It is another busy week in the world of Esports, with the IEM Katowice the headline event in Counter Strike: Global Offensive, while plenty of League of Legends regional splits are also in action.
Monday 6th February
League of Legends: Pacesetters MAD Lions and G2 Esports clash in LEC Winter
This year's League of Legends EMEA Championship season in Europe will be divided into three splits and the first of those - the LEC Winter 2023 - is already in full swing.
The S-Tier event is taking place at the LEC Studio in Berlin and runs until Sunday 26th February with the teams currently competing in the regular season, which draws to a close on Monday.
Eight of the ten teams in the regular season will advance to the next stage with only Excel, who have a 1-7 win-loss record, officially eliminated so far.
All ten teams are in action playing their final matches on Monday and arguably the standout contest pits MAD Lions against G2 Esports with both sides on 6-2 win-loss records.
Tuesday 7th February
CS:GO: Time for group stage finals in IEM Katowice
In the world of Counter Strike: Global Offensive, it is all about the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice in Poland right now.
The S-Tier event is the first IEM major competition of the season with a prize pool of $1 million on offer, while the champions will also secure a spot at the IEM Cologne later in the season.
It began with a play-in stage and then moved on to a group stage, which concludes on Tuesday before the playoffs start later in the week.
Tuesday therefore features a handful of upper-bracket and lower-bracket semi-finals across both groups and by the end of the day, we will know which six teams will progress from Groups A and B to the playoffs.
One intriguing matchup is between Blast Premier World Final winners and fellow big hitters Natus Vincere with both teams already assured of a playoff place but battling it out for automatic qualification for the semi-finals.
G2 Esports are 8/15 to win, while Natus Vincere can be backed at 11/8.
R6: Rainbow Six Invitational kicks off
There is another S-Tier event getting started on Tuesday in the world of Rainbow Six.
The Rainbow Six Invitational, played on Siege, gets underway at Place Bell in Montreal on Tuesday with 20 teams battling it out for glory.
The event begins with a group stage in which the bottom team in each section is automatically eliminated before moving to double-elimination bracket playoffs.
Wednesday 8th February
League of Legends: T1 in action in LCK Spring
All of the major League of Legends regional divisions are up and running with their first splits of the season and one which will attract plenty of attention is the LCK Spring 2023.
South Korea was home to three of the four teams who made the World Championship semi-finals last year and one of those sides were T1, who are in action on Wednesday.
Indeed, Wednesday marks the start of week four in the LCK Spring 2023 with Liiv SANDBOX first up against Kwangdong Freecs before T1 tackle BRION.
Having not made any changes to their roster in the offseason, T1 are once again one of the teams to beat in South Korea, having won five of their first six matches this season.
They are 1/7 to get the better of BRION, who are 4/1 to pull off a shock win.
Thursday 9th February
League of Legends: Dplus KIA and Gen.G expected to pick up LCK Spring wins
There is more LCK Spring 2023 action on Thursday with two other divisional highflyers in action.
Dplus KIA, formerly DWG KIA, enhanced their roster during the offseason and are so far reaping the rewards with four wins collected from their six games.
On Thursday, they are 1/5 to win their first game of week four against KT Rolster, who are 10/3 shots.
Gen.G, who were one of the favourites heading into Worlds 2022 and remain a big name on the LCK circuit, are keeping pace with T1 with a 5-1 win-loss record and they are also expected to see off NS RedForce.
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Friday 10th February
CS:GO: Attention turns to playoffs in IEM Katowice
With the group stage drawing to a close on Tuesday, it is time for the playoffs to begin in the CS:GO IEM Katowice on Friday.
The playoffs will feature six teams with the runners-up in Group B and third-placed side in Group A clashing in the first of two 'quarter-finals'. In the other, Group A's runners-up will take on the team that finished third in Group B.
The winners of those respective clashes will move to the semi-finals, in which they will face each of the group winners for a spot in the Grand Final.
Saturday 11th February
League of Legends: Triple header on the cards in LPL Spring
Week four of China's LPL Spring also gets underway this week and on Saturday there is a triple header of matches.
First up is a clash between lowly pair ThunderTalk Gaming and LGD Gaming before highflyers Invictus Gaming clash with FunPlus Phoenix.
And in the final match of the day, LPL big guns JD Gaming are 4/11 to see off 2/1 shots Weibo Gaming.
Sunday 12th February
CS:GO: IEM Katowice reaches its conclusion
Sunday is a key day in the CS:GO calendar as punters discover the winners of the IEM Katowice.
The tournament's champions will take home an estimated $400,000 and will secure a spot at the IEM Cologne.
