Cloud9 were impressive in their two play-in games, defeating IHC (16-5) and ENCE (2-1) to qualify for the main event, but that was where the winning stopped the world number 12.

After drawing Natus Vincere as their first opponent of the group stage, they were quickly despatched by the world number six and sent to the lower bracket to face the tournament’s surprise qualifier.

The all-Mongolian squad of IHC had already lost to Cloud9 in the play-in tournament, but since that loss they had sent two of the three Brazilian teams, paiN Gaming and FURIA, packing on their way to the group stage.

With Cloud9 being 24 spots higher than IHC in the CS:GO world rankings, many would be forgiven for thinking that the best-of-three series was a forgone conclusion.

No-one told IHC that, however, as the tournament’s lowest-ranked team took both Inferno and Mirage 16-14 to send Cloud9 packing.

THEY HAVE ACTUALLY DONE IT!!!!!!@ihc_esports ELIMINATE @C9CSGO from #IEM Katowice with a CLEAN 2-0

Inferno | 16-14
Mirage | 16-14 pic.twitter.com/n7kgG6gDyJ

— Intel? Extreme Masters (@IEM) February 5, 2023

As for BIG, their series with Team Spirit was much more competitive as they went to a third and final map.

It wouldn��t have been a massive surprise if either of these teams were knocked out, with Spirit being ranked number 13 and BIG number 16 in the world.

However, with Spirit being led by Igor ��w0nderful�� Zhdanov, they were able to reverse sweep the series and take it 2-1 after BIG claimed the first map of the series.

After a disappointing performance on map one from the Spirit roster, w0nderful led the charge in maps two and three, topping the scoreboard with a massive +29 kill-death differential and a series-high rating of 1.37.

Spirit and IHC will now move on to the lower-bracket semi-finals, with the Mongols drawing world number three FaZe Clan and Spirit facing world number four Liquid.

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Ninjas in Pyjamas will take on the IEM Katowice and ESL Pro League 15 champions, FaZe Clan in the first quarter-final for the PGL Major Antwerp. Ninjas in Pyjamas became the fourth team to qualify for the Champions Stage as they ended their Legends Group Stage with a 3-1 record. Whilst FaZe Clan qualified as the fifth team out of the Legends Group Stage with the exact same record as the Ninjas.

The Ninjas kicked off their event with a dominant win over Vitality 16-4 and then carried their strong momentum into their game against Cloud9 where they won 16-14, winning both of their best-of-one series. Although they were in such good form, the Ninjas were humbled when they were easily disposed of by NaVi in two of the three maps when NaVi won 2-1 in their first best-of-three. Ninjas in Pyjamas were able to shake off the big loss to NaVi quite quickly and destroyed FURIA in quick fashion 2-0 in their most recent game. If the Ninjas perform the same way that they played against NaVi they will be out of this Major quick-smart, so no one should need to tell this roster that this could be one of their most important matches of their CSGO careers.

FaZe Clan got their PGL Major off to a rocky start by losing 8-16 to ENCE, but since that first loss FaZe Clan have won their last three series against Bad News Eagles 16-4, Cloud9 16-8 and Copenhagen Flames 2-1, to qualify for the Champions Stage. Even though FaZe Clan have won three series in a row, they were far from impressive in their most recent series win over Copenhagen Flames where FaZe Clan started very slow losing the first map 16-13 and even though they won the second map 16-13, FaZe Clan nearly threw a 12-3 half time lead but managed to hold on 16-13. They then went on to win the third map 16-6 with relative ease. If FaZe Clan make the critical errors and give the Ninjas the same opportunities that they gave Copenhagen Flames they could lose this series, quickly.

The no.7 ranked team in the world, NiP, take on the no.1 ranked team in the world, FaZe Clan in what sets up to be the first of four cracking quarter finals. We will be taking the overs in the total maps market with top betting sites.

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The hottest form team in the PGL Major is the Russian team Spirit who take on the top ranked Brazilian team in FURIA in the second quarter-final of the Champions Stage. Spirit went undefeated in the Legends Stage and were one of the first two teams to qualify for the Champions Stage, whilst it took FURIA five series to secure the last qualification position in the Champions Stage.

Spirit have been ultra-impressive in Antwerp going back as far as their first four games in the Challengers Stage where they won three of their four series, with their only loss coming in overtime against G2 17-19. In the main event Spirit defeated FURIA 16-12, Heroic 16-12 and Copenhagen Flames 2-1. The first time that Spirit looked to be rattled was when they lost the first map in the Copenhagen Flames series 16-10, but they put any doubts quickly to bed by taking map two 16-8 and map three 16-6 to win the series. There is no doubt that Spirit have been the surprise packet from the Major so far, but who knows how far they can really go.

FURIA came into the PGL Major with high hopes and high expectations after they breezed through their RMR and have been dominating the Americas Counter Strike scene over the past few months, but those hopes and expectations have taken quite the hit after their Legends Stage performances. They lost 12-16 to Spirit in their first game where Spirit were dominant in the first half. The Brazilians then went on to beat Liquid 16-9 and BIG 16-10 where FURIA were definitely the better team but then were dismantled by NiP 2-0 in their first best-of-three series. FURIA may have found something in their last best-of-three, where they defeated the no.5 ranked team in the world, G2 Esports 2-1 to secure the last place in the Champions Stage.

Spirit owns the most recent series win over FURIA, being the best-of-one in the Legends Stage. We believe that $2 odds for Spirit to take this series are overs, therefore we will be backing them to take out this series with GG Bet.

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