IEM Dallas is done with its group stage and we are going into the playoffs with our six advancing teams.
After three days of Counter-Strike, IEM Dallas Group Stage is finally over. It has been an exciting three days full of quality CS and it will continue to deliver in front of fans. IEM Dallas will resume with Quarterfinals matchups on June 3, after a one-day rest for the teams.
Day 3 of the groups determined the final fates of the remaining teams. Before today FaZe, ENCE, FURIA and BIG already had their playoffs spots. G2 and Cloud9 added their names to the list.
We also had four more Lower Bracket games which means four more teams ended their IEM journeys today. MiBR, NIP, Vitality and Team Liquid joined the teams that will be going home early without the chance to play in front of a crowd. With this result, no NA team will be on stage in front of the crowd and the only remaining NA representative is FaZe’s Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken.
Group A
FaZe 1 – 2 ENCE
The first map on Mirage was a close affair. ENCE had a slow start on their map pick and were behind 11-4 going into their T side. And although they were able to clean up a little bit, they couldn’t catch up to the Major winners. The only ENCE player with a positive K-D on this map was Pavle ‘Maden’ Bošković with only +1.
The second map was almost a mirror of the first. First half CT sided domination from ENCE and FaZe making a run in the second but falling just short. Olek ‘hades’ Miskiewicz 30-kill performance was the biggest reason ENCE won this map.
The decider was on Nuke and ENCE once again started strong with an 11-4 CT side. Unfortunately for FaZe two of their players in Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen and Robin ‘ropz’ Kool both had a bad game with 7-kills each. FaZe lost the map and the series despite an almost 30-kill map from Twistzz. They still qualify for the Quarterfinals but they won’t be getting a bye round as ENCE will get.
- Map 1 (Mirage): FaZe 16 – 12 ENCE
- Map 2 (Ancient): FaZe 12 – 16 ENCE
- Map 3 (Nuke): FaZe 8 – 16 ENCE
SEMI-FINALS SECURED FOR @ENCE 🙌@FaZeClan 1:2 @ENCE
With that loss for @FaZeClan they will be playing the quarter-finals at #IEM Dallas on Friday🤠 pic.twitter.com/IiMNrFHeC7
— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) June 1, 2022
G2 2 – 0 Vitality
The first two maps of the series were on Dust2, picked by Vitality, and Inferno, picked by G2, which are the two best maps for Vitality over the past three months. Considering this Vitality was slightly favored.
But the French/Danish team couldn’t get a solid start on their T start on Dust2. A 13-2 start meant they had a very narrow comeback chance and G2 didn’t allow too many mistakes and managed to close it out. No Vitality player except Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut scored more than 10 kills.
Inferno started much better and Vitality started to control the game with a 1v3 post-plant clutch by Kévin ‘misutaaa’ Rabier. However, they couldn’t carry the momentum over to the second half. G2 had a very disciplined CT side led by Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač and they wrote their names to a playoff spot while eliminating Vitality.
- Map 1 (Dust2): G2 16 – 7 Vitality
- Map 2 (Inferno): G2 16 – 14 Vitality
Group B
MiBR 0 – 2 Team Liquid
The series started on Ancient, which was a MiBR pick as the map was good to the Brazilians in the recent past. The first half’s CT side showed why the map was picked when MiBR took a three-round lead. However, Liquid managed to go on a streak of their own again on the CT side following the lead of Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic and managed to win the first map.
Liquid also started strong to the second map with a pistol win but a 6-round T side streak for MiBR meant the Brazilians secured a lead going into the second half. Thankfully for Liquid Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski managed to cluth a 1v2 with a quad kill to keep the round difference at only one. This momentum carried into their T side as went on a 9-round win streak to close out the game after losing the pistol round influenced by EliGE’s 25-kill performance.
- Map 1 (Ancient): MiBR 12 – 16 Liquid
- Map 2 (Inferno): MiBR 9 – 16 Liquid
Cloud9 2 – 0 Ninjas in Pyjamas
Both Cloud9 and NIP are teams that didn’t expect to be going out early in the tournament. This means both teams were extra motivated for today. The first map showed this motivation big time as the C9’s map pick was very competitive and seemed like it could’ve gone both ways. In the end, Ninjas couldn’t overcome the C9’s AWPer Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov who clutched the last round of overtime in a glorious fashion.
The second map was NIP’s pick overpass but Ninjas didn’t have their expected start in the game. C9 won the first eight rounds and had a commanding 11-4 lead in their CT side carried by a 21-kill half by Vladislav ‘nafany’ Gorshkov. NIP once again looked disjointed throughout the game, perhaps due to the absence of their IGL Hampus ‘hampus’ Poser. C9 advanced to the next round with a comfortable 2-0.
- Map 1 (Vertigo): C9 19 – 16 NIP
- Map 2 (Overpass): C9 16 – 5 NIP
FURIA 1 – 2 BIG
The first game of the series was on BIG pick Nuke. The German team started out on their T side in an aggressive fashion and took control of the map. They did not slow down in the second half and closed out the map easily in big part thanks to a 28-kill performance by Josef ‘faveN’ Baumann. On the other side Rafael ‘saffee’ Costa who is having a good event couldn’t impact the map at all and only scored 6 kills.
FURIA was much better on their map pick Vertigo. They showed a more coordinated CT side and a more aggressive T side as they managed to take the series to the decider map on Mirage. While saffee still struggled during Vertigo, Andrei ‘arT’ Piovezan was the difference-maker.
BIG started had a very good start to Mirage. They showed clean executed bomb site takes especially towards A site meant an 11-4 BIG lead. FURIA managed to win the CT site pistol despite a good clutch attempt from Johannes ‘tabseN’ Wodarz but an aggressive third-round buy put BIG back in control. Without a win streak, FURIA doesn’t have the economy to contest BIG in most rounds and German representatives take the first place in the group.
- Map 1 (Nuke): FURIA 8 – 16 BIG
- Map 2 (Vertigo): FURIA 16 – 10 BIG
- Map 3 (Mirage): FURIA 10 – 16 BIG
Team Liquid 0 – 2 Cloud9
The Series started on Liquid’s pick Ancient. Unfortunately for the NA representatives, they looked too uncoordinated and C9’s CT side was overwhelmingly dominant with a 13-2 scoreline. While Liquid managed to win the T side pistol and the following couple of rounds, C9 won and put that a fast stop with the first gun round. With a deficit this big, C9 managed to close out the map.
Team Liquid once again started slowly in the second map, especially Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski was having a tough time with zero kills in the first ten rounds. Although they were able to win a couple of rounds here and there, with plays like triple kill site hold from Josh ‘oSee’ Ohm, they couldn’t keep a win streak and build their economy.
With most entry kills and clutches going to C9’s way, Liquid couldn’t put up much fight. Even though Liquid played a much better second half as EliGE found his form with 20 kills, the deficit from the first half was too big to overcome.
- Map 1 (Ancient): Liquid 5 – 16 C9
- Map 2 (Vertigo): Liquid 12 – 16 C9
Playoffs Schedule
Quarterfinals, June 3
- FURIA vs G2 Esports – 10:00 AM PST
- FaZe vs Team Liquid – 1:30 PM PST
Semifinals, June 4
- ENCE vs TBD – 8:00 AM PST
- BIG vs TBD – 11:30 AM PST