The first major Counter-Strike event of the year is starting soon. From January 31st to February 11th, we will watch the best CS teams in the world fighting it out for one of the most prestigious trophies in CS, IEM Katowice.
24 teams are gearing up for this event, as they will have the opportunity to show who adapted to CS2 in the best way after the offseason.
IEM Katowice 2024 Facts:
24 teams
$1.000.000 prize pool
3 stages: Play-In / Group stage / Playoffs
1st place brings $400.000
The winner qualifies to IEM Cologne 2024 + BLAST Premier World Final
2nd IEM event in Counter-Strike 2
Location: Spodek Arena
Live audience: 11.000 capacity
Defending champions: G2 Esports
Top 5 favorites:
Team Vitality
Outright odds: 2.50
After finishing 2023 in 2nd place, Team Vitality is again at the top of the world’s best CS teams on HLTV rankings. After securing 1st place at BLAST Premier: World Final 2023 and securing BLAST Premier Spring Final by beating OG, Falcons and Astralis in the group stages this January, they are really looking unstoppable for now. Really, the biggest favorites for the race here.
FaZe Clan
Outright odds: 4.00
Faze didn’t perform well at IEM Katowice 2023, as they finished in 7th place. But still, they had an amazing 2023 year, as they were among the best teams, if not the best. With 4 titles, and 2nd place and BLAST Premier World Finals, they proved that they can do it. Their January went good, with 3 wins and 1 accident loss vs GamerLegion in the BLAST Premier Spring groups. Anyway, they look scary, and will surely fight with Vitality for the trophy.
VirtusPro
Outright odds: 6.00
VirtusPro’s lineup is always scary. They have crushed January’s BLAST Premier Spring group stages, with 3 straight wins and just 1 map lost. They have even beaten their Russian nemesis Cloud9, who is entering the scene through the big doors. VirtusPro looks good and their recent series vs Cloud9 showed that they are ready for the top, once again. However, I doubt that they can beat the Vitality or Faze clan at this point.
Team Spirit
Outright odds: 8.00
Esports betting sites are putting Spirit as top favorites, even though I don’t agree with this completely. I would rather put Cloud9 here in their place, so if you are betting on high finishes of CIS teams, I would go for VirtusPro and Cloud9. However, that doesn’t mean that Spirit is a bad team, they have their own sparks and maps that can bring them really far. It will be really interesting to watch their progress, but I doubt they can win the tourney.
G2 Esports
Outright odds: 10.00
G2 are IEM Katowice defending champions, but can they do it this year too? I’m kinda skeptical. Niko is playing in amazing form, but they haven’t won a big tournament since IEM Cologne last August. They played 5 matches in January, won 3 of them, lost 2. A double win vs NiP, and a clean win vs Liquid, brought them BLAST Premier Spring Final, but can they go all the way here in Katowice? I don’t think so, stars need to align.
Honorary mention:
Cloud9
Outright odds: 11.00
The team I really like and I think will have a big year. Cloud9 looks very scary. Especially now, since Boombl4 joined his ex NaVi teammates electronic and Perfect in this new squad. By doing that, they gathered slightly more firepower and teamplay definitely.Cloud9 could be one of the strongest CS teams in 2024 if they stick together, for sure. If I need to mention underdogs, I would say Cloud9 would be that team, according to outright odds at least.
IEM betting advice and info:
- It’s Counter-Strike 2 guys, forget CS:GO
- Teams have gone through a lot of roster changes
- Take a BLAST Premier: Spring Groups as a reference for each team’s current form
- The opening matches of the Play-In stage are BO1; I’ll rather put big money on BO3 than BO1
- ENCE and BetBoom can potentially shock in Play-In Round 1 (best of 1) as they are marked as underdogs in their matches
Leetbit offers a wide range of IEM Katowice 2024 markets and bets. Check our offer HERE.
You can follow IEM Katowice 2024 on Twitch.tv.
Not sure what kind of bets you want to place on IEM Katowice 2024? Check the basic esports bet list HERE.
