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All IEM Dallas Winners from over the years

All IEM Dallas Winners from over the years

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
7h
Foo Zen-Wen

Within the hallowed halls of Counter-Strike tournaments, Dallas does not land incredibly high up on the list of notable destinations. Nor has it been a long-running tradition. That said, this particular location not only finds itself rising in popularity, especially with notable victories in recent history, but also one of the few remaining cornerstone institutional tournaments for North American Counter-Strike to flourish.

Intel has announced IEM Dallas will be returning as part of their lineup of tournaments for 2025. It's an incredibly notable move and one that sees an effort to sustain and improve the slowly fading heartbeat of North American Counter-Strike.

Introduced back in Season 3 of the Intel Grand Slam, Dallas has swiftly become a fan-favourite tournament among Intel’s catalogue of Counter-Strike events. Hence, as we gear up for the next year’s round, let us take a moment to savour the previous winners of IEM Dallas.

All IEM Dallas Winners

IEM Dallas 2022

Cloud9 lifting IEM Dallas 2022 Trophy Credit: ESL

IEM Dallas officially debuted in 2022 with a $250, 000 prize pool as a 16 team event - a tradition maintained as recently as this year’s iteration. Cloud9 was the first champion, taking away a $100,000 cash prize after a dominant victory against ENCE in the Grand Finals.

Winning Roster:

In one of the most impressive runs for this particular roster, it also marks the solitary win the roster ever achieved as a whole, post-acquisition by Cloud9. Taking place just under 2 months after the acquisition of the full Gambit roster, they failed to achieve any more podium finishes for the rest of 2022. However, this one run of theirs was truly remarkable.

The very first scalp Cloud9 claimed during their run was against the briefly-lived Team Liquid with French legend Shox. A swift victory in their opening Group match catapulted Cloud9 into a faceoff against Furia.

Unfortunately, they were decimated 0-2, dropping them to the lower bracket to face Ninjas in Pyjamas. At the time, the organization still maintained a nearly full Swedish lineup. However, they were very much a mid-table team and Cloud9 swiftly dispatched them 2-0. A follow up rematch against Team Liquid secured the former Gambit roster a spot in the playoffs' single-elimination bracket.

Round 1, Cloud9 took on the giant of FaZe during the peak of their powers and slew the beast. It marked the first tournament FaZe lost that year after a string of 3, including their Major win at Antwerp. Nothing adds legitimacy quite like taking down the current king, as Cloud9 did. They faced BIG in the semis and ENCE in the finals but for all intents and purposes, it was a victory lap for the Russian roster.

IEM Dallas 2023

Credit: Helena Kristiansson // ESL

Following the next year, IEM Dallas returned with very much the same initial stakes, but completely new faces. ENCE found their revenge in a roundabout way, claiming the victory on the podium that they had missed just the year before.

However, the ENCE that lifted the trophy had changed in that year. Leaner, stronger, Dallas turned out to be the beginning of a run for the roster, culminating in the core being picked up by Team Falcons at the end of 2023.

Winning Roster:

ENCE claimed their first victory in the Group Stage against Complexity, who themselves had been having a rough opening to the year. A quarterfinals finish at Katowice earlier that same year had been the sole remarkable highlight thus far. ENCE cleanly stormed past them and faced against a much more subdued FaZe, a far cry from the overlords of 2022, FaZe was muted and fell to ENCE 0-2.

With a clean sweep of the Groups, ENCE earned a ride straight to the semifinals, where they once again faced FaZe. In a heroic rally, the FaZe that ENCE faced that Semis was a far more stalwart opponent and it showed, pushing both teams on the final map of Ancient to a staggering 59 rounds played.

ENCE eventually closed it out but it was by no means an easy feat. By contrast, MOUZ in the finals fell far easier with a 2-0 scoreline for ENCE to lift their first silverware of the year.

IEM Dallas 2024

G2 IEM Dallas Credit: Stephanie-Lindgren // ESL

Everyone knows this one. The story is still fresh in people’s minds as of the time of this article. Stewie2k swoops in like the boy prodigy he once was when G2 needed him most, and played a pivotal role in securing a podium victory for the team on North American soil.

Winning Roster:

For the star-studded roster, they had suffered a string of bitterly close finishes including semifinals at the PGL Copenhagen Major as well as the IEM Chengdu right before. Top 8 at ESL Pro League Season 19 still played in their minds. Moreover, IGL Hooxi announced that he would be missing the event for personal reasons, meaning the team would need to field a replacement and fill the gaps left by their IGL. Enter Stewie2k.

G2 began their run by taking down Team Falcons, a roster very few saw as true competition but still fielded some decent individuals. G2’s decisive victory paved the way for a matchup against another team many considered in the running for strongest in 2024 - Team Vitality - thanks in large part to superstar Zyw0o. The clash between the two teams failed to deliver on the anticipation as Vitality clean swept them 2-0, keeping G2 to single digit scorelines on both maps.

G2’s road to Playoffs from there was far from clean. A faceoff against MOUZ became a close affair after G2 let slip Nuke, narrowly closing it out on Ancient. Against Liquid, it was a full brawl fest as the two teams traded map picks in close fashion, followed by an equally close decider on Nuke. But in the end, G2 was victorious.

Heading into Playoffs, G2 had to face FaZe, taking down the former titans 2-0 in a dismal showing FaZe never really showed up for. 9z was a closer affair but they were also unable to do enough to take down G2, falling 2-0 as well. And finally, it ended as it began, with a Grand Finals against none other than Team Vitality. In a Playoffs run rife with disappointing resistance, Vitality stepped up.

The two teams clashed in an epic battle with both Maps 1 and 2 going into overtime. Map 3, while remaining in regular time, was a nail-biting conclusion that saw Stewie in particular find great effect for his team, rolling back the years with his signature fearless aggression on entry.

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Featured Image Credit: ESL

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