And then there are those who weaken, becoming prey; shadows of the players they were when pressure was off in the group stage. Even at Cologne and Katowice, six-team playoffs ruleSix-team playoff brackets have become the norm in Counter-Strike, used by ESL and BLAST in almost all of their events. True, those who top the group stage are often the best in the world anyway. Lisbon was the first with it on display, before BLAST Open London became a distinct outlier and the worst offender by playing its group stage online. It's not even an unfamiliar one for ESL, which ran that very setup for the group stage of IEM Katowice 2019.