IEM Dallas 2024 — The Bish Bash Bosh

And now for the final major event of the Financial Year, IEM Dallas. Mouz come in as hot favourites after a gutsy wins in the ESL Pro League and Betboom Dacha. However, there are some other usual friends who are looking to stop the Mouz Party in the US of A. And it isn’t a case of declined VISAs.

Group A

Mouz
Mouz fly into Dallas as the hottest team since the Dall- I mean Houston Texans were good. This young squad had finally hit their mojo with taking out ESL Pro League and Betboom back to back and finally subduing the incredibly donk.

Bish — Stage Fright is a thing of the past for Mouz. They’ve not lost a Stage Event now since Chengdu! Scary! With the addition of Brollan (who would have thought!?) and Jimpphat, Mouz have gone from Faze Academy to World Champions. Not to mention, they’re still a relatively young core so they have YEARS to go — maybe another Astralis Era?

Bash — Just as the competitive CS may look to be getting a little comfortable like Spirit winning the major. Complaecency threatens and Mouz will be a little more under the microscope (and not because they’re tiny little mice anymore!). Mouz have to be prepared doubly as everybody will be studying them like all the youtubers and teams studied Donk about 3 months ago.

Bosh — Mouz will win the Upper Bracket Final and go straight to the Semis. The only team that could even threaten them in this group is Team Vitality. They are the alpha mice of Group A.

9z
You may wonder how 9z got here again. And you’ll find yourself having a little laugh especially if you dig a bit deeper. That’s right, they beat Furia. Hahahahaha. 9z have really only starred as making up the numbers in the tournament. Far from their comebacks of yore.

Bish — Good thing that the first round is a BO1. BO1s are prone to upsets for the favourite and they could be the little mouse that pricks the bigger MOUZ’s paw with a needle.

Bash — However, I feel that they are going to get absolutely shown up by the other members of the group when it turns into BO3s. The map pool becomes a lot harder when you’re versuing American teams in the lower or upper brackets. (Yes, you’ll be taking on Liquid or Complexity — ENJOY!)

Bosh — Liquid will literally send them home. The crowd will be chanting “SEND THEM HOME” with Cadian leading the charge when they’re up 12–3 on 2nd map of Inferno.

Team Liquid
It turns out that Team Liquid are starting to turn around a corner and by corner, I mean Yekindar has found out that he was meant to be a star player. Meanwhile, everybody is distracted by Skullz who is performing his role quite well as a decoy to hide Yekindar’s underperformance. With a few notches on their belt and the home crowd, Liquid are looking to do them proud

Bish — Home Crowd, the team is finally getting together and a pretty easy Group to potentially get playoffs in. The hardest team to get by will obvioulsy be Mouz followed by Vitality…

Bash — And of course — you’re playing Complexity with that Baldy that you kicked (and now they have two of them!). And not only that they’ve turned good but they’ve turned good because of him. And now NA want him to win too. Great. And if you lose that? Well, it’s a bit easier than you realise that you might have to vs Complexity again…. in a BO3.

Bosh — Liquid eliminated by Complexity with Elige smiling from ear to ear. Sadness. I hope this doesn’t mean that Liquid implode this core because it really shouldn’t.

Complexity
I love this team. This team was the true winner of Rostermania of June 2023 while people were frothing over shir0tronic, Fallen going to Furia and many other meaningless moves. Complexity acquiring Elige has to be the strongest transfer. And they’ve improved strength to strength, they actually go for deep runs in Tournaments despite falling a few places since IEM Sydney.

Bish — Home Crowd, the team is now running on all cylinders. The group is a bit easy to get into the playoffs with given Mouz and Vitality are the strongest teams. This seems oddly familiar to the Liquid one, doesn’t it? Except Complexity aren’t a team that just has potential, they are showing it too. Grim and Elige turning into literal gods on the server.

Bash — Well, you won’t be getting too much of the Home Crowd Advantage when all you will be vsing will be NA Team, Mouz, EU Team, NA Team again. Hallzerk is a bit lackluster and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is moved on if he doesn’t hit it off here! Also, when they do fall, that EU team will likely be Monte/Falcons/G2 which are no slouches either. Complexity have to be on their A game even while making their lower bracket run.

Bosh — And they’ll succeed that lower bracket run. I expect they’ll trounce Team Liquid to make sure that a North American Team makes playoffs. It’ll be another epic playoff run for Complexity. I just hope that they can last longer than just one game on stage..

Stewie2
You will be wondering why are we calling G2, Stewie2? Well, Hooxi cannot make it because he is attending a wedding and G2 have decided to pick up Stewie. They heard Stewie won a major and seemingly blanked out everything else after that part. Maybe a coffee at Starbucks will sort everything out…

Bish — Despite having a stand-in as your IGL which just throws a fox amongst the hen house. You still have m0nesy, NiKo and hunter. An absolutely star studded line-up who should absolutely mow down any team infront of them. m0nesy has been the brightest star of this team who is single handly keeping G2 in a lot of their matches.

