IEM Chengdu 2024 — The Bish Bash Bosh Aftermath

Have you ever wished that you didn’t write or say something and wanted to take it back? Well, I definitely had a few but we had a few that hit the mark in IEM Chengdu 2024.

Faze took down Faze Aca- I mean Mouz, It’s mouz. It is always has been Mouz. Broky winning MVP as well. Serious Broky taking serious vacation time, I see.

It was also good to see that Mouz didn’t proceed to fall apart the moment that a crowd got infront of them. It was also nice that said crowd didn’t try to rush the stage either. The crowd was electric. Everything was just electric.

To top it off, Heccu was absolutely stunning in her closing photo with the lovely pink oriental dress. Heccu is an absolute ace — please have her in more tournaments please!

The desks were quite good. I do favour what Richard Lewis said in Stockholm. Make it like American Football talk shows, everybody likes Stephen A Smith. How about them G2… cowboys….

Let’s get this Bish Bash Bosh started

The Misses

Astralis

It turns out that Astralis weren’t just happy with me eating humble pie. They came in with the extra serving of crow as they sent Faze to the lower brackets in a convincing fashion. I’ve never suffered such an embarassment in my life other than the time I drunk myself stupid at my 18th.

Even though they were eliminated by said Faze in the semi-finals, they looked so much better than they did at the major. Everything just clicked and Astralis look so much different. Maybe BlameF was the problem or maybe this is just a honeymoon period.

Nobody has seen device lead so it would be a learning experience with many ingame leaders and teams. I still think its a honeymoon period but even after that period, Astralis look so much better than they ever did under BlameF.

I definitely got Astralis completely wrong and instead of the Big Mess tag. They get the Comeback Kid tag. They earned it.

Mouz

They didn’t underachieve. They got into the semi-final. Fought away the stage fright title but still lost to Faze (again).

I think this is a substantial improvement where I said that they would get eliminated before the playoffs. They made their target though. A grand final — but then they lost to a team that always seems to be the bridesmaid (Faze). I don’t think it matters too much because they got over the first hurdle which is winning on stage.

Cloud 9

I blame Astralis for this. The moment that they sent Faze downwards meant that nobody was making that the Lower Bracket run other than them.

Cloud 9’s biggest weakness was still the lack of the AWP — fortunately with Electronic out to VP. They can finally address that.

Heroic

If Heroic had somebody to blame, it would be G2 or Liquid or both. For narrative building, it’s Liquid’s fault. It builds the narrative that Cadian gets the last laugh (or the last knife in the back).

I expected Heroic to make playoffs because I felt this is the part where Heroic build a deep run that is completely unexpected (but turns out, that is what Liquid were going to do instead…)

I had a snarky response to Heroic’s twitter with G2-Her0ic. I can’t believe that came true though. Does this count as a hit?

Team Liquid

A coin flip miss between either Heroic/Team Liquid… well, it would have been if it was a Heroic/Team Liquid final…

Team Liquid played extremely well but I didn’t see them going through the lower final let alone beating G2 and getting into the Upper Final.

Cadian, Skullz and Yekindar lifted a lot more and the pieces within liquid melded together further. Liquid basically stole my analysis on Heroic. Maybe Cadian was the heart of Heroic after all….

The Hits

Tyloo

I called every bit of it other than the part that Steel Helmet would outlast them. It turns out that Steel Helmet were a lot worse than I thought.

Tyloo did fight in the initial match but once I saw an elimination match against Lynn Vision. I knew it was all over.

Lynn Vision

I always seem to get the Chinese teams correct. Maybe my powers only work for Asian teams as Lynn Vision was knocked out just as I expected.

Lynn Vision just can’t over the hump.

It just wasn’t from Furia.

Steel Helmet

Do I really take credit here? Definitely not.

Furia

Or here? Furia looked very good in both Bo3s but just couldn’t close out. Now, it is rumoured that aRT is being moved on. Furia are going to keep floundering.

Nemiga/9z/Wildcard

Other than Nemiga, these other teams would have already booked tickets to the airport at the end of Day 2 when they landed.

Wildcard had such a tragic fate with their best player being unable to get to Chengdu in JBA.

9z was kind of expected but they did put up some sort of showing against G2. This was before G2 suddenly realised that they can’t randomly lose to an underdog today.

Faze

THE REVENGE TOUR HAS BEEN COMPLETED! Also, not to mention that they didn’t come 2nd place (again).

The moment that Faze was thrown into the lower bracket and basically slaughtered Cloud 9. I felt bad because I knew Flyquest would get no mercy. They did grant them some relief during Nuke.

Karrigan, Ropz, Broky, Frozen and Rain were relentless. Since that Astralis loss, they seemed unbeatable. Astralis couldn’t do anything to them on the second time around.

It was like that it was destiny that Faze were going to win this event. Mouz didn’t even let out a square.

Virtus Pro

This was a hit mainly because they didn’t get past the semi-finals. This was also a miss because mir played one of his worst events. I’m so confused on how a player like mir is underperforming this badly.

The funny part was that the big performer was n0rb3r7, a player that I would never expect to be that stay player. Backed up with fame and fl1t, they lit up the stage.

I am greatly disappointed in mir, he has been in multiple teams and shown great promise in multiple different teams. I don’t think he is able to hack it at the top level. There are rumours that he is very toxic. I just think he doesn’t have the mental fortitute for competitive CS.

Virtus Pro have picked up electronic as an immediate replacement which is potentially a massive upgrade. I think we need to be careful before we get too hyped up.

You remember that so many people feel for the shir0tronic hype train before Cloud 9 faceplanted into the ground. Then again, it is cloud 9.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in. I definitely enjoyed it. Mainly because Flyquest did a lot better than expected!