Surprise losers in the tournament included Natus Vincere and Gambit Esports.

The first Intel Extreme Masters of the year ended less than 24 hours ago, and the tournament over the weekend was a surprise to many fans as big names tumbled in semifinals, and an unlikely winner emerged in the end. The winner walked away with $400,000 from the prize pool, as well as points for the ESL Pro Tour and BLAST Premier.

Quarterfinals & Semifinals

In the quarterfinals, FaZe Clan met up with Gambit Esports where the two teams played in a clean sweep by the former, with a score of 2-0. FaZe Clan easily beat Gambit in two maps, with scores of 16-5 and 16-11.

Virtus.pro meanwhile met up with G2 Esports for their quarterfinal match, G2 won with a score of 2-0. They however did not reach the win that easily – the first map saw the play extended by 7 extra rounds as VP was giving them a whale of a time. G2 however won in the end with a 25-22 score. In the second map, VP seems to run out of steam as G2 easily won the match with a score of 16-5.

For the semifinals, FaZe Clan met up with the high seed, Heroic. The two teams played their best, but FaZe Clan was the better team this time around, and easily won against Heroic 16-11 and 16-5.

A repeat of a major fight in the CS:GO scene, G2 Esports met with Natus Vincere in their semifinals match. A surprise was that Na’Vi lost to G2 this time around, where the latter won with scores of 16-12 and 16-13. G2 was the one emerging as the winner this time around.

Grand Finals

FaZe Clan and G2 Esports met up in the Grand Final, where the two teams fought to see who will heft up the trophy for IEM Katowice. In the first map, Inferno, both teams played to extra time, and FaZe Clan showed that they are masters of extra time. FaZe Clan won the first map with a score of 19-15.

In the second map, Mirage, again the two teams played to extra time. However, this time the two teams played almost 60 rounds. G2 played as hard as they could, but FaZe Clan was slightly superior. They won with an amazing score of 31-27. The last round both teams looked to be a bit tuckered out but they still played to the best of their ability. It was a close one, but FaZe Clan won by a close margin 16-14, giving them an overall win of 3-0.

FaZe Clan walked away with $400,000, 1800 ESL Pro Tour points and 3200 BLAST Premier points. G2 Esports meanwhile walked away with $180,000. 

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• Source: https://www.gosugamers.net/counterstrike/news/56074-iem-katowice-2022-faze-clan-wins-the-first-iem-event-of-the-year-beating-g2-esports