ESL One Katowice 2019 moves forward as the Group Stage has come to a close. The eight remaining teams now must battle it out in the Playoffs. All games in the Playoffs will be a best-of three with matches starting on February 22. Playoff matches will be done in front of a live audience at the Spodek Arena.
Taking on the top spot in Group A is Team Secret who lost one match to OG in the tournament's opening game before winning all remaining matches in the group. Team Secret will take on Ninjas in Pyjamas in the upper bracket. A quick look at the Group Stage matches show that Team Secret tend to win most of its matches at around the 30-minute mark. It will be up to Ninjas in Pyjamas to keep up with this pace or set the tone themselves to win the match.
Team Secret’s match against Ninjas in Pyjamas is underway with Team Secret taking first blood.
Game 1 goes the way of @teamsecret! Can they claim the 2-0 against @NiPGaming or will we go to a Game 3? #ESLOne
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) February 21, 2019
The @ODPixel and @Foggeddota cast will continue shortly!
? https://t.co/RUTJQihdBh pic.twitter.com/WePu4DzPSs
The other upper bracket match will be Fnatic versus Gambit Esports. Fnatic secured the top spot in Group B with eight wins and two losses, one each to compLexity Gaming and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
It is worth noting that in its 10 games in the Group Stage, Abed Azel "Abed" Yusop played 9 different heroes and using Kunkka only twice. Fans got an early treat as Abed used his signature Meepo hero in the match against Alliance.
TI8 Champion OG drops to the lower bracket to take on Team Aster. Also on the lower bracket is Minseki going against Chaos ESports Club.
ESL One Katowice 2019 Playoffs matches can be viewed on the official ESL Dota 2 Twitch channel or at ESL TV.
