All eyes will be on the land Down Under, as Counter Strike 2 (CS2) makes its major LAN debut at the Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023 (IEM Sydney) this weekend. After four long years, IEM Sydney sees 16 teams battling it out for the biggest slice of a hefty US$250,000 prize pool and more significantly, bragging rights as the champions of CS2’s first-ever LAN tournament. It will feature two groups of eight, in a double-elimination format.
IEM Sydney 2019 marked the start of Team Liquid’s legendary Intel Grand Slam run, winning four ESL tournaments in a row, and taking home a prize of US$1 million. This time around, it’s a complete toss-up. Heavily-favoured teams are experiencing some turbulence in the form of roster moves, while B-tier teams are in form, having already written some of their David-vs-Goliath narratives over the year.
Will it be business as usual for the game’s juggernauts? Or will we witness an underdog story? Here are the five teams we’ll be keeping an eye on at IEM Sydney.
Favourites – MOUZ, Team Vitality
Fresh off their victory at ESL Pro League Season 18, where they convincingly swept NAVI 3-0 in a best-of-five series to claim the title, MOUZ looks to continue their strong run of form with another victory in Sydney. A big blow will be the interim absence of their 17-year-old prodigy Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo, who was crowned MVP of the last event, due to visa issues. Despite a challenging Group A, featuring the likes of Team Vitality, FaZe Clan, and Natus Vincere, we still think that the rest of MOUZ’s well-rounded roster will step up, and advance to the playoffs as the winners of Group A.
The winning moment of @TeamVitality ❤#BLASTTVMajor pic.twitter.com/seNpoqmFj9
— BLAST.tv (@BLASTtv) May 21, 2023
As for Team Vitality, things have been turbulent. Their 2-0 defeat at the hands of Monte two weeks ago at ESL Pro League Season 18, and the presence of Israeli players Lotan “Spinz” Gilandi and Shahar “flameZ” Shushan on their roster, cast doubts on whether the team can perform optimally this weekend. However, they’re still atop the world rankings for a reason. With perennial all-star Mathieu “ZywOo” leading their charge, his talent could carry Team Vitality to the very top, as they look to prove their doubters wrong.
Dark Horse – Complexity
North American Counter Strike has been taking a beating the last few years. For Americans, they will remember Australia fondly, as IEM Sydney 2019 marked the start of Team Liquid’s legendary Intel Grand Slam run, winning four ESL tournaments in a row, and taking home a prize of US$1 million. The one thing in common between Team Liquid 2019 and Complexity 2023? Jonathan “ELIGE” Jablonowski.
Widely considered as one of the best North American players, Complexity will have to rely on his insane mechanics and experience to weather the storm. It’s a trial by fire: they’ll have to overcome Monte in the first round, the team that narrowly defeated them a month ago. If they manage to overcome Monte, Complexity might have a shot at making a deep run at IEM Sydney.
Something To Prove – FaZe Clan, G2 Esports
Will the curtain finally close on FaZe Clan? Following a recent run of inconsistent and sub-par form, this might be make-or-break for its all-star calibre roster to prove that they still have what it takes. For them to perform this time round, we’ll have to hope that interim coach Filip “NEO” Kubski, in only his second tournament in charge, can breathe new life into FaZe Clan, and reclaim their 2022 form with greater synergy between their ageing core and young guns. With headshot magnets like Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken and Robin “ropz” Kool amongst their ranks, you can never count FaZe Clan out.
The same can be said about G2 Esports. With a roster featuring the likes of last year’s 5th best player Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, they should be consistently fighting for titles. However, their recent form has been unpredictable, narrowly losing 2-1 to both Cloud 9 and MOUZ in the last couple of weeks. Still in the running for the Intel Grand Slam, G2 Esports will need to recapture the form they had at their victory in Cologne, and hope that their wonder kid Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, delivers with more tricks up his sleeve. In a relatively easier Group B, we think G2 Esports could slingshot right to the playoffs, provided that they can beat fellow contenders to take Group B, ENCE.
IEM Sydney begins on 16 October, culminating in a grand final on 22 October.
Everything changed when his parents bought him a PlayStation 2 for Christmas. Since then, he’s been hooked on all things esports, video games, and music. If he’s not livestreaming his shenanigans, he’s probably out taking mirror-selfies with his friends, vigorously debating over the Internet’s Meme of the Year.
