Sprout will face Spirit in the last day of the play-in for a spot in the Polish event's group stage.

Sprout have eliminated Evil Geniuses from the IEM Katowice Play-In with a 2-0 victory and live to fight another day. The European combine didn’t fret and chose to pick their Ancient stomping ground despite it being where Sanzhar "⁠neaLaN⁠" Iskhakov’s men upset HEROIC during the BLAST Premier Spring Groups.

Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali and company started their map pick on the attack and put pressure straight out of the gate to secure an early cushion, something which would prove crucial later on in the map. Down by two Evil Geniuses settled to win the half out 9-6 to keep their hopes of stealing the map away from Sprout.

Newcomer Jerric "⁠wiz⁠" Jiang showed glimpses of brilliance with both rifles and the AWP, and was the second-highest rated player on his team with a 1.20 behind only neaLaN, but it wasn’t enough to stop a hungry Sprout that found the key to gain mid-round advantages. Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss won a crucial 1vs2 as the map went down to the wire and Sprout pounced back from a 12-14 to take victory in the last round.

lauNX topped the board in the series with a 1.27 rating

Evil Geniuses went into Mirage reeling from their defeat on Ancient and were once again put in a complicated situation from the get-go as a won T-side pistol round was turned on its head after losing to a forcebuy and Sprout linked five on the trot. Despite the destabilizing events Evil Geniuses found their footing on the attack and won the half out 10-5.

Fast plays on the T-side and trust in individuals was the key for Sprout to seal the deal in the second map as they brought a 6-12 deficit to a tie before EG could retaliate. Even then, it was just a lone round in a map that was always going to go to a Sprout with all players in the lineup firing on all cylinders that made their attacks look simple.

Sprout closed it out 16-13 and avoided going to the Inferno decider, where they lost an overtime affair to OG in their IEM Katowice Play-In opener, and will now go on to play Spirit at 19:30 for a spot in the tournament’s group stage.

Evil Geniuses are still far from full form after being knocked out of the BLAST Premier Spring Groups and IEM Katowice, but Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta sees possibilities for improvement. "Even though we lost, I’m happy about our performance." autimatic said about falling to Sprout, which he said was easier to swallow than the 8-16 loss to fnatic in their opening best-of-one. "Obviously we wish we would have gotten a better result, but we can learn a lot from this match."

IEM Katowice 2023 Play-inBest of 3 Evil GeniusesMatchpage 0 2 2nd February 2023 Sprout 14Ancient 16 13Mirage 16

Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jerric 'wiz' Jiangwiz	42 - 35	+7	73.5	1.16
Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic	41 - 42	-1	77.1	1.03
Sanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovneaLaN	39 - 41	-2	80.7	1.03
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	39 - 43	-4	76.8	0.98
Jadan 'HexT' PostmaHexT	31 - 44	-13	57.3	0.80

Sprout	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Laurențiu 'lauNX' ȚârlealauNX	51 - 37	+14	85.6	1.27
Victor 'Staehr' StaehrStaehr	43 - 40	+3	84.2	1.13
Ismail 'refrezh' Alirefrezh	38 - 38	0	72.7	1.04
Rasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossZyphon	40 - 42	-2	76.0	0.98
Adrian 'XELLOW' GuțăXELLOW	33 - 38	-5	58.0	0.87

fnatic #10 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonDion 'FASHR' DerksenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' Merriman Jamie 'keita' Hall Ismail 'refrezh' Ali Age: 24 Team: Sprout Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1085 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.65 Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov Age: 22 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 1125 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.70 Sprout #20 Adrian 'XELLOW' GuțăIsmail 'refrezh' AliRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea Danny 'BERRY' Krüger Time is adjusted to your selected timezone OG #11 Nemanja 'nexa' IsakovićAdam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharShahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' GasanovMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Casper 'ruggah' Due Rasmus 'Zyphon' Nordfoss Age: 19 Team: Sprout Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 518 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.67 Jerric 'wiz' Jiang Age: 21 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 594 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.64 Evil Geniuses #21 Timothy 'autimatic' TaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovJerric 'wiz' JiangJadan 'HexT' Postma Daniel 'Vorborg' Vorborg HEROIC #1 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard Richard 'Xizt' Landström Timothy 'autimatic' Ta Age: 26 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1221 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.67 Spirit #13 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovBoris 'magixx' VorobievPavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovIhor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov Sergey 'hally' Shavaev

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