ESL has revealed the groups and opening matchups for IEM Dallas, which is set to play host to 16 teams on May 29-June 4 and feature a $250,000 prize pool.
Read more OG invited to IEM Dallas; regali to step in for degster The opening fixtures will all be best-of-one affairs, with the remainder of the tournament following a best-of-three format. This includes the grand final on June 4, which was changed from the usual best-of-five setting when ESL announced their decision to host fewer BO5s for their Pro Tour Masters events back in April.
Cloud9 reigned supreme in the 2022 edition of the tournament HEROIC, currently through to the BLAST.tv Paris Major semi-finals, headline the event in Dallas, Texas, and make the journey stateside as the world's No. 2 team. The Danes will begin their IEM Dallas Group A campaign with an opening bout versus 9z, who are the second-lowest-rated side ahead of Evil Geniuses.
FURIA, meanwhile, will lock horns with OG in their opening fixture of the Texan tournament. The Brazilians will be eager to put up a better showing after their disastrous performance at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, where Andrei "arT" Piovezan and company bowed out in the Legends Stage without a single win to their name.
Read more fnatic to attend IEM Dallas instead of Virtus.pro The reigning IEM Dallas champions, Cloud9, have been seeded into Group B for the $250,000 competition; the Russians will aim to enjoy a strong start in their quest for back-to-back silverware as they take on Grayhound, a game that should easily go the way of the Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov-led lineup on paper.
Evil Geniuses, who earned a place at IEM Dallas as the 'Local Hero' invite, have an unenviable start to their tournament run in Group B. The American-majority roster will take on FaZe to kick things off, with Finn "karrigan" Andersen's men set to be a favorite to make a deep run after recently making it to the BLAST.tv Paris Major playoffs before being felled in the quarter-finals by HEROIC.
The groups for IEM Dallas are:
Group A
HEROIC
G2
FURIA
OG
MOUZ
fnatic
Nouns
9z Group B
FaZe
Cloud9
Liquid
ENCE
Complexity
Astralis
Grayhound
Evil Geniuses Whilst the opening matchups are as follows:
Date | Matches |
---|
29/05/2023 | FURIA 18:00 OG | Match |
29/05/2023 | G2 18:00 Nouns | Match |
29/05/2023 | fnatic 19:20 MOUZ | Match |
29/05/2023 | HEROIC 19:45  9z | Match |
29/05/2023 | ENCE 20:45  Complexity | Match |
29/05/2023 | FaZe 21:00  Evil Geniuses | Match |
29/05/2023 | Liquid 22:05 Astralis | Match |
29/05/2023 | Cloud9 22:40 Grayhound | Match |

fnatic #15 
Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson
Dion 'FASHR' Derksen
Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi
Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen
William 'mezii' Merriman
Jamie 'keita' Hall 
MOUZ #14 
Christopher 'dexter' Nong
David 'frozen' Čerňanský
Jon 'JDC' de Castro
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen 
FURIA #9 
Andrei 'arT' Piovezan
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Rafael 'saffee' Costa
André 'drop' Abreu
Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira 
Nouns #40 
Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones
Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado
David 'cynic' Polster
Brendan 'Bwills' Williams
Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly
Kory 'SEMPHIS' Friesen 
Andrei 'arT' Piovezan
Age: 27 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 1083 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.71 
FaZe #3 
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Helvijs 'broky' Saukants
Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström 
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Age: 33 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 0.91 Maps played: 2149 KPR: 0.62 DPR: 0.69 
HEROIC #2 
Casper 'cadiaN' Møller
Martin 'stavn' Lund
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck
Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard
Richard 'Xizt' Landström 

Evil Geniuses #51 

Timothy 'autimatic' Ta
Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte
Ismail 'refrezh' Ali
Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov
Jerric 'wiz' Jiang
Daniel 'Vorborg' Vorborg 
ENCE #8 
Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer
Guy 'NertZ' Iluz
Pavle 'Maden' Bošković
Paweł 'dycha' Dycha
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García
Eetu 'sAw' Saha 
Liquid #7 
Nick 'nitr0' Cannella
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Josh 'oSee' Ohm
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Damian 'daps' Steele 
Astralis #24 
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz
Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer
Alexander 'Altekz' Givskov
Christian 'Buzz' Andersen
Peter 'casle' Ardenskjold 
OG #11 
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen
Adam 'NEOFRAG' Zouhar
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
Abdul 'degster' Gasanov
Maciej 'F1KU' Miklas
Casper 'ruggah' Due 
Cloud9 #5 
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Timur 'buster' Tulepov
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner 

Complexity #23 

Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
Ricky 'floppy' Kemery
Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli
Michael 'Grim' Wince
Justin 'FaNg' Coakley
Tiaan 'T.c' Coertzen 
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 1015 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.69 
G2 #6 
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Justin 'jks' Savage
Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Jan 'Swani' Müller 

9z #41 

Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez
Franco 'dgt' Garcia
David 'dav1deuS' Tapia Maldonado
Santino 'try' Rigal
Nicolás 'buda' Kramer
Gustavo 'tge' Motta 
Grayhound #27 
Simon 'Sico' Williams
Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas
Alistair 'aliStair' Johnston
Joshua 'INS' Potter
Declan 'Vexite' Portelli