Two more into an upper-bracket final at IEM Dallas

FaZe Clan and Team Spirit became the second set of clubs to advance to the upper-bracket final in group play at the 2024 Intel Extreme Masters Dallas event, advancing with very different-looking wins on Tuesday.

In the first Group B upper-bracket semifinal, Spirit had little trouble with Natus Vincere, sweeping through their opponent. FaZe, on the other hand, followed that with a reverse sweep escape against Virtus.pro.

Sixteen teams are participating in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament, which begins with a double-elimination group stage. Eight teams are in Group A and eight are in Group B, with upper-bracket quarterfinal matches best-of-one and all other matches in group play best-of-three.

The top three teams in each group will secure a spot in the playoffs. Winners of Groups A and B go right to the semifinals, runners-up head to the quarterfinals as high seeds and third-place finishers land in the quarterfinals as low seeds.

All matches in the single-elimination playoff bracket are best-of-three, and the grand final is scheduled for June 2.

The winner of the tournament will receive $100,000, 1,400 BLAST Premier points and a spot in the 2024 IEM Cologne event in Germany, scheduled for Aug. 7-18.

Spirit made quick work of Natus Vincere on Tuesday, winning 13-4 on Ancient and 13-8 on Nuke. Ukrainian Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia and Russia's Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov led Spirit with 31 kills apiece -- with sh1ro's plus-12 kill-death differential tops among all players.

FaZe then fell 13-10 on Mirage to open its match against Virtus.pro, but then took Inferno 16-13 and Ancient 13-11 to advance against the all-Russian squad. FaZe had four players notch at least 54 kills in the match, led by Slovakian David 'frozen' Cernansky's 60 kills and plus-16 kill-death differential.

Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov led all players with 73 kills in the loss.

Also in Group B, HEROIC swept M80 2-0 and BIG did the same to FlyQuest in the lower-bracket quarterfinals. They will face Tuesday's upper-bracket losers in the lower-bracket semis on Wednesday.

In Group A, G2 Esports edged MOUZ 2-1 and Team Liquid used a reverse sweep to beat Team Falcons 2-1 in a pair of lower-bracket semifinals.

Group play continues Wednesday:

Group A

--9z Team vs. Team Vitality (upper-bracket final)

--G2 Esports vs. Team Liquid (lower-bracket final)

Group B

--FaZe Clan vs. Team Spirit (upper-bracket final)

--Natus Vincere vs. HEROIC (lower-bracket semifinals)

--Virtus.pro vs. BIG (lower-bracket semifinals)

Prize pool:

1. $100,000, 1,400 BLAST Premier points, qualification to IEM Cologne 2024

2. $42,000, 1,000 BLAST Premier points

3-4. $20,000, 600 BLAST Premier points

5-6. $10,000, 400 BLAST Premier points

7-8. $6,000, 300 BLAST Premier points

9-12. $5,000

13-16. $4,000

--Field Level Media