What a long time it's been since the U.S. side hosted a LAN tier-1 tournament! Three years after ESL One New York 2019, the top teams of the pro scene will come to the United States to battle each other. The geopolitical situation interfered with the cybersport world again, so only Cloud9 will defend the honor of the CIS region at this event. In the article from Telecomasia, you can find out why Entropiq and Natus Vincere quitted the game at the last moment, which competition format ESL suggested, the main favorite of the tournament and whether the FaZe Clan title streak can be interrupted.
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Participants of the tournament
Almost all top teams will participate in the transatlantic event. Without taking the CIS teams into account, only Copenhagen Flames is missing from the list of leaders. This phenomenon can be explained by rumors about transferring players from the organization to new teams. Representatives of the Danes officially refused to attend the event. As for the CIS squads, their failure to appear at the tournament was caused by denying visas to the United States. Last year's major finalist Natus Vincere, because of three Russians on the roster, decided not to resolve the organizational issues and focused on the upcoming BLAST Premier Spring Final. Insiders are saying that this tournament will be the last for this squad. Team Spirit could have received an invitation, but the visa issue was not resolved. Outsiders sent YEKINDAR and buster to inactive, so the team is now focusing on the newcomers.
The most unfortunate situation happened to Entropiq. After their failure at the RMR tournament, the roster did very well at the indoor qualifiers for IEM Dallas, where they managed to beat Copenhagen Flames, MOUZ, fnatic, BIG. Unfortunately, no matter how hard the organization's representatives tried, they still failed to solve the problem with the visas. The team won't be able to return to its former positions. After the final decisions on NaVi and Entropiq, BIG and Movistar Riders were urgently summoned to try their luck with the others.
Since the actual ex-players of Gambit Esports represent the American organization and are authorized to work in the United States, there was no doubt about their participation in the competition. Cloud9 management representatives are ambitious for this tournament in front of their home stands, especially after the fiasco in Antwerp. We do not doubt that the guys can recover from the Belgian failures and defend the region's honor with dignity.
Tournament format
ESL has once again resorted to their traditional scheme with two groups, where after the double elimination scheme, only three teams of each subgroup will move to the playoffs. The winner of the group automatically qualifies for the semifinals of the competition. In contrast, the finalist of the top bracket, along with the winner of the lower bracket, reaches the quarterfinals. The spectators watched the tournament in this format for several years, and the last time we saw it was at IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne. If a team suffers the second loss in the group, they leave. Everything is standard in the knockout phase: you lose - you quit.
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Before the start of the tournament, the key question is certainly - whether anyone will be able to stop the FaZe Clan. The organization won three out of three major tournaments in 2022. Winning at IEM Dallas will bring the team closer to the Intel Grand Slam. After an impressive performance in Antwerp, the team has no intention of slowing down. In the first game, they will meet the main outsider of the competition, Looking for Org, and then the pair Astralis - Vitality. Both teams are in crisis after failures in the major. The first team failed to reach the Legends stage. The second didn't qualify for the playoffs. Vitality was stronger in Antwerp in bo1 format. We'll see if the situation will change this time.
G2 Esports is expected to make a big step forward. Ilya m0NESY Osipov managed to get a visa, which means the team's roster will be complete. Nikola NiKo Kovač made it clear on his social media that the roster is not dwelling on the offensive defeat in Belgium and is hungry for more victories. The last time the squad reached the final was in Katowice in this format, so we should expect a great performance. ENCE, the main opponent on the bracket, stumbled in the semifinals of PGL Major, lost to G2 at the tournament itself, and also fought with FaZe. However, this time ENCE will have to fight without their key player. Lotan Spinx Giladi couldn't get a visa either, and he will be substituted by the legend of CS:GO - Janusz Snax Pogorzelski. MOUZ adds interest to the group. She hasn't made it to the major and has more motivation than the others.
Bet on IEM Dallas 2022 with 1xBetGroup B
Group B is richer in teams from the American region. The main Atlantic powerhouse here is FURIA and Imperial and Liquid, who made a sensation on the major and Complexity. The company for the local teams is made up of Ninjas in Pyjamas (who learned how to play without dev1ce) and Heroic (who didn't learn how to defeat NaVi). This subgroup is inferior to the previous one in terms of personalities, but it gives hope for more intrigue. At this point, it's hard to know which three teams will make it to the playoffs.
The meetings between Imperial and FURIA in Antwerp gathered the most views. We wonder how many Brazilian audiences will stick to the screen for the face-to-face encounter between these teams. With the announcement of the next major in Rio de Janeiro, these encounters will help promote the tournament to the South American population. Overall, FURIA looks like one of the favorites to win Group B and is also quite capable of fighting for the victory in the tournament because they already defeated FaZe Clan a couple of months ago.
The tournament will start on May 30 (Monday) at 4 pm GMT. We are waiting for the cybersports celebration and excellent Counter-Strike!
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