IEM Katowice Americas Minor Groups announced
ESL have announced the groups for the upcoming IEM Katowice Minor Championships, the first offline stage of the qualifiers for the 13th CS:GO Major.
Group A sees both South America qualifier teams, Imperial and INTZ, drawn into it, alongside NRG and South Africans Bravado. NRG are once again favorites for qualification to the Major, being the highest ranked team in the contest. With NRG and Bravado both drawn into Group A, it means the only two teams in the HLTV Top 30 are drawn into the same group.
Group B has the other two South American teams in the competition, oNe and FURIA, who reached the tournament out of the North American qualifier. Envy and eUnited round out the North American representation, at the first Minor with North American-cored teams outnumbered, in a hotly contested group.
Both North American teams come into the contest with changed rosters, with Envy bringing in Finn "karrigan" Andersen and eUnited seeing Will "dazzLe" Loafman return and Dan "clerkie" Clerke coming in to coach.
The full group draw as follows:
| Group A | Group B |
|---|---|
 NRG |
Envy |
 Imperial |
oNe |
 Bravado |
FURIA |
| INTZ |
eUnited |
The opening games for the Minor have also been selected, these are:
| Group A | ||
| NRG |
vs. | Imperial |
| Bravado |
vs. | INTZ |
| Group B | ||
| Envy |
vs. | oNe |
| FURIA |
vs. | eUnited |
The full schedule is still to be finalized. The IEM Katowice Americas Minor Championship is set to take place between January 22nd - 26th, with the top two teams heading to the Major. The third place team will head to a playoff to be held on January 27th.
