by The six remaining Counter-Strike teams in the IEM Sydney playoff bracket will compete in a single-elimination bracket at the sold-out Aware Super Theatre this weekend.
Before the last day of the group stage, we knew that BetBoom Team, MOUZ, ENCE, and G2 Esports were already locked in for the playoffs, but there was one more spot to fill from the lower-bracket of each group.
FaZe Clan faced GamerLegion for the final playoff spot in Group A.
FaZe was seeking their third straight win and revenge for their double overtime loss in the first round.
FaZe defeated Team Vitality and Natus Vincere in their previous two series, while GL lost 0-2 to BetBoom Team and defeated Apeks 2-0.
After FaZe won GamerLegion’s map pick (Ancient), GL won FaZe’s map (Inferno) to send the series to Nuke.
After defeating FaZe on Nuke in the first round, GamerLegion entered the final map with confidence, but FaZe won 13-6 and qualified for the playoffs.
In the lower-bracket of Group B, Complexity and Monte won their respective semi-finals against Cloud9 and Fnatic, setting up another opening round rematch for the lower final.
Much like the opening round fixture between these two (13-9 Complexity), the lower-bracket final was close on both maps of the series.
Complexity won each map 16-13 after Overpass and Ancient went to overtime, where they surged in the final rounds to qualify for the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the upper-bracket finals in each group took place, with the winner of each series earning an extra day off by qualifying for the semi-finals on Saturday.
MOUZ would defeat BetBoom Team 2-1 in a close, back-and-forth series.
G2 Esports remained unbeaten at IEM Sydney after recording a dominant 2-0 victory over ENCE to qualify for the semi-finals.
MOUZ awaits the winner of the ENCE vs FaZe Clan quarter-final and G2 Esports will clash with the winner of the BetBoom Team vs Complexity series.
THE #IEM SYDNEY 2023 PLAYOFFS ??
6 Teams ?
First CS2 LAN champions ??
First time seeing the Australian crowd in 4 years ??
??October 20-22 pic.twitter.com/YGBD0iHdHU
— Intel? Extreme Masters (@IEM) October 18, 2023
IEM Sydney Quarter-final matches
- BetBoom Team ($2.00) vs Complexity ($1.72) @ 4:30pm AEDT
- ENCE ($1.72) vs FaZe Clan ($2.00) @ 7:30pm AEDT
