IEM Katowice 2023 groups and Play-In opening matchups announced

Tournament operator ESL has announced via its official Twitter account the seeding in the IEM Katowice 2023 group stage and the opening matchups in the Play-In.

The Play-In will see sixteen teams compete in a Double Elimination bracket, where eight participants in the group stage will be determined. The debut matches will be held in a best-of-one format, with the subsequent matches being played as best-of-three.

The opening matchups in the IEM Katowice 2023 Play-In are:

 Permitta –  FURIA
 Complexity –  BIG
 Evil Geniuses –  fnatic
 OG –  Sprout
 Team Spirit –  Grayhound
 MIBR –  NIP
 ENCE –  paiN
 Cloud9 –  IHC

The seeding of teams in the bracket is as follows:

In the group stage, the eight best teams from the Play-In will join eight directly invited squads. Those placed first to third in each of the groups will secure their spot in the playoffs, where they will be fighting in a Single Elimination best-of-three bracket featuring a best-of-five grand final.

The currently known participants in the group stage are distributed as follows:

Group A

 Liquid
 NAVI
 FaZe
 G2

Group B

 Outsiders
 MOUZ
 Vitality
 Heroic

IEM Katowice 2023 will run from January 31 to February 12. The total prize pool of the prestigious tournament is $1 million.

Origin: twitter.com