The Counter-Strike tournament’s playoff bracket is now complete, with six teams set to compete for the $100,000 cash prize and a chance to play in the IEM Cologne.

MOUZ qualified for the IEM Dallas playoff stage after winning OG 2-0 in Group A lower bracket final. Conversely, OG leaves the CS:GO event with a top-eight placing and a $6,000 cash prize.

The teams played on Mirage and Inferno, which MOUZ won 16-10 and 16-7, respectively. David “frozen” ?er��ansky was the highest-rated player on the series with a 1.60 rating, followed by Christopher “?dexter?” Nong.

In their first attempt to reach the playoffs, MOUZ was beaten by Heroic before getting 2-0 wins against FURIA and OG and securing their spot.

The win is a welcome change for MOUZ following their previous disappointing performances. The team recorded last-place finishes in events like the IEM Rio and the BLAST.tv Paris Major Challengers Stage.

FaZe secured the last spot in the IEM Dallas playoffs after beating Cloud9 1-2. The three-map series was played on Mirage, which FaZe won 16-7, and Inferno, where Cloud9 were able to tie the scores and push for a third map. FaZe took home Ancient 16-9, winning the series and the last spot in the playoffs.

The match was their second game against each other since facing off in the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR last chance qualifier where FaZe were also victorious.

Cloud9 leave the CS:GO tournament in 7th-8th place, securing $6,000 from the prize pool.

The teams will continue playing in the quarter-finals in Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Texas, on Friday before advancing to the semi-finals on Saturday. The playoffs conclude in a best-of-three grand final on Sunday.

The IEM Dallas quarter-finals will see MOUZ play against Astralis on Friday at 19:30 following the Danish lineup’s 1-2 loss to ENCE. G2 and FaZe will follow at 23:00 in the quarter-final round.

The victor of the MOUZ-Astralis match-up will face off against Heroic on Saturday in the tournament’s semi-finals. Heroic secured a top-four finish after winning matches against 9z, G2, and MOUZ without dropping a single map.

ENCE are also in the semi-finals and will play against the winner of the G2 vs. FaZe match. If they win, ENCE will confirm their second consecutive IEM Dallas grand final appearance.
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The organization’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive General Manager, Graham “messioso” Pitt, revealed that the Norwegian player has yet to receive a visa to travel for the tournament. The event is set to take place in a few weeks in Dallas, USA. Complexity were sent an invite as ESL’s partner.

This is not the first time hallzerk has encountered visa and immigration troubles in the past months. The player faced similar issues last month ahead of the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR, which took place in Monterrey, Mexico.

Hallzerk was fortunate enough to get a temporary passport at that time, allowing him to participate in the American RMR.

There has seemingly been little progress on the visa front since then, as the player is still encountering the same problems. Complexity is reportedly searching for a substitute for the tournament, in case hallzerk is unable to make it in time.

Since joining Complexity in place of Paytyn “junior” Johnson last year, hallzerk has proven to be a great addition to the team. During his stint, Complexity briefly rose to No 8 in the world rankings and reached a top-eight finish at the IEM Katowice 2023.

In related news, Complexity’s IGL Johnny “JT” Theodosiou, who was born in South Africa, recently received Portuguese citizenship. Like hallzerk, the player also faced similar long-time visa issues until acquiring a Portuguese passport as a result of his mother’s Portuguese citizenship.

This does not absolve JT of all visa issues in the future; however, a European Union passport allows the owner to access several visa-free countries.

Complexity were recently beaten out of the BLAST.tv Paris Major Challengers Stage by Team Liquid with a 2-0 scoreboard. This is their second match against each other in recent months, having previously faced off during PGL Antwerp.

The IEM Dallas 2023 is set to kick off on May 29 and will conclude on June 4.

With the 3-0 sweep over ENCE in the IEM Dallas grand finals, the American team have lifted their first trophy in over four years. The moment they had ENCE on the ropes, they never took their foot off the gas.

Coming into the matchup, ENCE were the favorites with the top betting sites as they had the better form. Unfortunately, that superiority was only on display during the first half of the first map as they were blown out the rest of the series.

On Mirage, which was ENCE’s pick, they had a sizzling start. They held a 10-5 lead entering the second half, but were completely taken apart.

In the second half, C9 went on an incredible 11-2 run to win the map 16-12. For the remainder of the game, Cloud9 showed their dominance.

Despite their intriguing comeback in the first map, their performance on Ancient was sublime. It was undoubtedly the best way to complete a sweep.

In another ENCE map pick, C9 exploded in the first half, going on a 12-3 run.

