A Preview Of IEM Sydney 2023
The first major Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) event starts on Monday when IEM Sydney 2023 kicks off. While the tournament starts on Monday in Syndey due to time zones most of the games will start late Sunday for North American audiences and early Monday for European audiences.
CS2 was released less than a month ago giving pros not much time to practice new strategies and tactics with the overhauled maps and new features to the game.
There will be 16 teams in attendance coming from regions ranging from North America to Oceania with only six of those teams being partnered teams and the rest getting in through open and closed qualifiers as well as based on their ESL World Rankings.
It is hard to call favorites this time around as they will be playing a completely different game for the first time. It is easy to expect the top teams like ENCE, Vitality, G2, MOUZ and Natus Vincere to perform great, but this could easily be a tournament where an underdog can win it all.
Many of the top teams utilized one-way smokes in Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) and with the new volumetric smokes that take away a lot of one-way smoke spots seeing how top teams adapt will be something to watch during the tournament.
My personal pick for the event to win it all is ENCE with Natus Vincere being a close second and I predict those two teams to be in the Grand Finals.
Vitality just lost their coach in Danny “zonic” Sørensen which will deal a big blow to their play calling, and G2 have stars like NiKo and m0NESY but used a lot of one-way smokes in CSGO and with the removal of that they may struggle in their first major LAN event.
