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AVANGAR and Winstrike have moved into the 1-1 pool in the IEM Katowice's New Challengers Stage after beating FURIA and fnatic, respectively.

The match between AVANGAR and FURIA was played on Mirage, where the Brazilians got off to a great start as Counter-Terrorists, constantly shutting down the Kazakh side to go up 5-0.

Despite losing the next round, Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato and co. strung three together without much effort, making it 8-1. AVANGAR responded well, however, winning every remaining round of the half to reduce the deficit to a narrow 7-8 score.

AVANGAR are now 1-1 in Katowice

Just like in the previous half, FURIA were the better side during the early stages, bringing the scoreline to 11-7. Still, AVANGAR picked up the next round with nothing but Deagles, eventually bringing the gap to a sole round once again.

The game then entered a chaotic stage with neither team being able to take control of the map, but AVANGAR would prevail at the final hurdle, sealing the deal at 16-14.

IEM Katowice 2019 Challengers StageBest of 1 AVANGARMatchpage 16 14 13th February 2019 FURIA 16Mirage 14

AVANGAR	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Bektiyar 'fitch' Bahytovfitch	22 - 19	+3	81.2	1.33
Dzhami 'Jame' AliJame	27 - 15	+12	81.8	1.32
Timur 'buster' Tulepovbuster	20 - 17	+3	72.6	1.06
Aidyn 'KrizzeN' TurlybekovKrizzeN	19 - 19	0	65.0	0.99
Alexey 'Qikert' GolubevQikert	16 - 22	-6	73.6	0.88

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	20 - 14	+6	78.1	1.21
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	23 - 23	0	75.5	1.08
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	18 - 18	0	69.5	0.99
Rinaldo 'ableJ' Moda JuniorableJ	17 - 24	-7	60.6	0.78
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	13 - 25	-12	58.1	0.65

On the secondary stream, Winstrike took control of proceedings as CTs on Train, winning a flawless pistol and the subsequent anti-eco, fnatic responded in their first gun round, but they were immediately reset by their opponents, who went on a dominant run.

Boombl4 played a key role for his team

In the 11th round, fnatic finally managed to break their opponents' streak, but they could not follow that up as Aurimas "⁠Kvik⁠" Kvakšys and Georgi "⁠WorldEdit⁠" Yaskin clutched a 2v3 post-plant situation. The CIS-based team was far too hot for Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström's men to handle, and went on to take a dominant 13-2 half-time lead.

Now playing on the CT side, fnatic did not throw in the towel and rallied to a 9-13 score. However, a 1v3 clutch by Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov, followed by a triple-kill from WorldEdit, put Winstrike on match point, and the Russian side wrapped things up at 16-11 to take their first victory in Katowice, while the Swedes have plunged into despair as they are on the verge of elimination.

IEM Katowice 2019 Challengers StageBest of 1 fnaticMatchpage 11 16 13th February 2019 Winstrike 11Train 16

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Richard 'Xizt' LandströmXizt	21 - 17	+4	75.0	1.09
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	17 - 20	-3	80.2	1.02
Ludvig 'Brollan' BrolinBrollan	22 - 21	+1	79.9	0.96
Simon 'twist' Eliassontwist	14 - 20	-6	66.0	0.85
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	12 - 21	-9	52.8	0.67

Winstrike	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4	22 - 14	+8	82.8	1.34
Jan 'wayLander' RahkonenwayLander	23 - 18	+5	83.7	1.24
Georgi 'WorldEdit' YaskinWorldEdit	21 - 17	+4	82.7	1.18
Aurimas 'Kvik' KvakšysKvik	19 - 16	+3	75.3	1.02
David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyann0rb3r7	14 - 21	-7	62.5	0.80

The New Challengers stage 1W - 0L Ninjas in Pyjamas Renegades TYLOO NRG ViCi ENCE Cloud9 G2 1W - 1L Vega Squadron Winstrike AVANGAR Vitality 0W - 2L Grayhound Spirit fnatic FURIA Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov Age: 20 Team: Winstrike Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 458 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.69 Winstrike #28 Georgi 'WorldEdit' YaskinJan 'wayLander' RahkonenAurimas 'Kvik' KvakšysKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovDavid 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan AVANGAR #18 Bektiyar 'fitch' BahytovTimur 'buster' TulepovAidyn 'KrizzeN' TurlybekovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali Richard 'Xizt' Landström Age: 27 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 1441 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.65 FURIA #23 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior fnatic #6 Richard 'Xizt' LandströmJesper 'JW' WecksellSimon 'twist' EliassonFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Georgi 'WorldEdit' Yaskin Age: 27 Team: Winstrike Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1023 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.66 Aurimas 'Kvik' Kvakšys Age: 23 Team: Winstrike Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 581 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.71 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Age: 19 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.20 Maps played: 228 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.57