Evil Geniuses and Grayhound eliminated from IEM Dallas

Both elimination series bore witness to overtime battles, but neither Evil Geniuses or Grayhound could take the chance to force a third map.

Another two teams have been eliminated from IEM Dallas, with Evil Geniuses exiting after an 0-2 loss to Complexity and Grayhound falling 0-2 to Liquid.

Complexity massacred Evil Geniuses 16-2 on Anubis before closing the series out 19-17 on Overpass, whilst Liquid had to clinch tight victories on both maps against Grayhound, 22-19 on Inferno and 25-23 on Mirage.

Both series were closely fought and could easily have gone to three maps. Grayhound, powered by immense performances by Declan "⁠Vexite⁠" Portelli, forced Liquid to OT on both maps, and even had a 15-8 lead at one point on Mirage that they could not convert.

Evil Geniuses by contrast were blown out on their opening map against Complexity, but had a 14-8 lead on Overpass that they squandered despite the best efforts of Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta. Complexity and Liquid simply had more individuals providing impact in the key moments, and that was enough to haul them both over the line.

The A stream matchup kicked off with Evil Geniuses’ pick of Anubis, and it was a completely one-sided affair as Complexity utterly embarrassed them. The B bombsite was a disaster for Evil Geniuses on their CT side, they simply couldn’t find a way to repel any executes that came their way, and this resulted in a 13-2 half for Complexity that was near-impossible to overcome. Complexity closed the map out 16-2 when the sides switched.

Evil Geniuses made a much better game of things on Overpass, starting on the CT side and kicking things off with a 3-0 lead. Some excellent entry work on B from Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince gave way to a Complexity streak of rounds to bring the scores close, but from this point autimatic led the way as Evil Geniuses put up a defensive wall that Complexity struggled to get past, which granted Evil Geniuses a 10-5 score heading into the second period.

autimatic continued his strong performance into the second-half, helping Evil Geniuses recover from a pistol loss to run the score all the way up to 14-7 before Complexity could find some resistance. An impactful round from Grim and a Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley clutch did allow Complexity to put a few rounds on the board, but they flopped badly against a half-buy rush into the B site, letting Evil Geniuses find 15. Complexity weren’t done with the map however, and they dug deep to find the rounds required to force overtime. Evil Geniuses’ resistance waned in OT and Complexity comfortably secured the four required for a 19-17 victory.

Evil Geniuses have been the butt of many community jokes in the recent past, and for good reason considering their consistent woeful performances in international competitions. They did at least show signs of life here in Dallas, taking maps to overtime against FaZe and Complexity, but as their latter opponents were attending the tournament with a stand-in, Evil Geniuses should be disappointed they exit without a single map win to their name.

Over on the B stream, the opening map of Inferno threatened to be a disaster choice for Grayhound as they were battered early doors by Liquid’s offense, falling to a quick 2-8 deficit before waking up. Wake up they did thanks to a smart B-stack on a half-buy, and Vexite picked up several multi-kills in the following rounds to allow the Australian side to haul themselves to a 6-9 score at halftime.

Grayhound come out swinging on their offense, picking up five rounds in a row to take the lead in the map for the first time. Liquid did eventually find their feet on CT side with a more proactive approach, contesting map control aggressively with multiple members or pushing down middle early in the round. The closing stages of regulation were closely fought, and in key moments Liquid made a few mistakes overpeeking to allow Grayhound to force the map to overtime.

Ultimately it was Liquid’s superior individual firepower that made the difference in OT, Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm, Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic all stepped up with high-impact moments to help their team claw their way to a 22-19 victory.

Joshua "⁠INS⁠" Potter and Vexite combined with a flurry of early multi-kills to give Grayhound a strong 5-0 start to their CT side on Mirage, before some up-tempo executes got Liquid back into contention and broke the Aussies’ economy. The North American squad ran with this opportunity and tied the scores up quickly, but multi-kills from Vexite and INS ensured Grayhound went into halftime with a 9-6 advantage.

The second half began as a straightforward affair for Grayhound, their relatively simple and execute-heavy approach proving too much for Liquid to deal with; slick trading and powerful entry work pushed the Aussies all the way to 15 rounds. Fortunately for Liquid their individuals began to step up, NAF and Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis in particular producing highlight moments on the B site, and Grayhound crumbled under the pressure, letting the map go to overtime.

Despite squandering such a big lead Grayhound still found the strength within them to force the map all the way to triple overtime, but Liquid had too much quality across their squad down the stretch, finishing the map 25-23.

Grayhound can be proud of the way they recovered from a decimation at the hands of Cloud9 in their opening game, but they will nevertheless lament the fact they couldn’t take at least a map against Liquid. Vexite and INS seemed to be providing the firepower needed, but the Aussies couldn’t find the extra gear required to at least force a third map. Grayhound’s recent performances have shown they aren’t miles away from the level required to make the playoffs at an international LAN, but too often they throw away strong positions in games.