The top four teams in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive world rankings – G2 Esports, Heroic, Team Liquid and FaZe Clan – will take their place at the event in Dallas, Texas.

As well as being hungry for another trophy, FaZe Clan will have another chance to take out the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Grand Slam, if they don’t complete it in ESL Pro League Season 17 or the IEM Rio Major.

The LAN event will host 16 teams competing for a share of the $250,000 prize pool and the $100,000 winner’s cheque, combined with a spot at IEM Cologne 2023.

There will be three local hopes from North America, with the top hope being world no.3 Team Liquid, followed by world no.11 Complexity and the struggling Evil Geniuses, who received the ‘Local Hero’ invite.

FURIA and Outsiders were the only South American and CIS teams to be invited, with MOUZ and ENCE rounding out the invitations, the latter looking to go one better than last year after being beaten by Cloud9 in the grand final.

There is still one more invitation to be handed out based on the CS:GO ESL world rankings, so if one of the top 10 teams finish high up in ESL Pro League 17, we could see them get the last invitation.

The last five teams will have to qualify through closed qualifiers, with two coming from Europe and one each from North America, South America and Oceania, with those qualifiers set to be played in late March and early April.

Below is the list of teams attending IEM Dallas 2023:

YOUR #IEM DALLAS 2023 INVITED TEAMS! @heroicgg @TeamLiquidCS @G2esports @FURIA @ENCE @Complexity
Outsiders@FaZeClan @mousesports @EGCSGO
TBA

5 teams from the regional closed qualifiers will also be joining them! pic.twitter.com/0SvH2FnyU7

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 27, 2023

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As for Outsiders, they will go through to the round of 12 as a high seed after they weren’t able to get the job done in a tight three-map series.

Along with another series win for Cloud9 we saw another huge performance from the current no.1 players at the ESL Pro League 17, with Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov recording the second-most kills (58), the least deaths (37) and the highest kill/death differential (+21) to finish with a 1.19 rating.

As we saw earlier in the ESL Pro League against G2 Esports, sh1ro is starting to prove unstoppable on Vertigo, as he once again recorded a kill/death difference of +21 and an unbelievable match rating of 1.94 in C9’s 16-9 demolition of Outsiders on their map pick.

With an average rating of 1.49 across the seven maps that Cloud9 have played, it will be very difficult for anyone to top the rating that sh1ro has compiled throughout the group stage, leaving him in a very strong position to claim the tournament MVP if Cloud9 can become the ESL Pro League 17 champions.

.@C9CSGO are going to the QUARTER FINALS of #ESLProLeague Season 17!

They take down Outsiders 2-1, and secure first place in Group A

16-9 Vertigo
14-16 Mirage
16-8 Ancient pic.twitter.com/gCDrRHYXcI

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 26, 2023

Along with Cloud9 and Outsiders, G2 Esports also punched their ticket for playoffs, defeating Fnatic in the lower-bracket final to advance to the round of 16 as a high seed.

G2 didn’t get everything their own way against Fnatic as they were taken to three maps, with their defeat on Nuke (4-16) showing some worrying signs for the reigning IEM Katowice champions.

With three teams going into the playoffs, there are also teams that have already been knocked out of ESL Pro League 17, with those being Evil Geniuses, MiBR and IHC.

The second week of the tournament will kick off on Wednesday, March 1, with the opening matches of Group B.

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Outsiders, the world number seven, dominated their side of the bracket by recording back-to-back 2-0 victories against IHC and Fnatic on their way to the upper-bracket final.

Outsiders show their strength!

They take down @FNATIC 2-0, securing a spot in the UB Finals of Group A

16-14 Inferno
16-12 Vertigo#ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/8jytvEBak9

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 23, 2023

Evgenii “FL1T” Lebedev was a force to be reckoned with in both of their opening matches, recording a 1.30 rating against IHC, then backing it up with a massive 1.50 rating against Fnatic.

As usual, in-game leader Dzhami “Jame” Ali made the right calls at the right time and was a close second in the ratings behind his rifler.

Outsiders will now clash with Cloud9, which has come as a bit of a shock to many in the Counter-Strike community, with G2 Esports falling to the world number 13 in quick time.

The second of the upper-bracket semifinals saw Cloud9 end G2 Esports’ 16-series win streak as they dispatched of the world number one and reigning IEM Katowice champions in two maps (16-6, 16-12).

