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The two highest-ranked teams in the world, G2 and HEROIC, will start in the semi-finals from opposite sides of the bracket.

With the group stage of IEM Katowice drawing to a close, the six-team playoff bracket that will play out in front of a packed audience in the Spodek Arena has been announced.

HEROIC and G2 won their groups and will therefore begin their on-stage run in the semi-finals on Saturday, where they will meet the winners of the two quarter-final matchups.

In the first quarter-final matchup, Vitality are set to clash with Liquid, who eliminated FaZe in the lower bracket final of the "group of death" and denied them a chance to claim the Intel Grand Slam title. Vitality had a slightly easier group and qualified for the playoffs with wins over Ninjas in Pyjamas and fnatic, but were trounced by HEROIC in their final group stage match.

G2 come into the playoffs in scintillating form

The second quarter-final will see Natus Vincere taking on IEM Rio Major champions Outsiders. The majority-Ukrainian side showed much-improved performances at the Polish event after their lackluster start to the year at BLAST Groups. They took down Cloud9 and Liquid without losing a map to secure the playoff berth, but were no match for the in-form G2 side in the upper-bracket final.

On the other hand, Outsiders had a much more labored road to the playoffs as they began their tournament with a loss against fnatic, and thus dropped down to the lower bracket. They fought through Ninjas in Pyjamas and OG before winning a marathon three-map series against Complexity, which qualified them for the Spodek Arena in their debut event with Aleksandr "⁠KaiR0N-⁠" Anashkin.

The schedule for the playoffs of IEM Katowice looks as follows:

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2023
10/02/2023	Natus Vincere15:30 Outsiders	Match
10/02/2023	Liquid19:20 Vitality	Match
11/02/2023	HEROIC15:35 Natus Vincere	Match
11/02/2023	G219:00 Liquid	Match
12/02/2023	HEROIC16:00 G2	Match

fnatic #11 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonDion 'FASHR' DerksenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' Merriman FaZe #3 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants G2 #1 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačJustin 'jks' SavageRasmus 'HooXi' NielsenIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov Outsiders #5 Dzhami 'Jame' AliPetr 'fame' BolyshevAleksandr 'KaiR0N-' AnashkinAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevEvgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev Complexity #18 Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliMichael 'Grim' WinceJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Ninjas in Pyjamas #16 Kristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeFredrik 'REZ' SternerAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenLudvig 'Brollan' BrolinDaniil 'headtr1ck' Valitov Natus Vincere #6 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovIlya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyValeriy 'b1t' VakhovskiyAndrii 'npl' Kukharskyi G2 #1 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačJustin 'jks' SavageRasmus 'HooXi' NielsenIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov Aleksandr 'KaiR0N-' Anashkin Age: 19 Team: Outsiders Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 227 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.72 OG #10 Nemanja 'nexa' IsakovićAdam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharShahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' GasanovMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Vitality #7 Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautLotan 'Spinx' Giladi HEROIC #2 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard fnatic #11 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonDion 'FASHR' DerksenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' Merriman Liquid #4 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Cloud9 #12 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimur 'buster' TulepovSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Vitality #7 Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautLotan 'Spinx' Giladi