Cloud9 Wins IEM Dallas 2022 after a week full of excitement, IEM Dallas is done and dusted and we have crowned our champions.
Intel Extreme Masters Dallas has reached its conclusion with a Finals matchup between ENCE and Cloud9. The first LAN event on North American soil since mid-2021 started out with eyebrows raised, as multiple teams and multiple players couldn’t attend the event due to the pandemic or visa problems.
One of these players was ENCE’s Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi, which was replaced by the former VP member Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski. People wondered about what could’ve Snax brought to the table, as he was missing from tier 1 CS for a long time, but his performance in Dallas was impressive, to say the least. Besides Snax, Pavle ‘maden’ Bošković and the IGL Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer were the standout players before the series.
On the Cloud9 side, who became the crowd favorites as the NA fans reminisced about the glory days of the org, this was an important tournament, especially after they eliminated FaZe Clan. With the multiple teams missing, this was the opportunity for the young squad to finally prove themselves and win on stage. On a more personal level, there was a lot of criticism towards the IGL Vladislav ‘nafany’ Gorshkov before the tournament, and he managed to silence most of them. In the meantime, the young star Sergey ‘Ax1Le’ Rykhtorov showed the fans he is a real prospect to keep a close eye on.
ENCE 0 – 3 Cloud9
Map 1 (Mirage): ENCE 12 – 16 C9
ENCE had an early lead after picking up the pistol round thanks to a good start from Pavle ‘maden’ Bošković. C9 tested mid and A early on, but double AWP setup from Olek ‘hades’ Miskiewicz and Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski was strong enough to guarantee ENCE a halftime lead. Still without a win streak and good kills from C9 in their losses breaks the economy of ENCE when they picked up a round thanks to Vladislav ‘nafany’ Gorshkov and Sergey ‘Ax1Le’ Rykhtorov’s entries. ENCE took a timeout and got back their guns to win a couple more rounds to end the half at 10-5.
C9 had a better start on their CT side, picking up the pistol and the gun rounds to tie the score at 10-10. While ENCE was finally able to get their first round with a fast B, their lack of kills in previous rounds meant the C9 economy was still strong. The second half was more back and forth with teams trading rounds and neither was able to go on a streak but C9 had the momentum with Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov performing well. With Abay ‘HObbit’ Khasenov also coming into his own, C9 shut down ENCE at the A site multiple times for the match point, and eventually closed it out with the score of 16-12.
ENCE
- maden – 22/3/19
- Snax – 18/5/21
- dycha – 17/7/21
- hades – 16/2/19
- Snappi – 8/0/18
C9
- sh1ro – 23/3/15
- Ax1Le – 21/4/16
- HObbit – 21/1/17
- interz – 19/0/13
- nafany – 14/4/20
Map 2 (Overpass): ENCE 11 – 16 C9
Cloud9 started their map pick Overpass with another pistol win. With the NA crowd behind them and with HObbit once again stepping up, they established an early lead. But a double kill from Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer put ENCE back on the board. But it wasn’t enough as C9’s slower executes were hard to deal with for ENCE as they secured a half-time victory on their T side for a big advantage. The AWP came out for hades but he wasn’t as effective as he needed and nafany’s entries were still on point like the rest of the event. ENCE went back to double AWPs to squeeze two more rounds at the end of the half and made the score 10-5.
C9 also won the second pistol round, but after two massive Deagle headshots from maden, ENCE managed to pick up the next round with a half buy. C9 was then forced to a full eco following a triple kill entry on A from Paweł ‘dycha’ Dycha, shrinking their lead more. Teams traded some rounds and ENCE had the chance to break the C9 economy, but a bad execution at the B site derailed their plans. ENCE struggled with executes as they once again missed their smoke at an empty A site, giving sh1ro and Ax1Le an opportunity to defend the play for the map point. And C9 took advantage and made the score 2-0 with a HObbit triple kill.
ENCE
- Snax – 21/2/17
- maden – 15/4/22
- Snappi – 13/4/21
- hades – 13/2/16
- dycha – 12/3/20
C9
- HObbit – 20/6/20
- sh1ro – 20/2/9
- Ax1Le – 19/2/5
- nafany – 19/2/17
- interz – 18/5/13
Map 3 (Ancient): ENCE 3 – 16 C9
Cloud9 kept up their strong pistol round performances on their CT side, with the IGL nafany once again shining with a triple kill. But back to back A plants and a strained economy forced C9 to a scuffed buy, sh1ro got a triple kill to avoid the disaster. While C9 had a chance to push their lead, a rush on the B site with Tech-9s and Mac-10s gave kept ENCE in the game. Fast plays aside, ENCE’s T side didn’t lead to much success, especially when they encounter nafany who got a quad kill with an AWP. C9 was extra aggressive towards the end of the first half and they choked out ENCE to get a 12-3 half lead.
Timofey ‘interz’ Yakushin started out the T half with a double kill as C9 once again dominated the pistol round and put ENCE is a must-buy position for the rest of the game. And a triple kill from interz meant the match point at 15-3. ENCE couldn’t contest the last round and Cloud9 won the IEM Dallas 2022, with a North American crowd chanting the players’ names.
ENCE
- Snax – 10/2/18
- maden – 7/4/18
- hades – 7/3/17
- dycha – 7/0/17
- Snappi – 5/2/17
C9
- nafany – 24/3/7
- sh1ro – 22/9/9
- interz – 16/5/8
- Ax1Le – 14/3/5
- HObbit – 11/5/7
Tournament MVP
Coming into the IEM, Cloud9 was a team that was considered a dark horse. A dark horse that hasn’t been able to perform on LANas well as they did online. But ever since they’ve beaten FaZe in the Quarterfinals, most fans and analysts started to look at this roster with a different eye.
There wasn’t a single member of C9 that didn’t have their moment to step up throughout the tournament. Their IGL nafany was doubted heavily coming into the event, but he managed to impress not only with his calling but also with how his team played.
The veteran HObbit, the AWPer sh1ro and interz all had a big role in the team’s success. However, the most impressive player for the champions has to be the 20-year-old Ax1Le who finished with a tournament-high 1.32 rating. He not only was the focal point of the offense for C9 on most maps, and on defense he time and time again was left alone to solo sites and clutch rounds. And it wasn’t a surprise that he was the official MVP of the tournament.
Your #ESLProTour DHL MVP is @Ax1LeGOD!
This is his second MVP title after winning one year ago at #IEM Summer 2021!
Congratulations, Sergey!@DeutschePostDHL #TheWorldIsYours pic.twitter.com/lbjA3Yf7Y1
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) June 5, 2022