Credit to Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov and Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov for their clutch display. They combined for 40 kills in the first half before putting the series to rest with four consecutive wins on the T-side. C9 completed the 3-0 series sweep with a 16-3 run on Ancient.

Although they had a dominating grand finals appearance, their displays prior were not as great. Their journey started with a convincing 16-6 victory over Team Liquid in the opening match. Shortly after, they got swept by FURIA Esports 2-0 and got relegated to the lower bracket round 2.

C9 dominated the lower bracket, sweeping Ninjas in Pyjamas and Team Liquid to secure a spot in the playoffs.

Their biggest victory came in the quarterfinals of the playoffs, where they defeated the No. 1 ranked CS: GO team FaZe Clan. It was a closely contested series, but they managed an impressive 16-13 victory on Mirage to advance to the next round.

Despite losing the first map against BIG in the semifinals, they responded in prime fashion, taking Dust II and Ancient rather comfortably.

For ENCE, it was smooth sailing throughout the tournament. The European team played only four games to reach the grand final compared to C9’s six.

Even with the extra rest, they did not make it count where it mattered most.

It is worth noting that this was a different C9 team. They acquired Gambit Esports’ roster on April 24.

For their efforts, C9 was rewarded with $100,000 from the $250,000 prize pool, 1,000 Pro Tour points, and 2,400 BLAST Premier points.

With the BLAST Premier points C9 they got for winning the event, they currently hold the No. 8 spot on the CS:GO world leaderboard. If they keep up this form, they are guaranteed good results in many of the seven Blast events remaining in the year.

Ultimately, holding a top-four spot will guarantee direct seeding to the World Final.

ENCE, on the other hand, are perfectly placed to secure their World Final berth. However, they will need to replicate their recent performances going forward.

As an organization, this counts as their first trophy since winning the 2018 ELEAGUE Boston Major. The result promises good things to come as it is only their second event since acquiring Gambit’s roster.
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They got the better of FURIA, sweeping them 2-0 to advance to the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament grand finals as they look to win $100,000 of the $250,000 prize pool. Their journey so far in the IEM Dallas is without a doubt unexpected as they have been without their best player, Lotan ��Spinx�� Giladi.

ENCE’s roster consists of Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, Pawe? “dycha” Dycha, Aleksander “hades” Miskiewicz and Pavle “maden” Bo?kovi?, with stand-in and Polish legend Janusz ��Snax�� Pogorzelski. Snax is standing in for Spinx who could not be present due to visa issues. It was almost impossible to envision the team making it to the grand finals without Spinx, but Snax has proved himself to be an amazing replacement.

ENCE is said to be one of the best teams in the world and they have repeatedly shown that at the IEM Dallas. Their clean sweep over FURIA who defeated G2 Esports and Cloud9 on their way to the semifinals is a clear resolve as to their readiness to be the 2022 IEM champions. ENCE had knocked out the IEM XVI Katowice champions FaZe Clan to advance to the semifinals.

A brief rundown on the semifinals fixture between ENCE and FURIA

The series started with the first map pick Vertigo selected by FURIA. While the game was close, ENCE claimed the victory over FURIA in a 16-14 win. Snappi led his team to victory with 23 kills, alongside maden who also completed 23 kills.

ENCE’s chosen map, Nuke was not as close as the Vertigo, as ENCE only lost a round to FURIA. The Brazilian team fought to tie the game and force a Game 3 but ENCE proved to be up to the task as they closed out the game 16-9.

While every player on ENCE’s roster ended the game with a positive rating and K/D ratio. Snax garnered the most kills (43) and the least number of deaths (35). The 28-year old, who is a free agent still has it in him as he recorded a stellar performance to help ENCE secure the win.

During the post-game interview, Snax shared his excitement, stating that he really is happy to be back in front of the crowd. He compared it to old times when he was enjoying his life, playing in front of the audience he said ��is always good.��

��Obviously, I’m really happy about this,�� Snax said. ��It reminds me of old times when I was enjoying my life, enjoying to play in front of crowd is always good. I have no words to describe the feeling.��

The Brazilian team has found it difficult to advance to the final stages of tournaments in recent times. Their last appearance in a tournament’s grand final occurred as far back as 2020, with AWPer Henrique ��HEN1�� Teles and support rifler Vinicius ��VINI�� Figueiredo still on the roster.

ENCE will be taking on Cloud9 in the finals after the Santa Monica-based franchise got the better of BIG in the other semifinal fixture. Both teams will compete in a best of 5 series for a chance to become the 2022 IEM Dallas champions.
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