Imperial, Complexity eliminated from IEM Dallas

Liquid and NIP will fight on in the tournament thanks to wins against Imperial and Complexity respectively.

The first matches of the second day saw four teams fighting for their tournament lives in the $250.000 event, after losing their opening games yesterday.

It was Liquid who managed to beat the veterans of Imperial in a 2-0 series, first winning Overpass 16-9 and then prevailing on their map pick of Vertigo with a 16-9 score.

In the other elimination game we had Ninjas in Pyjamas, who are using Erik "⁠ztr⁠" Gustafsson in place of their IGL Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser, getting the better of the North American squad of Complexity in a 2-0 series.

The game between Imperial and Liquid started off on Overpass, the pick of the Brazilians. They were able to pick up the pistol round and get to a 3-0 lead, but the North Americans quickly fought back, dropping just one more round during their defensive half, coming out with a seven round lead at the interval.

Liquid started the second half where they ended the first, winning a 3v5 situation in the pistol round and putting themselves out of reach of the Brazilians, in the end coming out with a 16-9 win on the map.

Next up was Vertigo, where Imperial started off strong, Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass even getting an ace in an anti-eco round. But as soon as the North Americans got a good buy together they started to dominate, winning 11 out of the 12 remaining rounds, giving them a 11-4 lead at the half.

An amazing 4K round by Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm got his team started on their CT side, but the Brazilians didn't back down and quickly answered with a round of their own. That started a comeback attempt by Imperial who got up to nine rounds, before Liquid closed out the game with a 16-9 scoreline.

Ninjas in Pyjamas were able to start the series off with a successful CT side on Vertigo, with Nicolas "⁠Plopski⁠" Gonzalez Zamora and Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner shutting out anything Complexity had to offer, winning the first half 10-5 and looking comfortable.

A 3K in the pistol round by REZ win meant the Swedes were 12-5 up in no time, and they had no problem closing out the game, winning all but four rounds on their offensive side and moving the series to their pick of Overpass as REZ got a 2.11 rating on map 1.

Complexity found more success on the second map, winning the pistol round and converting it to a 5-0 lead, before the Swedes got the first round on the board. Due to the close nature of the rounds, the economy of the North Americans was in bad shape straight away, enabling Ninjas in Pyjamas to get back into the game with three straight rounds.

Complexity were able to post a few more rounds on the board, but the Swedes kept decreasing the deficit throughout the half, meaning they were just one round behind at the interval.

The second half started with Ninjas in Pyjamas winning the pistol and converting to a 13-8 lead. Complexity didn't give up however, and got up to within one round of the Swedes with a four round streak. A 4K by Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin put a stop to their charge, putting his team up to 14 rounds which they quickly converted into a 16-12 win.