Vitality, 9z land in upper-bracket final at IEM Dallas

Team Vitality and 9z Team won their respective upper-bracket semifinal matches in Group A on Monday at the 2024 Intel Extreme Masters Dallas event.

Vitality swept G2 Esports 2-0, while 9z slipped by Team Liquid for a 2-1 victory. The winners meet in the upper-bracket final on Wednesday.

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.

On Monday, Team Vitality took Dust II 13-6 and Anubis 13-5 to send G2 to the lower-bracket semifinals. Israel's Shahar "flameZ" Shushan led Vitality with 35 kills and a plus-13 kill-death differential.

After prevailing 16-13 on Nuke, 9z Team fell 13-9 on Anubis. 9z bounced back, though, besting Team Liquid 13-11 on Dust II. Antonio "MartinezSa" Martinez finished with 62 kills and a plus-15 K-D in the win.

G2 Esports edged Team Falcons 13-10 on Anubis and Team Vitality topped Monte 16-12 on Nuke in the upper-bracket quarterfinals to set up the semifinal match. Meanwhile, 9z Team got the best of MOUZ 13-9 on Nuke while Team Liquid downed Complexity 13-6 on Dust II in other first-round action in Group A.

MOUZ and Complexity then squared off in the lower-bracket quarterfinals, where Team Falcons and Monte also met.

In the meeting between MOUZ and Complexity, MOUZ came out on top, 2-1. Team Falcons blanked Monte 2-0.

Four upper-bracket quarterfinal matches went down in Group B on Monday, with all four being played on Ancient. FaZe Clan picked up a 13-6 win over M80; Virtus.pro cruised past HEROIC, 13-4; Team Spirit crushed FlyQuest 13-1; and Natus Vincere earned a 13-9 win against BIG.

Group stage action continues Tuesday:

Group A

--G2 Esports vs. MOUZ (lower-bracket semifinal)

--Team Liquid vs. Team Falcons (lower-bracket semifinal)

Group B

--FaZe Clan vs. Virtus.pro (upper-bracket semifinals)

--Team Spirit vs. Natus Vincere (upper-bracket semifinals)

--M80 vs. Heroic (lower-bracket quarterfinals)

--FlyQuest vs. BIG (lower-bracket quarterfinals)

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