by IEM Summer 2023 (IEM Dallas) will kick off on Monday, May 29, with 16 of the top CS:GO teams congregating in Texas for a week-long tournament.
Not only will the winner of IEM Dallas take home the US$100,000 winners’ cheque, but they will also automatically qualify for IEM Cologne 2023 in July.
Five teams ranked inside the top 10 in the world will be present in Dallas, while Cloud9 will return as the defending champions after they defeated ENCE in the grand final last year.
Below you will find our best bet to take out IEM Dallas 2023.
Best Bet – FaZe Clan
With 11 of the 16 teams at IEM Dallas coming through the BLAST.tv Paris Major, it makes it easier to compare the form. From that, we trust FaZe Clan the most. Finn “karrigan” Andersen and his squad showed in their fifth-eighth finish that they had returned to the form that won them the Intel Extreme Master Grand Slam and ESL Pro League Season 17.
Having two of the world’s best riflers in Robin “ropz” Kool and Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken at their disposal makes FaZe one of the most dangerous teams to face at the back end of any international tournament. Add in Helvijs “broky” Saukants, who outplayed Olexsandr “s1mple” Kostyliev in FaZe’s final best-of-three series of the Legends Stage at the Major, and you have one of the best cores of any organisation in the world.
FaZe will begin IEM Dallas 2023 as the equal-second favourite with G2 Esports — only behind Heroic, the outright market elect with most esports betting sites. Of the top three teams, FaZe have shown that they have the ability to win the tough games and win events, while both G2 and Heroic have developed a reputation for crumbling in big matches.
To make the playoffs, FaZe will most likely have to beat Team Liquid or Cloud9 — two outfits they have had the wood over in the last 12 months. If the world no.3 team turn up in their best condition and perform at a similar level to what they did in Paris, we expect them to be crowned IEM Dallas 2023 champions.
