As IEM returned to Sydney, ESL, 16 teams from across the globe fought for the title and $250,000 USD on the table from April 30 – May 05. The tournament features a double elimination bracket.
Group A and Group B locked horns to decide the teams that would make their move ahead in the tournament.
Initial Matches:
Group A:
The first game was played between Liquid and BOOT on Nuke, where the North-Americans beat the SEA team with a scoreline of 16-9. The second clash was between mousesports and BIG. BIG shocked the newly revamped mouz roster on Inferno with a close win, with the score being 16-14.
Next up, was the game between NiP and eUnited, which was played on Nuke and the Swedes emerged victorious with a scoreline of 16-13 and the same scoreline was seen on the match between Renegades and MVP PK where the home team emerged victorious on Inferno.
Upper Bracket:
- Liquid
- BIG
- Renegades
- NiP
Lower Bracket:
- BOOT
- Mousesports
- eUnited
- MVP PK
Group B:
In Group B, FaZe were able to get past Chiefs without breaking a sweat thanks to lights out performance by Ustilo on Dust 2. Next, ViCi were dominated by NRG on Mirage where the North-American heavyweights thrashed ViCi with a scoreline of 16-5.
In the last two games, Fnatic defused any threat from Heroic by taking Train in their favor with a scoreline of 16-7. In the last game, Grayhound were unable to beat MIBR and moved to the lower bracket thanks to a 16-11 loos against the Brazilian legends on Overpass.
Upper Bracket:
- FaZe
- NRG
- Fnatic
- MIBR
Lower Bracket:
- Chiefs
- ViCi
- Heroic
- Grayhound
Round 2:
The second round of the tournament was used to determine which 4 teams would be eliminated from the tournament and which teams would live on to see another day at the Australian tournament in the lower bracket
In the upper bracket, the teams that would lose would be demoted to the lower bracket. The winning teams would continue their unbeaten run at the tournament.
Upper Bracket of Group A:
The first game of this bracket was played between Liquid and BIG. The North American team continued marching on in the tournament without breaking a sweat, taking the series with a scoreline of 2-0 in the BO3 series (16-7 on Dust 2 and 16-3 on Overpass).
The second game was played between NiP and Renegades. The Swedish legendary team took the first map, Nuke, with a scoreline of 16-4. The second map was Mirage where NiP denied a comeback and ended the game with a scoreline of 16-12, thus taking the series in their favor. This victory has pushed NiP to the upper bracket final of Group A.
Lower Bracket of Group A:
In the lower bracket of Group A,mousesports faced off against BOOT. In the BO3 series, mousesports comfortably won the series by dropping 8 rounds over 2 maps. The European side emerged victorious on Mirage in convincing fashion with a scoreline of 16-2 and followed up by taking Train with a scoreline of 16-6. Thus, eliminating BOOT from the tournament.
In the second game of the lower bracket, MVP PK were pitted against eUnited. MVP PK bagged Train with a scoreline of 16-9. The second map was Overpass where the North Americans pushed the map to overtime. In overtime, MVP PK edged past eUnited with a scoreline of 19-17. This loss ended eUnited’s journey in IEM Sydney 2019.
