MOUZ and ENCE in the final of the IEM Dallas

MOUZ and ENCE in the final of the IEM Dallas

4. June 2023 by Andrew Williams

MOUZ became the first team to advance to the IEM Dallas grand final after defeating Heroic 2-1 (Vertigo 16-8, Overpass 9-16, Ancient 16-14). Meanwhile, ENCE prevailed over FaZe. ENCE defeated FaZe 2-1 (Mirage 8-16, Anubis 16-6, Ancient 31-28) to also reach the Dallas Grand Final.

On Ancient, it came down to a five-overtime, which was definitely memorable. MOUZ will face ENCE tonight.

MOUZ vs. Heroic

The match started on Vertigo and MOUZ got off to the better start and at half time the score was 10-5. Heroic then managed to get back on their feet but were immediately snatched back by MOUZ when Dexter did a double kill. MOUZ won the first map with 16:8. The second map was Overpass. The Danes took the lead and slowly passed MOUZ. By the break, the score was 10-5, just like on Vertigo – but this time for Heroic.

Heroic were not deterred and got to 14 rounds on their CT side. MOUZ fought back from a blowout with four shots in a row, three of which came from bomb blasts, but TeSeS and Rasmus “sjuush” Beck eventually allowed Heroic to finish the map 16-9. On Ancient, Heroic really stepped on the gas in the beginning, with TeSeS and sjuush again being the decisive players, building a 3-0 advantage on the CT side. But MOUZ was close on Heroic’s heels and finally overtook them after half-time. MOUZ managed to win Ancient by a close score of 16-14 to take the match 2-1.

ENCE vs. FaZe

The match started on Mirage and ENCE won the pistol round on the CT side, but was then overrun by a dominant FaZe. The score was 10-5 at half-time and FaZe continued to dominate, mainly thanks to Håvard “rain” Nygaard, who made several multi-kills in his team’s 16-8 win.

On the second map, Anubis, there were several hit exchanges, but it was already apparent that ENCE was gaining strength. At half-time, the score was 11-4 and ENCE was unstoppable. Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia and Guy “NertZ” Iluz were the driving forces that eventually ended the map 16-6. Next up was Anubis and neither team could have even imagined what a hard-fought match they were in for. FaZe took a 7-1 lead and it looked like they were going to snatch victory when suddenly the entire game turned around and SunPayus hit a triple that propelled ENCE ahead. ENCE equalised and managed to take a 10-8 lead. At the end of regulation time, the score was 15-15. The first overtime was followed by quickly had a second and the teams went head-to-head. In the end, however, ENCE beat FaZe 31-28 after the fifth overtime. This puts ENCE in the Grand Final!