ORDER triumph over Tainted Minds and qualify for IEM Katowice

ORDER pull off a reverse sweep against Tainted Minds in the grand final of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2018 Oceanic Closed Qualifier and earn their spot to the $500,000 event in Poland.

Following the infamous roster shuffles in the Oceanic scene, the past five days of the closed qualifier witnessed six teams from the region go head-to-head in a best-of-three, double-elimination format with an international trip on the line.

The first two teams to be eliminated from the closed stage were the winners of the open qualifiers, Athletico and Corvidae. IEM Sydney attendees Chiefs and ROG MASTERS semi-finalists Grayhound followed shortly with their removal, which left Tainted Minds and the new ORDER lineup to be the last two teams standing.

Australian star liazz earns the chance to face the best teams in the world

Tainted Minds secured a 1-0 advantage ahead of the best-of-five grand final, as a reward for their convincing 2-0 victory against ORDER in the upper bracket final previously.  Yaman "⁠yam⁠" Ergenekon and co. had a near-impenetrable wall on the CT side (including a smoke defuse highlight from the veteran),  which allowed Tainted Minds to take Inferno easily alongside a 2-0 lead during the series.

However, ORDER returned the favour by crushing the Joshua "⁠INS⁠" Potter-led squad to pieces on Nuke, with Tainted Minds claiming only one round on the attacking half. With some momentum built up, Chris "⁠emagine⁠" Rowlands' crew kicked off Train with twelve T rounds on the board.

Due to a few key mistakes including a 1v2 clutch round from Ryan "⁠zewsy⁠" Palmer, Tainted Minds brought it back to overtime. Despite their efforts, Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas' ORDER won four consecutive rounds in overtime, and successfully equalised the series 2-all. 

After securing the first pistol round on the deciding map, Tainted Minds had escalated to a 7-1 start, but ORDER managed to reduce the deficit to one round for the first half of Mirage by unleashing their double AWP set-up. Following a crucial 2v3 situation and 14-all scoreline, ORDER snatched away the map 16-14 and the thrilling series 3-2.

IEM Katowice 2018 Oceania Closed QualifierBest of 5 Tainted MindsMatchpage 2 3 25th January 2018 ORDER 1Default 0 16Inferno 2 1Nuke 16 15Train 19 14Mirage 16

Tainted Minds	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Chris 'ofnu' Hanleyofnu	77 - 67	+10	91.0	1.24
Yaman 'yam' Ergenekonyam	66 - 65	+1	75.4	1.02
Ryan 'zewsy' Palmerzewsy	66 - 77	-11	68.9	0.95
Joshua 'INS' PotterINS	62 - 74	-12	68.0	0.86
Connor 'chuch' Morganchuch	50 - 74	-24	60.0	0.83

ORDER	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jay 'Liazz' TregillgasLiazz	77 - 59	+18	87.4	1.25
Simon 'Sico' WilliamsSico	82 - 63	+19	88.6	1.20
Jordan 'Hatz' BajicHatz	72 - 68	+4	81.3	1.06
Chris 'emagine' Rowlandsemagine	64 - 64	0	69.4	0.94
Alistair 'aliStair' JohnstonaliStair	62 - 67	-5	69.1	0.93

Full standings for IEM Katowice 2018 Oceania Closed Qualifier:

1. ORDER - IEM Katowice 2018 spot
2. Tainted Minds
3. Grayhound
4. Chiefs
5-6. Athletico
5-6. Corvidae

Nine teams are now confirmed for the Polish tournament, taking place from February 28 to March 5:

Astralis	Cloud9
FaZe	G2
Ninjas in Pyjamas	SK
Virtus.pro	TYLOO
ORDER

Astralis #3 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzMarkus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye Joshua 'INS' Potter Age: 19 Team: Tainted Minds Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 292 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.67 Tainted Minds #47 Yaman 'yam' ErgenekonRyan 'zewsy' PalmerChris 'ofnu' HanleyConnor 'chuch' MorganJoshua 'INS' Potter Chiefs #51 Tyler 'tucks' ReillyPeter 'pecks' NguyenLiam 'malta' SchembriMatthew 'Texta' O'RourkeEuan 'sterling' Moore G2 #4 Richard 'shox' PapillonKenny 'kennyS' SchrubNathan 'NBK-' SchmittDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro Chris 'emagine' Rowlands Age: 26 Team: ORDER Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 329 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.67 SK #1 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Grayhound #32 Christopher 'dexter' NongCallum 'BURNRUOk' HendersonSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiErdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaOllie 'DickStacy' Tierney FaZe #2 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard TYLOO #30 Ke 'captainMo' LiuHui 'DD' WuHansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandHaoWen 'somebody' XuKevin 'xccurate' Susanto Athletico #79 Mohammed 'MoeycQ' TizaniNikhil 'NikkeZ' VictorJesse 'InfrequeNt' BarkerSam 'flickz' JonesMitchell 'Sync' Dale Cloud9 #5 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' Yip ORDER #61 Chris 'emagine' RowlandsSimon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJordan 'Hatz' Bajic Ninjas in Pyjamas #6 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundRichard 'Xizt' LandströmWilliam 'draken' SundinFredrik 'REZ' Sterner Yaman 'yam' Ergenekon Age: 29 Team: Tainted Minds Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 344 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.65 Corvidae #118 Anthony 'Ar3syK' ChristouDaniel 'rbz' UrbaniDaniel 'DANZ' WhitfieldJordan 'krudeN' HillIyengaran 'IyeN' Raju Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Age: 20 Team: ORDER Rating 1.0: 1.19 Maps played: 319 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.61 Ryan 'zewsy' Palmer Age: 20 Team: Tainted Minds Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 263 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.70 Virtus.pro #9 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasFilip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' Bieliński