The IEM Katowice CS:GO Major has just begun and we’ve already had a major upset. In the very first match of the tournament, #16 seed ViCi Gaming beat fnatic (the #1 ranked team) in a 16-9 victory.
Many fans will be shocked to see the first seed take a loss so early. But even more importantly, many players in the IEM Katowice Pick’Em Challenge have lost their 3-0 and 0-3 picks. ViCi Gaming joked about the Pick’Ems on Twitter.
RIP 0-3 Pickems.
Send your tears and cry emojis as a comment below:— VICI Gaming (@ViCi_Gaming) February 13, 2019
ViCi Gaming Beat Fnatic to Kill Pick’Ems
The IEM Katowice Team Rankings show that the teams at the major rank fnatic #1 and ViCi Gaming dead last at #16.
However, this didn’t matter to the Chinese team. In an Overpass match, they beat the Swedes in an impressive 16-9 victory.
This will come as a surprise to many fans. In fact, a Reddit poll of IEM Katowice Pick’Em Predictions shows that most had the two teams in their 3-0 and 0-3 spots.
From Reddit (u/SaxOps1)
Fnatic was the top pick for 3-0 with 1015 votes out of a total 4640. Even more overwhelmingly, ViCi Gaming was chosen to go 0-3 by 2049 of participants.
It’s a strong start for ViCi, who now only need two wins to advance. Fnatic will still get more chances, but they’ll have to claw their way back to go 3-1 or 3-2 to advance.
ViCi Gaming vs Fnatic Highlights
There were many good moments in ViCi Gaming’s Overpass victory. Early on, Advent pulled off a 4k and 1v3 clutch to keep the momentum going for ViCi.
Top fragger zhoking also had many highlights. At 14-9, he pulled off a 3k to bring ViCi back from a 4v2 deficit.
Things looked bleak for fnatic early on. At 0-3, ViCi pulled off a defuse even with two fnatic players shooting at them.
There are still many matches to go in the IEM Katowice Challengers Stage. So far, ViCi and Renegades are 1-0 while Fnatic and AVANGAR are 0-1. You can see how to watch IEM Katowice 2019 here.