The Group Stage of this year's IEM Katowice is rapidly approaching its conclusion, as we get ready for the Group B upper bracket semifinals, taking place on February 6.
IEM Katowice 2023: Group B upper bracket semifinals schedule and betting odds
Four teams will be competing in the Group B upper bracket semifinals today, fighting for the honour of advancing to the upper bracket final, which will take place on February 7. The losers of today's matches however will compete in the lower bracket semifinals, where they'll potentially be facing elimination from this year's tournament.
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The upper bracket action meanwhile will kick off at 11:30 AM GMT, when we'll see Heroic going up against OG.
Heroic made their IEM Katowice 2023 debut in their February 5 match against Complexity Gaming, which they won with a score of 2-1. It was a strong start for the team, who earned their invitation to the Katowice Group Stage through their position on the ESL World Ranking, where they're sitting in first place. Expectations are running high for the team, especially considering their success at the end of 2022, when they achieved victory at BLAST Premier Fall Finals.
OG however have made their way up through the Play-In Stage, where they achieved an uncontested win streak against both Sprout and Fnatic. Both teams made them work for that impressive record, however, with Sprout forcing the best-of-one opening match into overtime with a final score of 19-16. OG claimed victory over Fnatic meanwhile with a score of 2-1. The team has been able to maintain that win streak into the Group Stage too, having claimed another 2-1 victory over MOUZ on February 5. Time will tell how long their uncontested win streak will last - but they're facing steep odds against Heroic today.
And those odds are in Heroic's favour, at 1.57 vs OG's 2.42.
The second Group B upper bracket match will take place at 15:00 GMT when we'll see Team Vitality competing against Fnatic.
Team Vitality (1.52) vs Fnatic (2.56)
Team Vitality's IEM Katowice 2023 debut could have hardly gone better, with a decisive 2-0 victory over Ninjas in Pyjamas on February 4. The team were able to skip out on the Play-In Stage due to their success at ESL Pro League Season 16, so there are some heavy expectations on Team Vitality's shoulders here. The 2023 season started on a strong note for Vitality too, as the team ranked in 1st-3rd place at this year's BLAST Premier Spring Groups - Giving their fans hope for their performance in Katowice this year.
Fnatic meanwhile have been competing in Katowice since the Play-In Stage, where they survived through the lower bracket, following a 2-1 defeat to OG on February 1. Still, they quickly made up for that loss, securing their invitation to the Group Stage through a 2-0 win over MIBR. They maintained that momentum once in the Group Stage too, facing down Russian team Outsiders with a score of 2-1. It has been a fantastic run for the British organisation - though it remains to be seen if the team has it in them to defeat Team Vitality.
The odds are in Team Vitality's favour here, at 1.52 vs Fnatic's 2.56.
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