Cloud9, FaZe Clan and G2 Esports qualify for IEM Katowice 2020

Cloud9, G2 Esports and FaZe Clan have qualified for IEM Katowice, the first ESL Pro Tour CS:GO event of 2020, following results in the European and North American regional qualifiers.

The conclusion of the North American Qualifier saw the new Cloud9 roster triumph over MIBR. The latter has recently signed 17-year-old Argentinian prospect Ignacio "meyern" Meyer.

In the best-of-five series, Cloud9 entered with a one map advantage thanks to their upper bracket advantage but this was equalised after a Brazilian victory on Train.

A strong T side on Overpass helped secure the map for Cloud9 before a close Inferno match secured the Katowice spot for the new signings.

In Europe, FaZe were the first of three teams to claim a spot from the region's qualifier, dispatching of Polish hopefuls ARCY before a tense brawl with ENCE.

A far-from-clean 2-1 saw the European mix roster through to the Spodek Arena.

The Asia Qualifier also took place and Vici Gaming was able to claim the sole spot over the likes of TYLOO.

One more European team will fight for the final EU spot on 10th January and the Oceania Qualifier will take place from 14-16th January to confirm the last team to make IEM Katowice.

Streams for the qualifiers were absent and the match information was intitially only available via HLTV scoreboards. This led to backlash from the community including analyst Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill.

Michal "CARMAC" Blicharz, Vice President of Pro Gaming for ESL, took to Reddit to address the controversy and stated that in future, if no official stream is available, 'selected community streamers' will be allowed to broadcast if they agree to 'terms and conditions' that were not outlined in the post.