Three Takeaways From IEM Dallas 2022
Cloud9 is Back on Track
After dropping their series against FURIA in group A’s upper bracket semifinals, a lot of cs-go betting experts started to doubt Cloud9 being able to reach the playoffs. But that seemed to be just a slump from the Russian team as they went on to win 5 series in a row, including the grand finals best-of-5 against ENCE. Cloud9 didn’t have the best run during the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 as they didn’t manage to reach the grand finals after being eliminated by the Brazilian representatives Imperial, which surprised a lot of us.
“Before the Major, we just had a lot of problems. We didn’t have a real place to bootcamp, to practice. We moved around the world and it was really hard, but now we practiced well for this tournament, and with time, with every day, we felt our game and got more confident.” That’s what the IEM Dallas MVP, Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov, had to say regarding their recent performance. Averaging a 1.32 rating, the 20-year-old russian player showed a strong performance from start to finish at the tournament.
Now it’s official that Cloud9 is definitely a strong contender for the best team in the world, considering their recent performance after having many struggles. If the Russian team manages to stay on the track they are right now, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them consistently dominate the upcoming big events.
G2 Esports Fumbles During Important Moments
Even though the European squad reached a top-6 finish, it’s still somewhat disappointing to see them fall down during the most important moments of a tournament. Just like Cloud9, G2 Esports couldn’t reach the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 finals after being eliminated by FURIA, just like they did in this tournament. It’s more than clear that G2 Esports are capable of winning over the strongest teams in the world, like they did against Astralis and Team Vitality in a convincing manner earlier on the IEM Dallas.
“It’s just taking much more time than we had expected to adjust everything. That’s why we had a rough 2-3 months, we were still getting to know each other. Even though we did Katowice really good, but then after we were starting to see more and more problems” said Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, after they secured a spot in the playoffs. But now it seems that it’s going to take them more time to adjust as getting knocked out in the quarter-finals is not a result that you would expect from this team.
The 17-year-old Russian prodigy Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov is still on the rise, and he’s not even close to reaching his full potential. Once G2 Esports manages to find the last piece that’s missing, M0nesy will become one of the best younger players the CSGO scene has ever seen. But before that, G2 will have to find a solution to their problems because they’re starting to fall behind teams like Cloud9 that are already fixing their problems.
Is FURIA the Real Deal?
Many cs-go betting experts would agree with me when I say that, on paper, FURIA was one of the strongest teams at the tournament, but sadly for them, things are not going well in-game. During the past few events, FURIA has been unable to live up to the expectations as their playstyle is not the same it once was. They are longer able to surprise their opponents through very aggressive plays, because it seems that the rest of the competition has catched up to them in this regard.
There is no doubt that FURIA should’ve gone further than quarterfinals at the last major, and it seems that no map is called home for them either. Vertigo used to be a death trap for any of FURIA’s opponents, but that no longer seems to be the case. Don’t get me wrong, they can still pick up wins while playing on this map, but they’re no longer as dominant as they used to be. But if their opponents ban Vertigo, FURIA looks completely lost while playing the game, and I really doubt that they could win on any other map against the very best teams.
The Brazilian squad lost their map pick against an ENCE lacking its star player. Now, while ENCE did put up a good performance, it’s hard to deny that FURIA should’ve won their series just considering the caliber of their players. The Brazilian team hasn’t found success as of recently, and if things keep going this way, it wouldn’t be surprising that it stays the same for a while.
