Following up the first major of the year is a tough act to follow, luckily for Counter-Strike fans though, it seems IEM Chengdu delivered big time on the series return to China. Held in the Wuliangye Chengdu Performing Arts Centre, play started the 8th at 12:30AM EST for the two brackets of teams. North American teams M80 and Complexity were set to represent the region, but due to VISA issues were replaced by Liquid and Wildcard.
Liquid would find themselves the luckier of the two, dispatching two top 10 teams in a quick best-of-one against HEROIC, and a close series against G2, sending them into the playoffs. WILDCARD found themselves on the worst end of things though, only winning seven rounds total at the event, finishing dead last. China’s three home teams wouldn’t find much luck either, as the trio of Lynn Vision, TYLOO, and Steel Helmet all bowed down in group play.
Chengdu gave us a few surprises, especially with some teams showing some serious post-major blues. Expectations for Cloud 9 haven’t been this high since the organization won North America its first major at the 2018 ELEAGUE Boston Major. With this momentum they blew what was thought to be an easy series against the newly-minted FlyQuest (formerly Grayhound). Just after the event ended we were hit with the surprise news of now former C9 Player, Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, getting transferred to VirtusPro. Joining Cloud 9 in the lower bracket was the most recent major-finalist, Faze Clan. After dropping Nemiga Gaming, Faze found themselves swept by the newly led Astralis squad. G2 also found themselves in the lower bracket after dropping their second-round match to the previously mentioned Liquid.
Moving into the playoffs, G2 quickly dispatched of VP in a quick series 2-0, followed up by a three-map series between Liquid and Faze, in which Faze would come up big on Mirage to take the series. In the semifinals, MOUZ would take the series over G2 in the semifinals and Faze would suppress a surprising Astralis appearance. For MOUZ though, the finals would not be much of a contest as the new iteration of Faze would capture their first trophy together since adding David “frozen” Čerňanský, in a 2-0 sweep on Overpass and Nuke.
Faze adds another trophy into a very large cabinet, after pretty much dominating the beginning months of CS2’s release, winning IEM Sydney, Thundericks WC 2023, and the CS Asian Cup. Faze does not get too much time to rest before the next big tournament, as ESL Pro League is right around the corner, featuring a mix of the best Tier 1 and 2 teams across the world, starting April 23rd.
