Mongolian news platform Meta Gaming broke the news, claiming that the New Zealand player would soon transfer to Team NKT. If the report proves true, it will be Gratisfaction’s first time in the competitive scene since he left 18 months ago.

Gratisfaction will join former teammates like Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand on Team NKT’s lineup in addition to other members including Erdenetsogt “erkast” Gantulga, Lee” XigN” Hyun-pyo, Azbayar” Senzu” Munkhbold and Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand.

The player was a part of EXTREMUM’s lineup before being benched in October 2021. Gratisfaction started his professional esports career with smaller Australian squads before signing with Renegades and becoming one of the most renowned CS:GO names in the Oceania region.

He was a part of Renegades’ numerous successes, including reaching the semifinals of the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, one of the highest major runs achieved by a squad from that region. The team also did commendably well in the IEM Beijing 2019, reaching the event’s grand finals. They were eventually beaten out of the championship by Astralis.

Following his time in Renegades, Gratisfaction played for 100 Thieves and then EXTREMUM with most of his previous squad. The player has been active in the past few months, having substituted for Encore in 28 maps between August and February.

Gratisfaction will likely make his debut in competitive CS:GO during the ESL Challenger League season 44 Relegation: Asia-Pacific. Team NKT is slated to compete in the tournament on March 23.

Gratisfaction’s former Renegades/100T teammate, Aaron “AZR” Ward, also recently returned to competitive CS:GO as part of Sprout’s lineup.
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Cloud9 were impressive in their two play-in games, defeating IHC (16-5) and ENCE (2-1) to qualify for the main event, but that was where the winning stopped the world number 12.

After drawing Natus Vincere as their first opponent of the group stage, they were quickly despatched by the world number six and sent to the lower bracket to face the tournament’s surprise qualifier.

The all-Mongolian squad of IHC had already lost to Cloud9 in the play-in tournament, but since that loss they had sent two of the three Brazilian teams, paiN Gaming and FURIA, packing on their way to the group stage.

With Cloud9 being 24 spots higher than IHC in the CS:GO world rankings, many would be forgiven for thinking that the best-of-three series was a forgone conclusion.

No-one told IHC that, however, as the tournament’s lowest-ranked team took both Inferno and Mirage 16-14 to send Cloud9 packing.

THEY HAVE ACTUALLY DONE IT!!!!!!@ihc_esports ELIMINATE @C9CSGO from #IEM Katowice with a CLEAN 2-0

Inferno | 16-14
Mirage | 16-14 pic.twitter.com/n7kgG6gDyJ

— Intel? Extreme Masters (@IEM) February 5, 2023

As for BIG, their series with Team Spirit was much more competitive as they went to a third and final map.

It wouldn’t have been a massive surprise if either of these teams were knocked out, with Spirit being ranked number 13 and BIG number 16 in the world.

However, with Spirit being led by Igor “w0nderful” Zhdanov, they were able to reverse sweep the series and take it 2-1 after BIG claimed the first map of the series.

After a disappointing performance on map one from the Spirit roster, w0nderful led the charge in maps two and three, topping the scoreboard with a massive +29 kill-death differential and a series-high rating of 1.37.

Spirit and IHC will now move on to the lower-bracket semi-finals, with the Mongols drawing world number three FaZe Clan and Spirit facing world number four Liquid.

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Three of the eight direct invites were already confirmed, as FaZe Clan won IEM Cologne, Team Vitality won ESL Pro League Season 16, and Outsiders won the IEM Rio Major in 2022.

As well as those three direct invites, there were two confirmed play-in invitations going to Fnatic, who won the Elisa Masters Espoo, and Permitta, who won the ESL Polish Championship Autumn.

The other five direct invites to IEM Katowice have come as no surprise to many, with Heroic, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere, MOUZ and G2 Esports all earning their spot due to consistent performances throughout 2022.

As for the other 14 play-in invitations, six spots were given out to teams based on their overall world rankings, and the final eight were handed to teams based on their region-specific ranking, with three going to European teams, two to North American teams, and one each to South American, Asian and Oceanic organisations.

One big name that is missing from either of the invitation lists is that of two-time IEM Katowice champions Astralis, who had to win either CCT Central Europe Series 4 or Elisa Masters Espoo at the back end of the year to stay in contention.

FaZe Clan have opened as the early favourite at +400 with esports betting sites.

The direct invites for IEM Katowice are as follows:

The invites for the play-in are as follows:

HERE ARE YOUR 24 TEAMS INVITED TO #IEM KATOWICE 2023!

:https://t.co/oDPQT4mZCW pic.twitter.com/T8Skso5nLA

— Intel? Extreme Masters (@IEM) December 19, 2022

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