The first day in the stadium is done in Dallas and our two Semi-Final match-ups are determined.
After an exciting group stage, IEM Dallas is finally ready to receive the crowd. With ENCE and BIG waiting for their opponents in the Semi-Finals, we only had two Quarterfinals to play today.
FURIA 2 – 1 G2 Esports
Map 1 (Inferno): FURIA 13 – 16 G2
FURIA started with a CT side pistol win on G2’s map pick. G2 won an eco round after a quad kill clutch from Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen and didn’t let FURIA build an early lead. We saw an ace from Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač in round six even though it was only against pistols. Two saved guns won FURIA a round back in a B site defuse with 0.1 seconds remaining, despite an impressive double kill from NiKo. G2 is forced into a save after Ilya ‘mONESY’ Osipov had a technical problem and disconnected from the game. In round 14, we saw another 1v3 from G2 IGL Aleksib who dismantled FURIA in the post plant with an AWP which meant his team only had a one-round deficit in the first half.
FURIA once again won the pistol in the second half but once the guns came out in the CT side of G2 they were able to hold Brazilians back from planting the bomb. After a quad kill from NiKo G2 managed to even the score at 11-11. Three triple kill rounds in a row from NiKo, Audric ‘JACKZ’ Jug and mONESY gave G2 a late-game lead, 14-12. After a great B site hold, G2 has three map points. Despite the best efforts of FURIA, G2 manages to close out the map with a quad kill from Nemanja ‘huNter-’ Kovač.
FURIA
- yuurih – 20/5/22
- drop – 18/4/22
- saffee – 17/4/19
- arT – 14/2/22
- KSCERATO – 13/1/19
G2
- huNter- – 28/2/17
- NiKo – 24/5/17
- Aleksib – 21/8/16
- mONESY – 19/0/17
- JACKZ – 12/7/16
Map 2 (Vertigo): FURIA 19 – 17 G2
FURIA came into their pick Vertigo with over 75% pistol win rate and didn’t surprise by picking up their T side pistol round. Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato had a much better start to Vertigo after a slow first map. Despite an early tactical timeout from FURIA, G2 won the first gun round and shut down multiple A takes forcing another timeout.
After the timeout, FURIA came out aggressive with a quad kill from Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos, but NiKo managed to clutch the 1v1 making the score 5-3. G2 did a good of limiting the playmaking ability of FURIA, especially Andrei ‘arT’ Piovezan who finished the half with 4 kills, and won the first half 11-4, despite a couple of clutch attempts of KSCERATO. On the other side, JACKZ had an immense impact with multiple 1vX clutches.
FURIA won their fourth pistol round in a row and the following two rounds. But G2 answered after huNter-’s great opening with the saved AK. FURIA went into their last timeout after losing a round with arT’s ‘hero MP9’ and an otherwise full save. However, the Brazilians managed to close the deficit thanks to good performances from both KSCERATO and yuurih. G2 also looked more disjointed on their T side which allowed the score to get to 14-12. A couple of exchanged rounds broke G2’s economy and FURIA pushed it to overtime.
G2’s A ramp play wasn’t great as they couldn’t get past Rafael ‘saffee’ Costa and yuurih and this continued in the overtime as well with FURIA winning all three CT side rounds. Even though G2’s CT side was much better and another JACKZ clutch, FURIA closed out the game and completed an impressive comeback.
FURIA
- yuurih – 32/13/26
- KSCERATO – 32/5/22
- saffee – 27/3/18
- arT – 21/4/28
- drop – 19/7/23
G2
- NiKo – 28/12/25
- JACKZ – 27/0/26
- mONESY – 22/1/27
- huNter- – 21/5/25
- Aleksib – 19/7/28
Map 3 (Mirage): FURIA 16 – 5 G2
G2’s struggles with pistol rounds carried over to Mirage as they haven’t managed to win any pistol rounds during the Bo3. Even though G2 won a couple of rounds, FURIA answers quickly to make the score 6-2. Going into a G2 timeout, JACKZ had zero kills throughout the first nine rounds while yuurih was continuing his performance from Vertigo. With arT finding his form and a good performance from André ‘drop’ Abreu FURIA guaranteed a half lead, but G2 still fought back when Aleksib stuck a bomb defuse out in the open. We closed out the half with an 11-4 FURIA lead after a quad kill clutch from mONESY.
In the second half G2 looked uncoordinated after losing the pistol round. Their multiple A site take attempts were defended easily by FURIA and they closed out the game 16-5. FURIA will go on to play ENCE for a chance at the Finals. While yuurih, drop and arT had 20+ kills, Aleksib and JACKZ finished the game with 6 and 5 kills respectively.
