It is that time of the year again. CS:GO fans all around the world will be watching their favorite teams compete at the IEM Katowice Major. My gut feeling is telling me that this will be a major to remember. The IEM Katowice 2019 Major will feature the best CS:GO teams in the world. The clear favorite to win IEM Katowice is Astralis. But some other teams might have something to say about that.
It is always fun to try and predict who will win an event. I am going to make some predictions that any CS:GO analyst would agree with. These predictions will be realistic and nothing overly dramatic. The team I am picking to win IEM Katowice 2019 is Astralis. I know this seems pretty basic and it is. Astralis is the greatest team CS:GO has ever seen. Their ability to do all the little things right while also making few mistakes makes them nearly unbeatable.
Courtesy of HLTV
If Astralis is supposed to win it all, who are they going to play in the finals? I predict that Astralis will face Team Liquid in the grand finals. I think Team Liquid is a phenomenal team. Although Team Liquid beat Astralis at iBUYPOWER Masters in January, I think beating the best team in the world two times in two months is truly difficult. For example it is hard to beat a Nick Saban coached team two times in one year, and that is how good Astralis is.
Every event has its MVP, and IEM Katowice will be no different. A realistic pick for event MVP would be Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz. I predict dev1ce will win this award. He is the second best player in the world who
is also on the best team in the world. I believe that we will see dev1ce drop multiple 30 frag games and finish the event with a 1.33 rating.
Courtesy of HLTV
Now it is time to make bold predictions. First bold prediction is FNATIC will not make it out of the group stage of the major. They have struggled and they lost on Wednesday to ViCi Gaming. Overall FNATIC do not look major ready.
My second bold prediction will be that Cloud9 make the semi-finals of the major. I know this is highly unlikely but, it would be quite the story for a team that on paper looks subpar to make it that far. Also as a fan from North America I would love to see Cloud9 get back to the old level of success we were use to seeing. Finally, my last prediction is that FURIA the young Brazilian team will make playoffs. FURIA has played well recently, and they played above expectations during the qualifier.
Courtesy of HLTV
If I had to pick anyone other than dev1ce to win the event MVP I would have to go with Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. ZywOo is a young prodigy who is destined for stardom. I predict him to finish this event with a 1.38 rating.
This is ZywOo’s first major and I would love to see the 18 year old put on a clinical performance. I think he could perform so well that even with his team not winning the major, he would still manage to win the even MVP for his individual efforts.
In conclusion, the IEM Katowice Major 2019 will be an event well worth looking forward to. Fans can expect memorable plays to be made during this event, and they can look forward to seeing who will be crowned winner.
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