Bash — And the rest of the stars have seemingly gone missing. It has lead to analysts just going with the token, “just blame the IGL or other non Kovac player again”. The funny thing is that it is the rifling core that have fallen off relying on a young Russian Awper to salvage games for them. But sure, let’s kick Hooxi — you have your new IGL now in Stewie — let’s see how far it gets.

Bosh — And far it won’t get them. G2 should beat Falcons but since it is a BO1 they could lose too. I do not see Stewie2 getting passed the Lower Bracket Semi-Finals. IGL isn’t a role that you can simply shove anyone into and bam, presto — everyone is magically working together. It takes time and it is time that Stewie2 doesn’t have.

Team Falcons
Hello, welcome back to another IEM. And with some decent results to boot, well…. Let’s not mention ESL Pro League where you lost to Mongolz, beat Tyloo then lost to Betboom and were bundled out by G2. You also picked up dupreeh which is great but you also decided to get rid of young aimer in Boros. The problem is whether we’re going to see Betboom Falcons or ESL Pro League Falcons

Bish — A lot of experience in this squad and your first match is against Stewie2. You can take advantage of starts being off the pace with a new IGL. You have a lot of stars there ready to go. A date with most of your ex-teammates in Team Vitality too if you win.

Bash — Unfortunately, you seem to have similar issues to Stewie2 where the result is less than the sum of your parts. Betboom seems like an outlier compared to Esports World Cup, Blast Premier Spring Showdown (they lost to Metiz Esports… a tier 2 team!) and ESL Pro League. Not to mention that the upper bracket of Group A looks extremely scary and if you fall down into the Lower Bracket. It is going to be a ride to hell and back. Good luck!

Bosh — Eliminated by Monte. I feel Stewie2 will have that hometown support to get them over the line in a BO1. Monte will surprise and take down Falcons. Another disappointing tournament to go in a line of disappointing tournaments.

Monte
So Monte got pillaged by Astralis for br0 and decided to not renew SDY leaving Woro to IGL. They also moved Gizmy and Ryu back to Monte Gen (Academy Team). They picked up Styko from Apeks (lovely guy ❤) and Hadji from 3DMax. These are some huge upgrades from br0 and SDY. Hadji was a beast in 3DMax and Styko was a massive lurk/info player who created a lot of rounds for Apeks based on his info.

Bish — The additions of Styko and Hadji just strengthen their already strong firepower with Woro, DemQQ and Krasnal. It is just wondering whether this team can get it together for a strong IEM Dallas run. They’ve got a Lower Part of the group for it as most of the groups are in similar situations to them other than Vitality.

Bash — Unless they’ve had significant practice together, I feel like the cracks will show definitely against Vitality but it definitely can be salvaged against an easier opponent such as Stewie2 and Falcons. Hadji hasn’t played too much at Tier 1 and he might struggle to farm as he usually does in Tier 2.

Bosh — Monte are starting to build a fairly decent team but at this tournament, it’ll be incredibly rough for them. I believe they’ll be eliminated by a falling Complexity. The upper part of this group is just too strong. Hadji will likely show glimpses of his ability.

Vitality
Vitality were the unfortunate losers to Mouz in the recent ESL Pro League and they might get to be the unfortunate losers in the overall bracket once again. Vitality haven’t had much glory in CS2 and need to start making a stand here.

Bish — Zywoo is now starting to shine in CS2 after struggling to attain true stardom in CS2. The rifling trio of Spinx, FlameZ and Mezii are also struggling but are making significant inroads. With Zywoo hitting his stride, the sky is the limit for them. As long as they can handle the squeak of Mouz.

Bash — If the rifling core success was just luck at ESL Pro League. Zywoo is going to be like Atlas trying to lift Vitality to any sort of success. If Vitality fall to the lower bracket, they are going to find it very difficult to get back up especially when Complexity could stand in your way.

Bosh — Vitality will probably lose to Mouz but will breeze by all of their competition in the Lower Part of Group A. Zywoo will continue being an absolute god and the rifling trio will be consistent and provider a servicable support to Zywoo. Air Quality is looking high!

Group B

Faze Clan
Faze have just ended their longest streak of being in the finals in all of their events that they’ve participated in at the latest ESL Pro League. It was a bit unfortunate as they fell out at the Quarter-Finals to eventual Runners-up, Vitality. Faze still have a strong core, a strong IGL and a strong Awper (very serious too!).

