Cloud9 and Astralis qualify for the IEM Dallas 2023

Astralis and Cloud9 have won the two coveted seats at the IEM Dallas following their brilliant runt at the European closed qualifiers.

Astralis and Cloud9 have guaranteed their spots at the next IEM Dallas after enduring a challenging double-elimination bracket. Twelve additional teams have already confirmed to take part in IEM Dallas, either through qualifiers in Oceania and North America or through the ESL Ranking.

One more team is anticipated to qualify for IEM Dallas from the South American qualifiers, where 00NATION, 9z, Fluxo, and INTZ will compete for the final qualifying spot. A final team will be invited by ESL based on their standing in the organizer’s Global Ranking.

Astralis qualify for IEM Dallas with an undefeated upper-bracket run 

The Danish team entered the closed qualifiers looking for redemption after being eliminated early from the 17th season of the ESL Pro League. The team went off to a flying start in qualifiers, taking Team Spirit 2-0 in the opening match to book a semifinal matchup against GODSENT. Despite losing the first map, Astralis remained cool under pressure and defeated GODSENT with victories on the Nuke and Ancient.

The Danish squad faced Cloud9 in the title match, with a coveted spot at IEM Dallas on the line. Both the teams delivered their best performance on the first map Ancient, which went down to the wire before Astralis ultimately clinched its 19-16 in overtime. C9, on the other hand, wasn’t about to go down without a fight, as they staged a stunning comeback on Mirage to force a decisive game.

After having a hard time adjusting to the Russian side’s strategy in the first two maps, Astralis put up a strong showing on the CT side of the final map, which helped the team win the match 16-11.

Cloud 9 overcome OG to qualify for IEM Dallas 

With the help of Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov, Cloud9 also had a stellar opening to the competition, defeating SYnck 2-0 in the first match. The squad capitalized on the momentum to completely annihilate NIP, crushing them on Inferno and Overpass to secure a place in the championship match against Astralis, which resulted in their relegation to the lower bracket.

Despite the defeat, the reigning IEM Dallas champions maintained their composure against OG in the lower bracket final and clinched the hard-fought Mirage 16-14 before demolishing the German team on Overpass to register a clean 2-0 victory.  While the entire Cloud9 team gave a stellar performance against the German team, it was the Russian duo of Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov and Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov who stood out with their exceptional fragging abilities.

Header: ESL