First matches confirmed for 2019 IEM Katowice CS:GO Major New Legends Stage

The opening matchups of New Legends stage of the IEM Katowice CS:GO Major have been confirmed as a number of powerhouse teams enter the fray and the games become even more exciting. 

The IEM Katowice Major kicked off on February 13 with the New Challengers Stage as eight teams progressed to become New Legends. However, the round wasn’t without its surprises.

Legendary Swedish team Fnatic, who many fans expected to progress and had been ranked as the top seed of the round, were sent packing and eliminated at the first hurdle.

The Swedes, led by JW, exited before they could make any serious noise.

It was announced before the start of the event that the format for the Major would be changed – adding a team-voted seeding system to help balance out matchups.

Prior to the stage beginning, teams are asked to rank their opponents from 1 to 16, with the rankings being decided by the average placements.

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The full seedings, which will change between matches based on a team’s results in the New Legends stage, can be viewed below.

With the seedings set, the opening round of matches are also set in place.

As the world’s number one team and defending Major champions, Astralis, have been handed top billing for the New Legends stage followed by Team Liquid in second, FACEIT London Major runner-ups Natus Vincere in third and the new-look MIBR roster in fourth.

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Astralis will take on 16th-seed compLexity, who are a Legend team from the FACEIT London Major, but have struggled since making some roster changes.

In one of the games of the round, Fan favorites FaZe Clan will take on HellRaisers. The HellRaisers possess serious firepower and have the ability to spring an upset against anyone – and will be looking to catch FaZe cold.

The chase for the Major trophy gets even harder at the New Legends stage.

The New Legends stage gets underway on February 20, and you can follow along using our IEM Katowice Major hub – which includes a multi-stream so you don’t miss any moment of the action.

The full slate of first-round match-ups for the New Legends stage are listed below.