Until another team beats them in a major tournament, they will be the favorites in any tournament they enter.

Team Vitality

The French-Danish connection

Photo credit: PGL

Team Vitality were one the teams right below NAVI last year. They won IEM XVI - Winter, however, NAVI were not in that event. They also finished second to NAVI in the ESL Pro League 14 and finished third at the Blast Premier World Final 2021. In the brief offseason following the World Final, Vitality made some major changes, moving away from their traditionally French roster to add a couple of premier Danish players. Longtime Astralis players Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen and Emil "Magisk" Reif both joined Vitality as well as their coach Danny "zonic" Sørensen. Perhaps the French org is hoping to recapture some of the magic from Astralis’ dominance from 2018 to 2019.

Team Liquid

Trying to restore NA glory

Photo credit: DreamHack

Team Liquid are also trying to recapture some former dominance. After a year-and-half playing VALORANT with 100 Thieves, Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella aka Captain America is back. He reunites with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Keith "NAF" Markovic who all were part of the Team Liquid that dominated in early 2019 and won the Intel Grand Slam. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and Jacky "Stewie2K" Yip are now gone, and Joshua "oSee" Ohm and Richard "shox" Papillon round out the squad.

G2 Esports

Always the bridesmaid

Photo credit: ESPAT

In 2021, G2 were the classic example of “always the bridesmaid, never the bride.” Despite not being as consistent as Ninjas in Pyjamas or Team Vitality throughout the year, they did finish second (to NAVI, of course) in two million-dollar tournaments, the PGL Major Stockholm and IEM XVI - Cologne. Longtime G2 player Kenny "kennyS" Schrub is once again on the bench, and G2 made two additions in the offseason, the 16-year-old former NAVI Junior player Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov and the veteran Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen. Their biggest change, however, was moving on from longtime coach Damien "maLeK" Marcel and replacing him with longtime Vitality coach Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam.

Heroic

The next Danish dynasty?

Photo credit: ESPAT

Astralis’ best days are probably behind them, and Heroic might be the best all-Danish squad now. They won the ESL Pro League season 13 and finished top four in both the ESL Pro League Season 14 and at the PGL Major Stockholm. At the Fall Finals they finished fourth after losing to Astralis, who finished third. Heroic have a long way to go to achieve the kind of results that Astralis had, but they’re on the right track and just need to reach some finals and win some major tournaments.

Lead photo credit: PGL