Vitality starts with a victory at the group stage of IEM Katowice 2023

The Vitality team turned out to be stronger than Ninjas in Pajamas with a score of 2:0 at the group stage of IEM Katowice 2023. Now the Danish-French team will face the winner of the Outsiders — fnatic for the right to get into the championship playoffs. In turn, Ninjas in Pajamas falls into the lower bracket of group B, where they will fight for a chance not to be eliminated from the tournament.

The opening match of group B started on the Mirage map, which became the choice of the Swedish team. At the same time, the players of Ninjas in Pajamas managed to take control of the initiative, quickly running ahead. However, towards the end of the first half, zonic's men were able to join the game in order to get a comfortable advantage - 9:6. After the change of sides, the Swedes tried to return to the game, but to no avail. In turn, Vitality successfully completed the game in attack to take the lead in the series — 16:10.

Next, the teams moved to the map Inferno, which became the choice of Vitality. Here the situation developed similarly to the first map, since at the start the Swedes managed to impose a fight. But before the switchover, zonic's men demonstrated several confident rounds in attack to get three rounds of advantage - 9:6. In the second half, Ninjas in Pajamas tried to join the fight and even approached her opponent. However, Vitality was able to keep the opponent from getting closer, and then completely broke away to get the first victory at IEM Katowice 2023 — 16:9.

IEM Katowice 2023 takes place from 1 to 12 February in Katowice at the Spodek Arena. As part of the championship, 24 teams from the CIS, Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and Oceania are fighting for a total prize pool of $1,000,000, as well as a ticket to IEM Cologne 2023 for the winner.

Interim results of IEM Katowice 2023

• 1st place: $400,000 + ticket to IEM Cologne 2023
• 2nd place: $180,000
• 3rd-4th place: $80,000
• 5th-6th place: $40,000
• 7th-8th place: $24,000
• 9th-12th place: $16,000
• 13th-16th place: $10,000
• 17th-20th place: MIBR, ENCE, Sprout and FURIA - $4,500
• 21st-24th place: paiN Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Permitta Esports and Grayhound Gaming — $2,500