The Katowice Play-Ins have finished, and 8 teams catapult themselves into the main Intel Extreme Masters: Katowice event.

The qualified teams are Gambit, Liquid, NIP, Spirit, Virtus.pro, mousespotrs, OG & BIG.

A brief rundown of every ones route to Katowice is as follows, starting with the teams who managed to fast-pass through it all, not touching the lower bracket;

Gambit performed well throughout the entire run, taking down TeamOne 16-5 and then mousesports 2-1 to get the first fast pass through.

Next, Liquid, also had a flawless route, plowing through MIBR first with 16-12, and not letting OG overrun them either, for a 2-1 match.

Moving on to Spirit, the next on the 'flawless' list, after they took down Cloud9 16-7, they also managed to not drop a map to BIG, sprinting through to Katowice on a 2-0 victory.

The final entrant on the fast-pass VIP list is NIP, who breezed past Complexity 16-7, and sprinted straight past Virtus.pro to not drop a map for the precious 2-0 into the main event.

On to those teams who had to fight just that extra mile to earn their places now;

mousesports initially started strong, managing to nudge out Renegades 16-14, although they smacked head first into the huge performances Gambit gave at the event, being defeated 2-1, forcing them into a lower bracket match against Complexity, which they managed to win by mowing down Complexity 16-3 in the 3 map extravaganza for 2-1.

Virtus.pro came out of the starting point strong, with a 16-10 against Wisla Krakow, before NIP on one of their strongest performances with their current roster laid waste to any easy ride hopes for Virtus, losing 2-0 to NIP. They however managed to come back stronger than ever against Renegades, for a simple at times 2-0 over them.

Moving on to BIG after their impressive 16-6 over Movistar Riders, Spirit smashed them down a few levels for a run-away 2-0. BIG however came back determined to make the cut, and vented their frustrations on MIBR, in which MIBR won just 10 rounds to BIGs 32, for a seemingly simple 2-0 win, and running head first to the Katowice tournament.

The last in the pack who had a tougher time is OG, who had a simple first round to the underperforming fnatic, taking it 16-9, although an unlucky run in with Liquid which, despite their best efforts, took a 2-1 loss, after however OG managed to remind every one why they were here, taking a 2-1 win over a well performing Cloud9

Ultimately, this means that some big names failed to make the cut, with the likes of fnatic, Cloud9, MIBR, Renegades & Complexity getting an early eviction from the tournament, along with Movistar Riders, Wisla Krakow & TeamOne who will also be licking their wounds, and hoping to come back for the next major events of 2021 stronger than ever.

Stay tuned for the initial line ups and schedule for the main Katowice event, as we wait for those line ups to be announced...