Key findings from IEM Dallas 2023

The day before, IEM Dallas 2023 ended with a victory for Team ENCE. In the championship final, roster player Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer was stronger than MOUZ by a score of 2-0. Since the tournament is one of the last in the current season, and maybe in the history of CS:GO, we decided to summarize IEM Dallas 2023 and collect the main conclusions from the tournament.

European lineups continue to dominate the pro scene

The tournament once again ended with a triumph for a team that consisted of players from different nationalities. Since Katowice, G2 Esports (IEM Katowice 2023), FaZe Clan (ESL Pro League Season 17) and Vitality (IEM Rio 2023 and BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023) have won the tournament. Now the turn has come for ENCE as well.

Whereas in the past the pro scene was dominated by teams representing one region (conventional CIS, Denmark, once upon a time North America and Brazil), today The International is dominated by national line-ups. They have probably managed to bridge the communication gap over the years and most of the young players are fluent in English.

What's more, these teams offer a very fast style of play, which is hard to cope with for the regular tacticians from Heroic, BIG and NAVI. This time, too, IEM Dallas 2023 showed that the European teams are showing good results. Four international rosters - G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, MOUZ and ENCE - made it to the play-offs. It remains to be seen how the professional scene develops, but it is unlikely that the trend will change in the very near future.

FaZe Clan needs stand-ins

The following conclusion can rather be attributed to subjective feelings. However, what championship in a row FaZe Clan cannot fight for the title, over and over again stumbling over talk of their own fatigue. But if the fact of the tight schedule itself can be levelled by the subsequent break, then more and more often the players talk in The International interviews about certain problems with communication.

Moreover, the extreme inconsistency of the leaders is evident from the game. Today Helvis "broky" Saukants may drop out of the game, and tomorrow Russell "Twistzz" Van Dalken or Howard "rain" Nygard may not be seen on the server. The situation with the captain is also difficult: Finn "karrigan" Andersen has never shot above one (only on rare occasions). But if IGL is the linchpin of the team, more and more often, his "ideas" are simply not enough to turn the game around and crush the opponent.

Perhaps, FaZe Clan's tactic is well known to all: if we give away rounds and have a forcebuy, we run on foot on the B-plot. Sooner or later this variant will work, and the first bells can be noticed already today. And if the line-up is not renewed in time, nothing will remain of the FaZe Clan's former greatness.

Decline of Brazilian and American pro-scene

This time we did not see a single team from Brazil or North America in the play-offs. In the past FURIA or Team Liquid at least looked like a fighting team, but now the pro-scene is not in their favour. What's more, these teams are clearly leaders in their regions but are in a rebuilding phase at the moment.

FURIA, for example, can replace almost the backbone of their squad, while Liquid are without Nicolas "nitr0" Canella who has announced the end of his career. It's hard to imagine what lies ahead for the scene, but there is no emerging talent on the horizon. Given the emerging trend, we could soon be deprived of strong Brazilian and North American teams.

IEM Dallas 2023 took place from May 29 to June 4 in Dallas, USA, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Sixteen teams from Europe, CIS, Australia, North America and Latin America competed for a combined prize pool of $250,000, BLAST Premier points and an inevitability to IEM Cologne 2023.

Results of IEM Dallas 2023

• 1st place: ENCE - $100,000 + 2,400 BLAST Premier points + trip to IEM Cologne 2023
  
• 2nd place: MOUZ - $42,000 + 1,200 BLAST Premier points
• 3-4 place: FaZe Clan and Heroic - $20,000 + 750 BLAST Premier Points
• 5-6 place: G2 Esports and Astralis - $10,000 + 225 BLAST Premier Points
• 7-8 place: Cloud9 & OG - $6,000 + 225 BLAST Premier points
• 9-12 place: Team Liquid, 9z, FURIA and Complexity Gaming - $5,000
• 13-16 place: Grayhound Gaming, Nouns Esports, Evil Geniuses and fnatic - $4,000

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