Bish — They have an easy start to their group taking on the up and coming M80 Roster as well as potentially taking on Heroic or Virtus Pro next. This should at least secure a playoff spot for Faze. They can even take it further by taking down Team Spirit but that’ll be another donk to talk about. I mean day. Not donk.

Bash — Is this Faze starting to crack and starting to fall to pieces. Faze are a team who live and die by the grind. They grind their opponents away piece by piece and have only really lost in absolute blowouts. If it is a close game, Faze always wins. However, their loss to Vitality on Map 2 was an agonising close loss.

Bosh — Faze will lose the Upper Bracket Final to Spirit. Spirit have got something to prove after being humbled by Mouz in Betboom. Spirit will spring some payback and some more by stomping their group.

M80
Another Hometown American team looking for adoration from the home crowd. They may have two German players but this team has been the local favourite child in the ECL and other tier 2 tournaments. M80 may not get all the accolades that Complexity get but this team is starting to build something great. We all thought the worst when Mankz left but s1n has managed to build the world from it.

Bish — s1n has made some impressive moves to keep M80 from crumbling at the seams. mankz’s work has been built on and some more. With Swisher, malbs and reck leading the strong rifling trio and slaxz nailing lasers with the AWP. They could do some damage especially in this BO1. Not only do they have aim, but they have incredible teamwork, trading and utility placement. They will be a scary team in 6–12 months.

Bash — yet, they are in the strongest group and the upper part of the group are all teams which are much better than them. M80 are severely outclassed in this group whether they’ll be farmed by Heroic, strangled by Virtus Pro and just grinded away by Faze. It isn’t a fun situation to think about

Bosh — However, it is the reality of their situation. The home crowd can only watch when Heroic send them packing. I would really like M80 to do well here but this Group B is stacked to the brim where a Tier 2 team is unlikely to make it out of the lower bracket first round.

Heroic
Heroic picked up Degster to replace the underperforming Nicoodoz. However, Nicoodoz gets one last tournament after Degster’s has VISA issues. It can’t be a North American Tournament without a VISA issue! Heroic still have a strong IGL in Kyxsan who lead Apeks previously and a great rifling core in sjuush (world’s best anchor), teses and Nertz. Nertz has fit incredibly well into this team after splitting up with ENCE.

Bish — Even with Degster out of the tournament due to VISA issues. This team is still quite strong even with nicoodoz. He isn’t that bad, it is just degster is much better. The rifling core of sjuush, teses and Nertz will be enough to get them over the line in some matches. Especially if the genius of Kyxsan, if he pulls another big brain play again….

Bash — It must be so frustrating to finally address your Awper only to have to use nicoodoz again. The awp position is very weak for Heroic and it is only exceberated if the rifling core is neutralised. Heroic also have a realtively tough first match against Virtus Pro but a relatively easier match against M80. However, it only gets extremely uphill from then on.

Bosh — Heroic will lose to Virtus Pro and then dance by M80 to only get met with the brick wall of Navi. Kyxsan will not be glad to be facing his old teammate in JL. Heroic will only get better from this event once they are able to practice with degster again!

Virtus Pro
Virtus Pro finally acquired electronic after getting rid of mir who was quite disruptive within the team. And where did that get them? Well, not much further. With disappointing finishes in Chengdu, ESL Pro League and Betboom, the daggers are starting to circle on Jame and whether Virtus Pro will keep him on. To be honest though, I don’t see any other Russian team out there that is better than this 5 currently. It is too early to speculate whether to blow up the care in Virtus Pro.

Bish — Virtus Pro have an amazing rifling core with fl1t, fame, norb3r7 and now electronic. They have had teething issues but these parts know how to shine and Electronic isn’t even burdened by being the IGL anymore. With a strong IGL with Jame, there is no reason why Virtus Pro shouldn’t be making deeper runs.

Bash — Maybe the electronic grass wasn’t actually greener on the other side. Virtus Pro have slipped slightly and the pressure is beginning to rise. The recently published video from Ashh doesn’t help. Maybe Jame is being figured out?

Bosh — This one is a bit close because it’ll likely be a lower final of Navi v Virtus Pro. I honestly have no idea on how this one will end up. I believe Virtus Pro will win 2–1 but it honestly could go anywhere. Playoff is at a minimum for Virtus Pro at this stage.

Team Spirit
Donk, donk, donk. That is all you need to hear. However, there are some other key parts such as shir0, zont1x, magixx and chopper. Donk may steal the limelight but this team is legitimate. zont1x in the support role, chopper as a strong IGL and donk well, just donking. shir0 must feel so reliefed that he doesn’t have to carry the entire world on his shoulders like he did in Cloud 9. After Betboom, there were cries to change the roster and I say that these people are fucking idiots.

