IEM Dallas 2022 has come to an end. The championship, which took place from May 30 to June 5 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Centre in Dallas, included sixteen teams from Europe, Oceania, North and South America competing for a prize money of $250,000 as well as rating points to the EPT and BLAST Premier tables. The Cloud9 roster shocked everyone and beat both tournament favourites ENCE and FaZe Clan to win the title.
Cloud9 has lifted their first CS:GO trophy in over four years since the ELEAGUE Major trophy at Boston. After a 3-0 sweep over ENCE in the grand finals today, cementing off a first-place finish at IEM Dallas 2022.
Let’s delve deeper into the journey of the ex-Gambit roster.
Overview
Today in Dallas, history was written yet again by a CIS dominated team in the Cloud9 colours, who battled their way through the Lower Bracket, surpassing the Ninjas and Pyjamas and toppling Team Liquid twice in the tournament, only then to come out on top against the current major title holders FaZe Clan and BIG on the big stage. Russian speaking NA roster were set to face ENCE in the Grand Finals.
ENCE was incredible with Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski filling in for Lotan "Spinx" Giladi, and despite the roster change, they made it this far in the tournament with a series of stunning wins against G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, and FURIA.
After a succession of fruitless rosters and trials that failed to result in victory since Tarik "tarik" Celik and his men won the first major for North America in 2018, this was the moment everyone had been waiting for.
The IEM Dallas 2022 Grand Final between Cloud9 and ENCE was a one-sided affair, but not in the way of FaZe as everyone was expecting. With the "home team" inflicting havoc on Overpass and Ancient due to Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov and Timofey "interz" Yakushin, who put up a brave attempt to block every tactic devised by the ENCE team.
The aggressive defence of Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov on Ancient led ENCE to play haphazardly. Staggering their every attempt and allowing Cloud9 to win their first title of 2022 and after a lengthy period that the Organization and its supporters had been hoping for.
For the C9 roster (who formerly played under Gambit), this is their first major trophy on LAN in years, having won a handful of major events during the online/COVID era. It’s also the players’ first trophy in only their second event with the C9 organisation.
IEM Dallas Playoffs Stage - Cloud9 defeats BIG and FaZe
Cloud9 slowly and steadily reached the playoffs stage, where all eyes were on the favourites ENCE and Faze. They claimed their playoff spot by rising from the lower bracket of Group B.
Cloud9 claimed the final playoff slot available in Group B, ending Liquid's season at IEM Dallas in two maps, dominating on Ancient and brushing off their North American opponents' comeback efforts on Vertigo.
As a result, they were the only North American team left competing in the main stage of the event, as Complexity also dropped out without a single victory, falling to MIBR and then NIP in the lower bracket.
Then Cloud9 eliminated the current Major winners and #1 team in the world, FaZe, from IEM Dallas in 5-6th place. The Russian squad had previously lost all three meetings between the two teams in 2022 and was infamous for struggling to perform on major platforms, but they showed a different face in Dallas by winning 2-1.
Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov, the event's top player, stepped up once more with a masterclass performance against the world's finest, posting a 1.42 rating, 101.3 ADR, and pulling off a series of spectacular plays to enable a massive victory.
Cloud9 moved on to defeat BIG in the semi-finals to go one step closer to becoming IEM Dallas winners.
Both teams came into the server on a three-match winning streak, but it was apparent that Cloud9 claimed more scalps to reach the semis. BIG has struggled against the Cloud9 roster in the past, finishing 0-8 in maps over four matches played against this five-man composition since 2020.
BIG started this game strong, taking Cloud9's map selection of Overpass 16-14 courtesy to an inspired Karim "Krimbo" Moussa. Nafany stated after the game that his squad was "a little bit agitated, and it was felt on TeamSpeak," which resulted in a dismal CT side. They rebounded on Dust2, though, and won with a great performance on Ancient.
IEM Dallas Grand Final - ENCE vs. Cloud9
ENCE was incredible with Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski filling in for Lotan "Spinx" Giladi, and despite the roster change, they made it this far in the tournament with a series of stunning wins against G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, and FURIA.
After a succession of fruitless rosters and trials that failed to result in victory since Tarik "tarik" Celik and his men won the first major for North America in 2018, this was the moment everyone had been waiting for.
The IEM Dallas 2022 Grand Final between Cloud9 and ENCE was a one-sided affair, but not in the way of FaZe as everyone was expecting. With the "home team" inflicting havoc on Overpass and Ancient due to Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov and Timofey "interz" Yakushin, who put up a brave attempt to block every tactic devised by the ENCE team.
Aggressive defence of Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov on Ancient led ENCE to play haphazardly. Staggering their every attempt and allowing Cloud9 to win their first title of 2022 and after a lengthy period that the Organization and its supporters had been hoping for.
For the C9 roster (who formerly played under Gambit), this is their first major trophy on LAN in years, having won a handful of major events during the online/COVID era. It’s also the players’ first trophy in only their second event with the C9 organisation.
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