The NA CS Disaster : IEM Dallas 2023 Day 3 Recap
Day 3 of the Group Stages of IEM Dallas 2023 saw all of the teams that qualified for the Playoffs. It was full of celebrations and heartbreak, as we sent off one of Counter Strike’s oldest players.
Group A
Upper Bracket Finals: Heroic vs G2 Esports
Heroic managed to get the better of G2 in their 3 match series, as the Danes took the win 2-0. The Danish side showed total domination in both Inferno and Ancient. G2 looked completely unprepared, as they could not fight back at all. Heroic managed to win both maps comfortably at 16-9 and 16-4 respectively.
Lower Bracket Finals: OG vs MOUZ
MOUZ have been enjoying a good run this tournament, as they managed to beat OG 2-0 in their matchup. The young squad led by Dexter had a much better game than OG, who were playing with stand-in Regali in place of their primary AWPer degster. MOUZ managed to get comfortable victories on Mirage and Inferno, as they took both maps 16-10 and 16-7 respectively.
Heroic has clinched the Semi Finals spot in the Playoffs, while G2 and MOUZ have qualified for the Quarter Finals.
Group B
Upper Bracket Finals: ENCE vs Astralis
ENCE managed to steal the Semi FInals spot from Astralis, as they beat the Danish outfit 2-1 in the series. Astralis kicked off things on Overpass, where they maintained the consistency they were showing throughout the tournament. They won the map 16-12. But ENCE were not ones to give up. They managed to take the lead on Nuke, and got to Map Point first, but Astralis pushed the game into Overtime. However, ENCE kept their cool, and took the map at 19-17.
Final map was Mirage, where once again, ENCE prevailed against the Danes. Even though ENCE managed to end the first half in their favor, Astralis quickly took back the lead in the second half at 12-8. But then ENCE pulled off an unbelievable 8 round win streak to win the map 16-12.
Lower Bracket:
The Lower Bracket of Group B was filled with upsets and heartbreaks. Cloud9 beat Complexity 2-1, and progressed onto the Lower Bracket Finals, eliminating the North American Squad from the tournament.
On the other side, Faze Clan took on Team Liquid. The international squad beat the NA side 2-0, eliminating them from the tournament. This match was nitr0’s final professional CSGO match, as he is set to retire after this tournament. IEM Dallas ended in heartbreak for Team Liquid, as they will have to say farewell to their long time IGL from the Group Stages.
As Team Liquid are eliminated, all NA teams have been eliminated from IEM Dallas 2023, and none will have a chance to play for glory on home soil.
Cloud9 faced Faze Clan in the Lower Bracket Finals, where the blue outfit could not take on the former Major Champions. Faze Clan won the series 2-1, and eliminated the former IEM Dallas Champions, as they took the final qualification spot for the playoffs.
ENCE has managed to qualify directly to the Semi Finals, while Astralis and Faze Clan will play in the Quarter Finals.
Image Source: ESL