G2 Esports win IEM Dallas 2024

4 June 2024

From May 27th, 2024, to June 2nd, there was a quarter millions American dollars in prize money up for grabs at the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Dallas 2024, which meant that much of the world’s biggest Counter-Strike talent touched travelled to Texas, United States last weekend. The fact that it was the one hundredth Counter-Strike Masters in history made it an extra special occasion and it was G2 Esports who managed to make it theirs. The German organization managed to overcome Team Vitality in the Grand Final on Sunday, in what became another milestone for esports around the globe.

Early clash between finalists

The Grand Final between G2 Esports and Ukrainian organization Team Vitality was in essence a replay of an encounter the two sides had earlier in the tournament, during the Group Stage. Both powerhouses started in Group A and faced off against each other in the Upper Bracket Semifinals on May 27th. At that time, Vitality disposed of the Germans with relative ease, keeping the match to just two maps: a 6-13 victory on Dust II and a 5-13 victory on Anubis.

This defeat relegated G2 to the Lower Bracket, where they managed to make it to the final and win against Team Liquid in a three-map thriller: 11-13 for Liquid on Dust II, 13-8 for G2 on Inferno and 13-11 for G2 on Nuke. Meanwhile, Team Vitality lost the Upper Bracket Final to Argentinian side 9z Team, but reaching the final was sufficient for them to qualify for the Playoffs nonetheless.

In the Playoffs, G2 Esports found a purple patch of form, beating FaZe Clan 0-2 in the Quarterfinals before eliminating 9z Team 0-2 in the Semifinals. The same went for Team Vitality though, who overcame HEROIC in the Quarterfinals (2-0) and then the Russians from Team Spirit in the Semifinals (0-2). This meant that the Grand Final of the IEM Dallas 2024 was going to be between G2 Esports and Team Vitality.

All or nothing in the final

It ended up being a tight affair On Sunday between two big names in the world of Counter-Strike and international esports in general. It ended up taking G2 three maps to submit Vitality and the Ukrainians stayed in it until the very end. The first two maps, Inferno and Anubis, went into overtime, eventually ending in 19-16 for G2 and 13-16 for Vitality, respectively. This meant that Nuke, the third and final map for the IEM Dallas 2024 Grand Final, was going to be the decider.

It was G2’s defensive stability on Nuke that caught most of the attention, as the Germans seemed unbreakable at times despite excellent efforts from Vitality. They were in fact so strong that they managed to neutralize Vitality completely without losing a single player themselves, bringing G2 a decisive 13-8 victory on the third map. As a result, the German organization took home $ 100.000 in prize money plus 1.400 BLAST Premier points and an automatic qualification for IEM Cologne 2024. Team Vitaly bagged $ 42.000 and 1.000 BLAST Premier points with their second place.

Credit Photo: G2 Esports