Bish — Team Spirit have everything — they have a star rifler, a great support, a great awper and a great IGL. Betboom was a bit of a step back but you can put it down to ring rust as Spirit has not played a tournament for awhile. Donk hasn’t been afraid of anything and feels right at home on stage.

Bash — Well, is Betboom truly a outlier? Maybe the ring rust has blemished Donk’s aim, dulled his senses and shown to be truly mortal? Maybe Senzu actually did throw his mouse off Vertigo (or were Mouz as sign of his weakness heheh….).

Bosh — Team Spirit will win Group B by beating Faze Clan 2–0. They are the strongest team in this group by far. The hardest team that they’ll take on is Faze. Navi and Flyquest (even in a BO1) are essentially a beaver dam in the face of a fierce, coarsing river.

Flyquest
It is a cruel joke to state that hopefully it won’t fall apart here in their welcome card when you’ve dropped them in the most unforgiving group possible. I mean they have to face off Spirit in a BO1 to start which leads into a BO3 against potentially Big/Navi. Even if they get through that, they could be staring at Heroic or Virtus Pro which will be certain elimination. However, another doomsaying, Flyquest are now ranked 14 and have proven themselves in ESL Pro League and Chengdu that they can indeed make deep runs. This will be a true test on if they can make deep runs against Tier 1 teams. IEM is stacked.

Bish — INS has risen his value immensely as he becomes an absolute menace on the server. Multiple maps with 20–30 kills and an insane ADR. Alistair is starting to find his voice on and off the server with the AWP. Dexter, Vexite and Liazz are all beginning to chip in as well. Will it be enough to make it out of this group?

Bash — Did you see their group? I can only count 2 teams that Flyquest have a chance against. And that is Big and M80, Virtus Pro is a bit of an outside shot and same with Heroic. If INS doesn’t perform to his greatness then who else in the team will? Shoes need to be filled because INS will be under a microscope.

Bosh — Whoever made the IEM Dallas 2024 greeting must be someone who enjoys piling misery on the Australian CS2 scene. Saying “I hope it doesn’t fall apart here” and drop FlyQuest into the group from hell is incredibly evil. Saturday Morning Cartoonesque villian at ESL these days. FlyQuest will get eliminated by Heroic/Virtus Pro (whoever wins in that initial BO1 then loses to Faze)

BIG
This is quite a depressing couple of days as Gob B, the main stalwart in managing and coaching BIG parts way with the CS Roster. it is truly an end of an era. BIG haven’t really done much since losing s1n and mantuu and picking up syrson and JDC. And I don’t expect them to do much here. It looks like their changes were mostly done because other rosters were taking their players rather than seeking true upgrades.

Bish — JDC was on that Mouz roster and was an incredibly clutch player. Syrson is showing that he still has it. It could be great if tabsen could turn into the player of old that he once was. If Krimbo and Prosus could flourish then it’d be golden

Bash — The problem is that BIG has been incredibly stagnant where they’re just hardstuck in Tier 2. They’ve never really found that gear to spring into Tier 1. Big aren’t good or bad. They’re just a hard neither. Tabsen hasn’t returned to the form of old and nothing screams that they’re an incredible player in that roster

Bosh — The Aussies are going to send them home in the Lower Bracket immediately after they lose to Navi. It’ll be sad but BIG are one of the teams just like Flyquest who are making the numbers here.

NAVI
Navi played very well in the Group Stages managing to secure a Round of 12 spot in ESL Pro League to only buckle at Faze. They finished the same position as FlyQuest, The Mongolz, and 3DMax. Not the sort of crowd that you want to finish as the same place as. However, Navi have won a major on the back of w0nderful, jL and iM putting in incredibly performances. Backed now by a proven IGL of Aleksib and a veteran rifler of b1t, Navi have a lot of things to figure out before stamping their mark to make CS2 history.

Bish — JL has turned from a supporting rifler into the star rifler with many key clutches during the major. If he can turn it on during IEM Dallas, it’d make Navi incredibly difficult to beat. Can iM rise back up his form of old under GamerLegion? Navi didn’t look like Major Winners in ESL Pro League, can they find it here?

Bash — Navi have definitely not looked like Major Winners at all at ESL Pro League. There has been no critical frags, no heroic plays and just getting battered and bruised on all angles. Navi show the confidence that made them Major Winners

Bosh — Navi will definitely channel their major-winning confidence and it’ll be in vain when Donk slides a quick 2–0 against them. Navi should be able to rally a lower bracket run when the only team standing in their way should be Virtus Pro. I don’t think they’ll be able to do it though. Navi to crash out of IEM Dallas before playoffs.

Now you’ve got a quick preview of the teams and where they could be? What do you guys think? Who is going to win? I think we going to have another squeaker with Mouz winning in the Grand Final.