FURIA
- yuurih – 24/6/10
- drop – 22/2/10
- arT – 20/4/11
- KSCERATO – 12/2/10
- saffee – 11/2/9
G2
- mONESY – 14/1/18
- NiKo – 13/2/18
- huNter- – 12/2/17
- Aleksib – 6/1/19
- JACKZ – 5/3/17
FaZe Clan 1 – 2 Cloud9
Map 1 (Overpass): FaZe 16 – 14 C9
Cloud9 won the first round of the series with a great flash at long and then slowing the play. C9’s early aggression on B site led to a 5-1 lead and an early FaZe timeout. Even though FaZe was much more effective when Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants had his AWP, especially when he got a collateral in the connector, they still found it hard to stop Timofey ‘interz’ Yakushin and Sergey ‘Ax1Le’ Rykhtorov from getting entry kills. At least they were until Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken’s started denying C9 the B site with ten kills in three rounds. With his and broky’s performance, FaZe won six of the last seven rounds for an 8-7 halftime lead.
FaZe won the T side pistol after Abay ‘HObbit’ Khasenov whiffed his shot on a planting player. C9 answered with the gun round after a quad kill from Vladislav ‘nafany’ Gorshkov. FaZe’s executes after getting just one pick were impressive as they broke C9’s economy while making the score 12-8. While FaZe rushed B for the match point, C9 held on with another quad kill from nafany.
The IGL of C9 was the hero of their CT side as he clutched two more rounds, one with a nade to stop the plant and another triple kill at the A site. Despite all the efforts of C9 to reach overtime, FaZe ended the map with a great B site execute.
FaZe
- ropz – 24/1/18
- broky – 24/0/15
- Twistzz – 21/4/16
- rain – 14/5/21
- karrigan – 10/6/23
C9
- nafany – 30/3/21
- Ax1Le – 22/5/20
- sh1ro – 17/1/13
- HObbit – 13/4/22
- interz – 10/2/19
Map 2 (Inferno): FaZe 13 – 16 C9
C9 won the pistol after a 4v2 from Ax1Le and interz. FaZe started the first gun round better but interz won another clutch, this time a 5v2 and this time with sh1ro. However, the Major winners recovered the next round with a good force buy and turned it into a win streak of their own. However, after multiple clutches from C9, they managed to take the lead once again. After win streaks went back and forth, C9 won a force buy in their last round to at least close the half 8-7.
Cloud9 started the second half very aggressively by rushing mid and banana on the CT side, but they got punished as Faze won the pistol and following round for their first lead of the game. It didn’t last long as C9 equalized it at 10-10 thanks to a B site hold from interz. C9 rushed mid once again but this time with an AWP and it worked effortlessly, signaling they are in full control of the game.
C9 managed to preserve their one-round lead and forced FaZe to a save round with a 1v2 site hold in the A pit from Ax1Le. Ax1Le then had a great flank from apartments but held his trigger for too long so FaZe managed to crack B site. However, he made up for it with a triple kill in the pit the next round for his 32nd one and gave his team the match point and the eventual match.
FaZe
- karrigan – 20/5/19
- broky – 19/0/21
- rain – 18/6/18
- Twistzz – 16/3/19
- ropz – 15/4/21
C9
- Ax1Le – 34/0/18
- sh1ro – 19/6/16
- nafany – 17/4/22
- interz – 15/2/12
- HObbit – 13/2/20
Map 3 (Mirage): FaZe 13 – 16 C9
FaZe started Mirage red hot with an amazing triple from Twistzz. In the first gun round, Robin ‘ropz’ Kool pushed T base for an early numbers lead and an early C9 timeout. While C9 tied the score coming out of the timeout, rain’s great A site hold kept FaZe in the lead. FaZe forced C9 to a save round after broky and sh1ro’s opposing AWP masterclass went in their favor. But C9 closed the deficit 8-7 going into the half with a 1v3 post-plant clutch from Ax1Le.
The second half started with a good retake from C9 but Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen managed to clutch it out. FaZe found success after success at the A site to get a comfortable 12-7 lead. But HObbit found his for at the back of A and the scoreline became a tight 13-12, and Ax1Le tied it with an ace for his 24th kill. FaZe couldn’t manage to break Cloud9’s CT side holds and they won the series 2-1.
Cloud9’s win over FaZe is the biggest upset of the event so far as most fans and analysts predicted FaZe to win it all while C9 was underperforming since Major. With this win, C9 will play BIG in the Semi-Finals and have a good chance at the Final itself.
FaZe
- ropz – 25/2/19
- rain – 20/1/22
- broky – 17/1/21
- Twistzz – 15/2/17
- karrigan – 11/1/20
C9
- Ax1Le – 29/6/19
- sh1ro – 24/3/15
- HObbit – 20/3/17
- nafany – 14/5/22
- interz – 12/3/15
A MONSTER series from @Ax1LeGOD as @C9CSGO take down the #1 team in the world.#IEM pic.twitter.com/SRxz8cbS2f
— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) June 4, 2022
Remaining Schedule
Semifinals, June 4
- ENCE vs FURIA Esports – 8:00 AM PST
- BIG vs Cloud9 – 11:30 AM PST
Grand Final, June 5
You can watch the Intel Extreme Dallas 2022 Playoffs on the official ESL Twitch channel. Thinking of placing a bet on the Finals? Be sure to check out our CS:GO betting tips!
Images: ESL