IT IS OVER! @C9CSGO have done it! They take down @G2esports with a clean 2-0

16-6 Vertigo
16-12 Inferno#ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/NbCfWSXGMQ

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 23, 2023

Cloud9’s sniper and best player Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov continued his dominance in the 17th season of the ESL Pro League, carrying his team to another series win with another high-class performance.

Sh1ro finished the G2 series with a huge 1.83 rating and a +38 kill/death differential, which was 26 more than any other player in the server, taking his average rating from two series to 1.77.

Coming off a dominant 2-0 victory over Evil Geniuses in their opening series, Cloud9 look as though they have been working hard behind the scenes to try and avenge their dismal straight-sets knockout at IEM Katowice earlier in the month.

Not only did G2’s loss end their 16-game win streak, it also saw them drop into the lower bracket, leaving them to battle it out with MiBR on Friday to make the lower-bracket final and take on either Fnatic or Eternal Fire for third position in Group A.

The two matches that will be played on Friday are listed below, with odds courtesy of BetOnline.

• Fnatic (-200) vs Eternal Fire (+150) on February 24 @ 4pm CET
• MIBR (+750) vs G2 Esports (-2000) on February 24 @ 7:30pm CET

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Outsiders will join G2 Esports, Natus Vincere, Heroic, Liquid and Team Vitality in the Spodek Arena on the weekend, with G2 Esports and Heroic straight through to the semi-finals awaiting quarter-finals winners.

ALL SIX #IEM KATOWICE 2023 PLAYOFF STAGE TEAMS HAVE BEEN ASSEMBLED @G2esports @heroicgg @natusvincere @TeamVitality @TeamLiquidCS
Outsiders pic.twitter.com/1khyo5Le2P

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 7, 2023

On the last day of the group stage we saw Outsiders knock out OG, Complexity send Fnatic packing, and pre-tournament favourites FaZe Clan going home early after Team Liquid defeated them in a tight three-map series.

Outsiders then booked their place in the playoffs by eliminating Complexity in a three-map thriller, while G2 Esports continued their unbeaten streak of 10 wins when they destroyed Natus Vincere 2-0 to book their semi-final spot.

G2 Esports and Heroic are the two form teams at IEM Katowice 2023, after getting through the group stage unscathed.

Heroic only lost one map during group play, to Complexity in their opening series, and they were quick to despatch Team Vitality 2-0 and book their semi-final place.

The playoffs are now set and below you will find the matches, times, and odds courtesy of BetOnline.

• Natus Vincere @ -175.44 vs Outsiders @ +125 | 3:30pm CET on February 10
• Team Liquid @ +110 vs Team Vitality @ -151.52 | 7pm CET on February 10
• Heroic vs NaVi/Outsiders winner | 3:30pm CET on February 11
• G2 Esports vs Liquid/Vitality winner | 7pm CET on February 11
• Grand Final @ 4pm CET on February 12

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The CS:GO esports franchise has signed 18-year-old Aleksandr “KaiR0N-” Anashkin as his replacement, the Outsiders have announced.

“The Virtus.pro CS:GO team welcomes one more member as Alexander “KaiR0N-” Anashkin joins the squad,” the announcement read.

“He will replace David “n0rb3r7″ Danielyan in the active roster, who is going to focus on improving his individual form.”

In the early part of last year, the esports team underwent a revamp in which the now Team Liquid entry fragger Mareks “YEKINDAR” Ga?inskis left the squad due to external pressures and Timur “buster” Tulepov was also benched to allow the team to explore new ideas.

As part of this revamp, n0rb3r7 and Petr “fame” Bolyshev were brought in as replacements for YEKINDAR and buster.

The decision to bench the Russian rifler and replace him with KaiR0N-, comes after Outsiders followed up its victory at the IEM Rio Major with a disappointing last-place finish at the BLAST Premier World Final.

According to Nikolai Petrossian, the CEO of the parent company of Outsiders, this “humbling defeat” was the catalyst for the roster change. Petrossian stated that the team realized it needed changes to stay true to its playstyle and not let opponents adapt to them, leading to the decision to bench n0rb3r7 and bring in KaiR0N-.

