The History and Past Winners of IEM Katowice

IEM Katowice has been a staple in the CS:GO community since 2014 when it hosted the CS:GO major for that year and the year after. The event happens once a year and in its history, two of the events have been official CS:GO majors. Let’s take a look at the previous winners in history.

2014

In 2014, the legendary Virtus.Pro team consisting of pashaBiceps, Neo, TaZ, byali, and Snax pulled off the impossible. The roster went undefeated throughout the entire tournament, only dropping one map to an Olofmeister led LGB. In the finals of just the second major ever, Virtus.Pro dismantled the legendary NIP roster to win the tournament.

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2015-2016

In 2014, Fnatic established its dynasty at IEM Katowice. After IEM Katowice in 2014, the team acquired Olofmeister and Krimz, but had never reached the heights that were expected of such a roster. Fnatic dismantled any team they played against and until the finals of the tournament, they hadn’t lost a map. The finals against NIP would be the toughest series they played, but Olof and his team were able to come away with the victory to win IEM Katowice and the Major. Fnatic also won in 2016, despite releasing pronax and playing with dennis instead.

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2017

In 2017, the world got to meet an amazing-looking Astralis at IEM Katowice. Astralis had always been an amazing team but had suffered and never seemed to get past the playoffs. However, after hiring a sports psychologist, the team was ready to go. The team had a near flawless group stage, with only a single loss to the Brazillian team Immortals. They entered the playoffs as the second seed and dominated NaVi and Heroic before winning the grand finals 3-1 against FaZe Clan.

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2018

Despite having a different roster, Fnatic still triumphed in IEM Katowice 2018. JW, Flusha and Krimz were still on the roster but, they were joined by Golden and Lekr0. No one imagined Fnatic would win Katowice but, they went undefeated all throughout the group stages to quickly advance into the playoffs. From there, they convincingly took down Team Liquid and managed to narrowly take eliminate FaZe clan to win the tournament.

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2019

With 2019 came one of Counter-Strike’s most dominant eras ever: The Astralis Era. The Danish team had been terrorizing the entire scene and, to no surprise, the team dominated at IEM Katowice 2019, which was also a CS:GO Major. The team dominated every opponent they faced before facing off Ence, who was coming off a historic Cinderella run. Astralis, however, 2-0’d them to take home the Major Title.

2020

While this was unknown at the time, IEM Katowice 2020 was one of the last events before the Covid-19 Pandemic shutdown. At the time, this entire event was just the s1mple show. While Natus Vincere looked alright in the Group stages, the team was a whole other beast in the playoffs. There, they utterly destroyed every team they faced and brutally took down G2 in the Grand Final (16:4, 16:13, and 16:2).

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