FaZe Clan sent Team Vitality to a stunning last-place finish on Monday as action got underway at the Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023.
Sixteen teams are competing for a $250,000 prize pool in the first major LAN event for Counter-Strike 2, and the first IEM event in Australia since 2019.
Vitality was the hottest team on the planet at the close of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive era, winning the BLAST.tv Paris Major and IEM Rio earlier this year.
Vitality opened the Group A lower-bracket quarterfinal match against FaZe Clan with a 16-14 win on Overpass, but FaZe Clan answered with a 13-10 win on Inferno and a 13-9 decision on Nuke.
The tournament began with two eight-team groups competing in a double-elimination format, with all opening matches best-of-one and the subsequent matches best-of-three.
In Group A, BetBoom Team and MOUZ advanced to the upper-bracket final. Both have already qualified for the main playoff draw. In the lower-bracket semifinals, FaZe Clan will face Natus Vincere and GamerLegion will face Apeks on Tuesday. The team that emerges from the lower bracket also qualifies for the playoffs.
Apeks eliminated VERTEX Esports Club in the Group A lower-bracket quarterfinals, winning 13-5 on Mirage and 13-11 on Anubis.
Group B completed the upper-bracket quarterfinals on Monday. ENCE defeated Lynn Vision Gaming 13-6, Fnatic beat Cloud9 13-10, Complexity Gaming beat Monte 13-9 and G2 Esports edged Grayhound Gaming 13-11.
Prize pool and results for IEM Sydney
1. TBD, $100,000, IEM Katowice 2024 entry
2. TBD, $42,000
3-4. TBD, $20,000
5-6. TBD, $10,000
7-8. TBD, $6,000
9-12. TBD, $5,000
13-16. Team Vitality, VERTEX Esports Club, TBD, TBD — $4,000
–Field Level Media