“A historic victory in Rio was followed by a humbling defeat in Abu Dhabi. We realized that the team needed changes that would allow us to stay true to our playstyle, while not letting opponents adapt to us,” Petrossian said.

“Therefore, we have decided to temporarily allow David to focus on his individual form, while KaiR0N- takes his place in the active roster. KaiR0N- is very talented. As soon as we had the opportunity to sign Alexander, we immediately took it. Glad to welcome him into the ranks of the Bears!”

However, Petrossian was quick to emphasize that n0rb3r7 is a “brilliant player,” and that the team is open to temporary loan proposals for him while he is on the bench. This suggests that the move is more about giving n0rb3r7 time to improve and potentially return to the active roster in the future, rather than a permanent departure from the team.

KaiR0N- has already made a name for himself as an up-and-coming player, with notable performances for INDE IRAE and Spirit Academy where he averaged a 1.14 and 1.22 rating, respectively.

He has also received praise and predictions of success from fellow Outsiders players Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis and Dzhami “Jame” Ali. However, KaiR0N-‘s stint with the main Spirit roster at the end of 2021 was less successful, as he struggled to perform in the four maps he played at DreamHack Open in November.

It remains to be seen how KaiR0N-‘s addition to the Outsiders roster will impact the team’s performance. The team had been on an upward trajectory, with a 5-8th place finish at the ESL Pro League Season 16 and a surprise run to the trophy at the IEM Rio Major, which temporarily propelled them to the top of the world rankings. However, their underwhelming performance at the BLAST Premier World Final knocked them off that perch.

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Back in early December, www.improbablebook.com reported that the North American-owned Counter-Strike outfit were looking for a replacement since their quarterfinal exit at the IEM Rio Major in November of last year.

According to several sources in the CS:GO community, buster has been high on Cloud9’s list of potential signings, however, there is said to have been multiple players that were considered and spoken to.

With interz confirmed to be leaving the esports organisation, we expect to hear from Cloud9 in the coming days to confirm buster as their newest addition to the CS:GO roster and with his debut to come at IEM Katowice, on January 31.

Buster was benched by Outsiders back in May of 2022 after the PGL Major Antwerp, where he and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis were replaced in the line-up.

With the move to Cloud9 imminent, buster will be hoping for a successful transition much like his ex-teammate YEKINDAR, who signed with Team Liquid late last year.

With the addition of the 23-year-old Kazakhstani rifler, the Cloud9 roster for their first series of the IEM Katowice play-in should look like this;

• Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov
• Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov
• Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov
• Abay “Hobbit” Khasenov
• Timur “buster” Tulepov

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FaZe Clan and OG both triumphed their winners’ matches against Team Liquid and Team Vitality, which will see them go straight through to the semi-finals on Saturday.

As FaZe Clan and OG prepare for their semi-final series, Outsiders and Heroic will be trying to wrap their heads around what went wrong in Abu Dhabi, as the world number one and two were the first two teams eliminated from the World Final.

The IEM Rio Major champions, Outsiders, were embarrassed by G2 Esports in their series, losing their map pick (Mirage) 16-1, sending the Russian organisation home in quick time.

Later in the day we saw the BLAST Premier Fall Final champions, Heroic, clash with Natus Vincere.

In what was a very competitive three-map series, Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev stood up in the clutch moments on Inferno (Map 1) and Nuke (Map 3), helping NaVi win those maps and take the series 2-1.

Heroic entered the BLAST Premier World Final as the third favourite with esports betting sites; however, with the decision to rest their best-rated player, Martin “stavn” Lund, and have Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke stand-in, the world’s top-ranked team was never going to be at its very best in Abu Dhabi.

The quarter-final bracket is now set, with the first match seeing Liquid clash with NaVi and the second featuring Vitality and G2.

FaZe Clan will await the winner of Team Vitality vs G2 Esports, and OG will play the winner of Team Liquid vs Natus Vincere.

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Liquid went into their series with the IEM Rio Major champions as +120 roughies, and it looked as though the bookies were right after Outsiders went up with a 16-10 win on Liquid’s map pick, Inferno.

However, Outsiders threw up a curveball when they selected the newest addition to the competitive map pool, Anubis, and it proved to be a costly decision.

Liquid turned the tables to win 16-8 before going onto win the series on the final map, Mirage, with another 16-8 scoreline.

