As we’ve barely taken a breather after the Major, another S-Tier tournament came our way. In Chengdu, China, top teams competed for the $100,000 grand prize. How did they do? Let’s find out! Here’s what happened during IEM Chengdu 2024.

Group A

Group A saw G2, 9z, Liquid, Heroic, Lynn Vision, TYLOO, and MOUZ competing for three spots in the knockouts (one semi-final bye and two quarter-final spots). Both local teams tasted defeat early, heading to the lower bracket along with 9z and HEROIC. The first lower bracket round saw TYLOO and 9z heading home. In the group semis, Liquid and MOUZ beat FURIA and G2 to guarantee themselves a playoff spot. In the second lower bracket round, G2 and HEROIC came up clutch against Lynn Vision and FURIA. Eventually, MOUZ headed to the semis by beating Liquid, with G2 joining them after disposing of HEROIC.

Group B

Group B was definitely far less stacked with FaZe, Nemiga, Steel Helmet, Astralis, FlyQuest, Wildcard, and Virtus.pro making up the ranks. However, Cloud9 fell to FlyQuest, marking the first big upset of the tournament. In the lower bracket, Cloud9 eliminated Wildcard, while Nemiga beat Steel Helmet, thus eliminating the only Chinese team left in the tournament. The second round of the upper bracket saw another surprise as Astralis beat FaZe, while Virtus.pro took care of business against FlyQuest. FlyQuest and FaZe would then go on to beat Nemiga and Cloud9, respectively. The semi bye fell to a resurgent Astralis, while FaZe made yet another group stage recovery from the brink.

Quarterfinal

The quarters were set, as G2 faced off against Virtus.pro in a Major rematch and Liquid’s Russell “Twistzz” Van Dulken battled against his former FaZe teammates. The first game saw G2 repeat their Major success, this time with no controversial PC crashes helping them out in their easy 2:0 win, meanwhile FaZe, being seemingly incapable of “easy” wrestled a 2:1 victory from Liquid that included an overtime thriller on Nuke.

Semifinal

We entered the semis, we were set for another Major rematch, as MOUZ faced off against G2. Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek looked for redemption against the team that eliminated him in Copenhagen. The young upstarts managed to get their revenge on Nuke, before failing to convert the 2:0 on Ancient, setting up a tiebreaker on Overpass. There, MOUZ overcame their demons and took the first final spot with a 13:10 win.

A resurgent Astralis faced off against FaZe in the other semi. FaZe started off by winning their map pick on Nuke, but the Danes gave FaZe flashbacks from the jungle on Ancient, beating them 13:5. Eventually, it all headed to Inferno, where Finn “karrigan” Andersen exorcised his major demons, posting a decent performance on his way to a 13:7 win.

Final: FaZe vs. MOUZ

And we’re back to a modern classic. FaZe vs FaZe Academy… erm, MOUZ. With 3 of the 5 FaZe players having once represented their opponents’ team, there’s a bunch of history there. Unfortunately, the final didn’t have much to write home about, as FaZe swiftly took care of business on Overpass and Nuke, in no small part due to recent transfer’s David “fr0zen” Cernansky’s performance.

And that’s all for this tournament! After an exciting Major, Chengdu was definitely less thrilling, but has shown the strength of some of the top teams. With the next top-team showdown coming in Dallas in just over a month, we’ll stay tuned to see what changes in the coming post-Major shuffles!