IEM Dallas 2022 Review
/IEM Dallas 2022 has died down - the first TIER-1 tournament on North American soil in a long time. While Team Cloud9 was the winner of the championship, which remains to be said, IEM Dallas 2022 has a number of other memorable moments that simply cannot be ignored. In this regard, we propose to recall the past championship and get acquainted with the conclusions based on the results of IEM Dallas 2022.
Substitutions, visas, stand-ins are the main headache of IEM Dallas 2022
News about changes in the composition of the participants, as well as in the teams themselves, appeared long before the start of the championship itself. The first team to face difficulties was ENCE, which missed its strongest player. It's simple - Spinx failed to get a visa to the United States, leaving his team under the care of Snax, which, looking ahead, did not spoil the picture.
Other "dropped out" teams were NAVI and Entropiq, whose players also did not receive visas to the United States. Fortunately, ESL quickly fussed with replacements, inviting BIG and Movistar Riders to the championship. But if the Germans looked organic, the Spanish team left behind a not very pleasant mark.
The Astralis team also came to the tournament without the trace head coach. The 31-year-old Dane was denied a U.S. tourist visa because the ESTA automated system rejected the specialist's application due to a promotional trip to Iran with Fnatic in 2012. By the way, trace helped his team in a remote format, which was reflected in the departure of Astralis at the end of the group stage.
Visa difficulties also overtook the Brazilians from MIBR, who missed their young newcomer in the face of brnz4n. As a result, the team played the championship with the head coach, taking off in the group from Team Liquid.
Suddenly, representatives of Heroic remembered the coronavirus, who announced an outbreak of the disease shortly before the start of the championship. As a result, the Danish team did not go to Dallas, giving away their slot to MIBR. Speaking of diseases, don't forget about Ninjas in Pajamas, which lost its captain at IEM Dallas 2022. The Swedes quickly fussed and pulled up the young ztr from the academy, which did not help the team to get into the playoffs.
North American IEM Dallas 2022 without US teams in the playoffs
The North American scene is going through hard times, however, this is not the first season. At this tournament, their "native" region was represented by two teams at once - Team Liquid and Complexity Gaming. We can indirectly mention FURIA, MIBR and Imperial Esports, but it’s not entirely correct to pull the Brazilian region by the ears, fortunately, everything is not so simple there, minus the results of FURIA.
As a result, the native North Americans failed the "home" championship. But if Team Liquid still survived until the finals of the lower bracket of the group stage, then Jason Lake once again realized the mistake of signing a new roster of Complexity Gaming, who again lost two matches and left IEM Dallas 2022 in the first wagons.
FaZe Clan is resting
The winner of the last major, and simply the best team in the first half of the season, came to the championship in the status of an obvious favorite. Here, NAVI also failed to get to IEM Dallas 2022, creating comfortable conditions for the victory for Galacticos. At the same time, FaZe Clan got off to a strong start in the championship, making it to the playoffs already on the basis of the results of the first game day.
Yes, then the team lost to ENCE and reached only the quarterfinals. But even here FaZe Clan managed to lose to Cloud9, albeit the future winner of the championship.
As a result, the players and the roster analyst said that they practically did not prepare for the championship, leaving their forces for BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022. But who cares when the fans are eager for another victory and the continuation of the FaZe Clan era?
How's "Last Dance" doing?
After the end of PGL Major Antwerp 2022, many suddenly started talking about Imperial Esports, saying that we have a team that can compete with FURIA in the fight for high places. But in reality, it turned out so-so, because after the upset at the Major, the Brazilian team managed to fail in the open qualifiers for ESL Challenger at DreamHack Valencia 2022.
As for IEM Dallas 2022, Imperial Esports simply did not show character, nor did they use their rich experience. As a result, the team quickly lost to FURIA and Team Liquid, leaving hope for the next championships. Although, given the amount of money made in Belgium, this team should not wait until the Brazilian Major.
Cloud9 wins IEM Dallas 2022
Team Cloud9 became the winner of the tournament. And there are several interesting points here. Firstly, this is the first big victory of the North American organization since ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. Secondly, this is the first really significant LAN tournament that ended with the victory of the Russian team.
Speaking of the grand finals, Cloud9 perfectly dismantled the game structure of ENCE, outplaying the opponent at the stage of preparation for the match. And if on Mirage and Overpass the team has not yet fully turned on, then on Ancient we saw a cool FFA from both teams.
It is also worth mentioning ENCE, which, despite the forced replacement, held a very worthy championship. Yes, in the final the team swam again, but the fact remains that the wards of sAw squeezed the maximum out of the situation.
Results of IEM Dallas 2022
- 1st place: Cloud9 - $100,000 + 1,000 EPT points + 2,400 BLAST Premier points
- 2nd place: ENCE - $42,000 + 750 EPT points + 1,200 BLAST Premier points
- 3rd-4th place: FURIA and BIG — $20,000 + 525 EPT points + 750 BLAST Premier points.
- 5th-6th place: G2 Esports and FaZe Clan — $10,000 + 350 EPT points + 225 BLAST Premier points.
- 7th-8th place: Vitality, Team Liquid - $6,000 + 200 EPT points + 225 BLAST Premier points.
- 9th-12th place: Astralis, MOUZ, MIBR and Ninjas in Pajamas — $5,000 + 100 EPT points.
- 13th-16th place: Movistar Riders, Encore Esports Club, Imperial Esports and Complexity Gaming — $4,000.