Despite going flawlessly through the Play-Ins, Cloud9 has crashed out of IEM Katowice 2023. The nafany-led team met their demise at the hands of NAVI and IHC. They initially dropped to the lower bracket after a 2-0 loss to NAVI in the opening round. Going up against IHC in the lower bracket, many expected C9 to come out on top. However, the underdog trounced C9 with a clean 2-0, eliminating them from the tournament.
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Despite a strong Play-In, Cloud9 crashes out of IEM Katowice 2023
IHC vs. Cloud9 map summary:
- Inferno (picked by IHC): 16-14 to IHC
- Mirage (picked by Cloud9): 16-14 to IHC
- Overpass (Decider if needed): Series settled 2-0 to IHC
Starting off on the Mongolian squad’s pick of Inferno, they got off to 4-0 putting C9 on the back foot. The Russian-Kazakhstani roster fought back, going on a streak of their own to end the half 9-6 in their favor. Mirroring the first half, IHC switched to CT and began their campaign with another 4 rounds. What followed was a couple of back-and-forth rounds that saw C9 take 14 first. However, IHC dug deep and won three rounds straight to win the map 16-14.
Sufficiently warmed up, Furia slayers, IHC, managed to come into Mirage with a solid game plan. Despite being Cloud9’s pick a bunch of great reads by IHC saw them dismantle the offensive and split the half 7-8. The individuals of IHC came to the fore and managed to puncture the Cloud9 defense, winning a bunch of T-side rounds to take the lead at 9-10. What followed was a slugfest as both teams traded rounds until IHC came out on top.
With this, Cloud9 is eliminated from IEM Katowice and won’t play in front of the crowd. Speaking about their loss to interviewer James “BanKs,” Cloud9 IGL nafany had the following to say:
“We don’t have any excuses right now. If we will watch it, our preparation and our communication, it wasn’t perfect at all. For now, it’s not a ‘buster’ problem, it’s just… sh*t happens. Sometimes you have to make some steps back to make more steps forward, and that’s it.”
Cloud9 will be seen next at ESL Pro League Season 17 on February 22, 2023.
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