IEM Dallas Down to Six as Playoffs Begin

16 teams came to Dallas to participate in the Intel Extreme Masters Counter-Strike tournament, and after a fierce double elimination style Group Stage we are down to the final six. MOUZ, G2 Esports, Heroic, ENCE, Astralis, or FaZe Clan will take home the title of IEM Dallas Champions and punch their ticket to IEM Cologne later this year. All that remains is a single elimination best-of-three bracket to determine who will reign as champion. 

Heroic and ENCE

Heroic and ENCE will watch the Quarterfinals as audience members as they await to see who their opponents will be after getting automatically seeded into the Semifinals after winning the Group Stage brackets. Their first taste of Playoffs action will come on Saturday, June 3rd. 

The Danish squad of Heroic showed absolute dominance in their perfect run through the Group A bracket as all opposition failed to take a single map off them. Heroic has been winning by wide margins, with their closest win so far has been by a whopping six points. They opened up with a 16-9 win on Mirage against 9z Team. They followed it up by 2-0ing MOUZ and G2 Esports. Their showing in groups makes them a clear favorite to take the whole thing.

ENCE had a solid run themselves, though their final against Astralis was highly competitive. They started with an easy 16-7 win on Nuke against Complexity Gaming. They then put on a convincing 2-0 over FaZe Clan. The Group B final has been the best match so far in the tournament, with Astralis taking the first map 16-12 before ENCE took the last two maps 19-17 and 16-12, respectively. 

Astralis vs. MOUZ

When: Friday, June 2nd – 2:30 PM ET

Odds: Astralis (-176) vs. MOUZ (+135)

Astralis was looking good before being unable to close out the Group B final. They took down Team Liquid in a thrilling 19-17 single-map match on Overpass. In the upper bracket semifinals, they took down Cloud9 2-0, winning both maps, Ancient and Mirage, with scores of 8-8. After they were so close to winning Group B, you can expect them to come to the Playoffs extremely motivated and focused.

MOUZ has had a solid tournament so far, looking dominant in all their matches other than their loss to Heroic. They started their tournament with a 16-9 win over Fnatic. They then lost against Heroic but bounced back in the Lower Bracket, 2-0ing FURIA Esports, before doing it again against OG in the Lower Bracket Final.  

G2 Esports vs. FaZe Clan

G2 Esports had a dominant run to the Group B final to their credit. They opened their tournament against Nouns Esports, who they decimated, taking the game 16-5. They had the same success against OG opening the match with a 16-2 win on Mirage before closing it out with a 16-9 win on Inferno. Though they stumbled in the finals against Heroic, this is still one of the best Counter-Stike teams in the world, and you can expect high-level play from them. 

FaZe Clan started their tournament with a 19-17 win over Evil Geniuses. ENCE promptly sent them to the lower bracket via 2-0. FaZe Clan made the best out of a bad situation finding a quick 2-0 over Team Liquid before taking down Cloud9 in a convincing 2-1 win in the Lower Bracket Finals. Though they’ve struggled most of the remaining teams, they’ve proven to be formidable opponents.