IEM Sydney 2023: Complexity shuts down G2’s Australian dream in 2-0 sweep

After four years apart, Intel Extreme Masters reunites with Sydney in 2023–and it’s wearing a new look. With the playoffs underway, which international team will be crowned with the first big title in Counter-Strike 2?

The first game of finals was the story of improved teams. 

The action in the Aware Super Theatre kicked off with Complexity taking on BetBoom, both having already surpassed expectations for the event. Complexity picked one of their new home maps of Anubis, and it didn’t take long to see why. Not much was going in favour of BetBoom, and minus a brilliant 1v3 spraydown from Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov, any form of comeback ended up purely cosmetic, as Complexity stamped their credentials to take it to map two.

Ancient was a much more intense map, with back and forths leading to a 7-5 scoreline for BetBoom on their map pick at the end of the first half. Economy was a large contributor, leading to many compromised buys as no team was able to push ahead. At 10-9 in BetBoom’s favour, Pavel “s1ren” Ogloblin almost took the game by the scruff of the neck with an attempted eco 1v5 that was denied by the final Complexity player alive. As a result, Complexity tied the game at 10-10 before closing out a 13-11 win to book a spot against G2 in the semi-finals.

The second series of the day told a much different story.

FaZe and ENCE’s previous battles had been dominated by ENCE, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that from watching the series.

Beyond a tech break to address Helvijs “broky” Saukants’ PC issues, FaZe’s pick of Nuke couldn’t have gone much better for their T-side. Constantly prodding and moving ENCE’s players around into masterclass B site crunches, ENCE could do little to stem the bleeding, and beyond a couple of late rounds, Faze seemed in their rhythm, and quickly wrapped up Nuke when their CT came around.

As for ENCE’s pick of Anubis, there was one clear message: FaZe are back.

At the start of the map, Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken stole the show, with him getting ten kills before his first death. It set the precedent early for FaZe, with blistering pace and aggression on their CT-side obliterating ENCE. The half ended 12-0 in Faze’s favour, and once they converted the pistol round the following half, it solidified the first ever 13-0 in tier-one CS2, and a spot against MOUZ in the semi-finals.

We’re covering everything at IEM Sydney 2023 Playoffs; streams, schedule, rosters, and more.

IEM Sydney 2023 Stream

If you can’t make it to the Aware Super Theatre this weekend, don’t worry: the IEM Sydney 2023 finals will be streamed live on Twitch. VODs for the A and B streams from the Group Stage are available on YouTube.

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IEM Sydney 2023 Playoffs Results

IEM Sydney 2023 Playoffs sees 6 teams play in a best-of-three knock-out format with the top seed from Group A, G2 and Group B, MOUZ securing a spot in the Semifinals. Quarter finals on Friday will see BB vs Complexity kick us off followed by ENCE vs FAZE.

Sunday’s best-of-three finals are just within reach now for these teams.

IEM Sydney 2023 — Quarter-finals Schedule & Results (Day 1)

Match	Teams	Time
Friday, Oct 20		
Quarter-final #1	BetBoom 6-13 Complexity	4:30pm (AEDT) 7:30am (CEST)
	BetBoom 11-13 Complexity
Quarter-final #2	ENCE 5-13 FaZe	7:30pm (AEDT) 10:30am (CEST)
	ENCE 0-13 FaZe

IEM Sydney 2023 — Semi-finals Schedule & Results (Day 2)

Match	Teams	Time
Saturday, Oct 21		
Semi-final #1	G2 8-13 Complexity	4:30pm (AEDT) 7:30am (CEST)
	G2 3-13 Complexity
Semi-final #2	MOUZ v FaZe	7:30pm (AEDT) 10:30am (CEST)

IEM Sydney 2023 — Grand Finals Schedule & Results (Day 3)

Match	Teams	Time
Sunday, Oct 22		
Grand Finals	SF #1 winner v SF #2 winner	6:30pm (AEDT) 9:30am (CEST)

IEM Sydney 2023 Rosters

Following some changes at the eleventh hour thanks to Visa issues and other hiccups during the group stage, sixteen teams have dropped to six—our play-off teams have been locked in.

Sadly, we won’t be seeing any of the Australian teams over the weekend but Australia’s own Justin “jks” Savage is still out there to cheer on.

Team	Squad
BetBoom Team	nafany	KaiR0N-	s1ren	zorte	danistzz
Complexity Gaming	JT	floppy	Grim	hallzerk	EliGE
ENCE	Snappi	dycha	maden	SunPayus	NertZ
FaZe Clan	Karrigan	rain	broky	Twistzz	ropz
G2 Esports	HooXi	huNter-	NiKo	m0NESY	jks
MOUZ	siuhy	frozen	torzsi	xertioN	Jimpphat

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• Source: https://snowballesports.com/2023/10/21/iem-sydney-2023-coverage-hub/