The IEM Katowice 2019 Major, organised by ESL, was the third Major held in Katowice. Astralis beat ENCE 2-0 in the final at the Spodek on March 3, 2019, for their third Major title. HLTV noted that this equalled Fnatic's record and made Astralis only the third team to win back-to-back Majors. Katowice also changed how Souvenirs worked: random viewer drops ended and the first Viewer Pass took their place.
Format and venues
The Major ran from February 13 to March 3, 2019, with 24 teams in three stages, each in a different building:
- New Challengers Stage, February 13–17, at the ESL Arena studio in Katowice, without an audience.
- New Legends Stage, February 20–24, at the International Congress Centre. ESL said it was the first time this stage of the format was played in front of a crowd, with 1,200 seats a day.
- New Champions Stage, February 28 to March 3, at the Spodek arena.
Both Swiss stages used best-of-one matches, except elimination and advancement matches, which were best-of-three. The playoffs were a best-of-three bracket. The map pool was Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass and Train, and the $1,000,000 prize pool paid $500,000 to Astralis and $150,000 to ENCE.
The field was also shaped by a rule Valve announced before London. In a post titled "Winning is Everything", it said the two teams that went 0-3 in London's Legends Stage would lose their invitation, and two extra teams would come from a playoff between the third-placed teams of the regional Minors. So Katowice had six Returning Challengers and ten Minor teams, including Winstrike Team and ViCi Gaming from that play-in.
Astralis' run
Astralis entered as Legends and went 3-0 in the New Legends Stage: 16-6 against compLexity on Nuke, 16-0 against Cloud9 on Train and 2-1 against Renegades. In the playoffs they did not drop a map. They beat Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 (16-2 on Mirage, 16-14 on Dust II) and MIBR 2-0 (16-14 on Overpass, 16-7 on Inferno).
| Player | Name |
|---|---|
| gla1ve (captain) | Lukas Rossander |
| dev1ce | Nicolai Reedtz |
| dupreeh | Peter Rasmussen |
| Xyp9x | Andreas Højsleth |
| Magisk | Emil Reif |
| zonic (coach) | Danny Sørensen |
It was the same five players and coach who won in London.
ENCE's run
ENCE, from Finland, were at their first Major. They qualified through the Europe Minor, which meant starting in the New Challengers Stage. In the New Legends Stage they lost their first two matches, to Renegades and HellRaisers, then won three best-of-three series in a row against BIG, G2 Esports and AVANGAR to reach the playoffs at 3-2.
There they beat Team Liquid 2-0 (16-11 on Mirage and 19-16 in overtime on Inferno) and Natus Vincere 2-1 (16-14 on Train, 3-16 on Dust II, 16-14 on Mirage). HLTV's final report described those wins as "miraculous comebacks". The lineup was captain Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen, Aleksi "allu" Jalli, Jere "sergej" Salo, Jani "Aerial" Jussila and Sami "xseveN" Laasanen, coached by Slaava "Twista" Räsänen.
Their run left a mark on the item store too. On March 28, 2019, Valve released the music kit EZ4ENCE by The Verkkars, which HLTV said celebrated ENCE's second place in Katowice.
The final
- Train: Astralis 16-11, after an 11-4 first half on the CT side.
- Inferno: Astralis 16-4, after a 14-1 first half on the Terrorist side.
HLTV and betway named Emil "Magisk" Reif the MVP, mainly for his team-best 1.37 rating in the playoffs. HLTV said the race had been close until the end between him and teammate Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth.
The stickers
Valve put the Katowice items on sale on February 6, 2019, a week before the Major. Team stickers could be bought individually. Holo and foil team stickers came from three capsules, and player autographs in paper, foil and gold came from three matching autograph capsules:
| Capsule | Teams |
|---|---|
| Katowice 2019 Legends | London's top eight: Astralis, BIG, compLexity Gaming, FaZe Clan, HellRaisers, MIBR, Natus Vincere, Team Liquid |
| Katowice 2019 Returning Challengers | London's 9th–14th: Cloud9, Fnatic, G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Tyloo, Vega Squadron |
| Katowice 2019 Minor Challengers | The ten Minor teams, including ENCE, NRG, AVANGAR, Renegades, Vitality and FURIA |
Each team capsule also held an IEM sticker. Valve said 50% of the proceeds from both stickers and the Viewer Pass went to the players and organisations. Gold team stickers were not sold in capsules, so they only exist on Souvenirs. The capsules explainer covers how this revenue was shared.
The first Viewer Pass
Until London, Souvenir packages had dropped at random to people watching the matches. In Katowice, Valve's FAQ answered the question "Is the Katowice 2019 Viewer Pass the only way to receive Souvenir Packages?" with a plain yes. The pass worked like this:
- An event coin that started at Bronze and upgraded to Silver, Gold and Diamond as you completed five, seven and all eleven challenges, by watching live matches and making correct Pick'Em picks.
- One Souvenir package per upgrade, so three at most, redeemable for any completed match until March 31.
- Pick'Em moved into the pass. Earlier Pick'Em games used team stickers as game pieces; now the pass unlocked picks for all 24 teams.
Valve said the Souvenir you received would feature a player who was MVP of one of the rounds in the chosen match. Each one carried gold stickers of both teams, a gold IEM sticker and that player's gold autograph. Our Souvenir packages guide follows the system from here to the token era.
There were seven packages: Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass and Train, with Nuke and Inferno drawing from the 2018 collections introduced in London. On March 28, 2019, Valve moved Vertigo into the Active Duty pool and Cache out, which made the Katowice 2019 Cache Souvenir Package the last Cache package so far.
Collecting Katowice 2019 items today
- Read the full name. Katowice also hosted the 2014 and 2015 Majors. A 2019 item ends in "Katowice 2019", and the Steam names are short: "Vitality", not "Team Vitality".
- Supply is closed. Viewer Pass holders could redeem packages only until March 31, 2019, so no new Katowice 2019 Souvenir packages have been created since. Valve has not published how many were redeemed.
- Match the stickers to the match. On a Souvenir, the two gold team stickers and the autograph tell you which match and player it represents. Grand final Souvenirs come from Train and Inferno packages.
- Check the scrape on applied stickers, and use the sticker filter on Buy to find guns with a specific Katowice 2019 sticker.
For the Major before this one, see FACEIT London 2018. Astralis went for a third title in a row at the StarLadder Berlin 2019 Major.
Sources
- IEM Katowice Major 2019 — Liquipedia
- Astralis beat ENCE 2-0 to win IEM Katowice and secure third Major crown — HLTV.org
- Astralis equal fnatic's Major record with Katowice triumph — HLTV.org
- Magisk claims IEM Katowice MVP award — HLTV.org
- The IEM Katowice 2019 CS:GO Major format explained — ESL
- Katowice 2019 – Tournament Items — Counter-Strike blog (Valve)
- IEM Katowice 2019 Pick'Em and Viewer Pass FAQ — counter-strike.net (Valve)
- Vertigo added to Active Duty map pool in new update — HLTV.org