Meanwhile, OG entered their series as +200 outsiders with esports betting sites.

Both teams won their map picks — OG on Inferno, Heroic on Mirage — meaning they had to settle the series on Anubis.

The teams couldn’t be split after 30 rounds as the deciding map went to double overtime, where OG eventually emerged 22-19 victors to claim the series 2-1.

In the other two games that took place on day one, FaZe Clan met G2 Esports and Team Vitality clashed with Natus Vincere.

FaZe defeated G2 2-1, while Vitality despatched of NAVI 2-0 as the latter side’s new six-man roster got off to a rough start.

Day two’s matchups will see the winners of Group A (Team Liquid vs FaZe Clan) and Group B (OG vs Team Vitality) clash, with the winners of those two series taking the number one seed for their respective groups.

The losers from day one will also clash, with two of Natus Vincere, G2, Outsiders and Heroic going home if they are to lose again.

The list of day two games is below, with odds courtesy of BetOnline.

• Outsiders (-151.52) vs G2 Esports (+110) @ 10:00 GST
• Team Liquid (+125) vs FaZe Clan (-175.44) @ 13:00 GST
• Heroic (+100) vs Natus Vincere (-138.89) @ 16:00 GST
• OG (+175) vs Team Vitality (-250) @ 19:00 GST

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Of the eight teams at the BLAST Premier World Final, we will have both the PGL Major and IEM Rio Major winners, FaZe Clan and Outsiders, along with the BLAST Premier Spring Final and BLAST Premier Fall Final winners, Natus Vincere and Heroic. The ESL Pro League Season 16 champions, Team Vitality, also qualified, while G2 Esports, OG and Team Liquid booked their places at the World Final due to their position on the BLAST Leaderboard.

Esports betting sites have FaZe Clan as their market favourite at +300, with Outsiders (+350), Heroic, Natus Vincere (both +400), and Team Vitality (+600) rounding out the teams marked under double figures.

Best Bet: FaZe Clan – +300

Heroic are resting Martin “stavn” Lund and playing with a stand-in, ex-Astralis rifler Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke. Natus Vincere are taking a substitute, Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi, who is expected to play some maps throughout during their World Final run, while OG and G2 Esports are in shocking form coming into the final event of the year.

FaZe and Outsiders would have to be the two in-form teams that aren’t making roster changes or resting any players at the World Final. Due to these factors and considering FaZe Clan have won IEM Katowice, IEM Cologne, ESL Pro League Season 15 and PGL Major Antwerp, they deserve to be favourites.

FaZe Clan will enter the BLAST Premier World Final as the favourite after their runner-up finish at the BLAST Premier Fall Finals at the end of November. At +300 with esports betting sites, we are getting a great price for a team looking for their first World Final success.

After being knocked out early in the IEM Rio Major, FaZe entered to the BLAST Premier Fall Final with a heightened level of determination to show everyone that their underwhelming performance was just a hiccup. Led by the Fall Final MVP, Helvjis “broky” Saukants, FaZe finished second, losing to Heroic 1-2 in a very tight best-of-three series.

If FaZe Clan iron out a few more kinks and turn up in Abu Dhabi with a similar focus, they will be extremely hard to beat. Their first game will be against G2 Esports on Wednesday at 13:00 GST.

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The two teams have now locked up two of the final three spots available via the BLAST Leaderboard, which is a points ranking based on teams’ placing at top-tier events throughout the year.

Now OG have been knocked out of the BLAST Premier Fall Final in last place, it means that G2 and Heroic cannot be displaced from the top six on the BLAST Leaderboard.

There are only two more spots left to determine, one going to the BLAST Premier Fall Final winner and the other reserved for the BLAST Leaderboard.

However, an extra spot from the BLAST Leaderboard will be given if Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, Heroic, or G2 are victorious in Denmark, as they have already qualified for the World Final.

The three teams that are fighting for those last two remaining spots are OG, Team Liquid, and Ninjas in Pyjamas. OG are the highest-placed team, but they cannot gain any more points after their early exit from the Fall Final.

Liquid are next in line, having reached the semis, which means Ninjas in Pyjamas now need to win the tournament in order to qualify.

So far six teams have qualified for the BLAST Premier World Final, leaving two spots up for grabs, with the showpiece event to get underway on December 14 in Abu Dhabi.

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