The IEM Sydney 2023 Quarter-Finals have reached their conclusion, with two CS masterclasses taking place on the server. It’s been a long few days of competition up to this point and the teams are showing no signs of slowing down.

So what happened in BetBoom Team vs Complexity and FaZe vs ENCE? Let’s find out.

FaZe Dominate ENCE

Credit: IEM on Twitter

For all the talk of Counter-Strike 2 not being ‘esports ready’, we only saw one thing to fit this description in the IEM Sydney Quarter-Finals: ENCE. The team have received a lot of praise lately, but were taught a lesson in CS from FaZe Clan here.

It started so promising for ENCE, starting 3:0 on the first map. However, from that point onward, they only picked up two rounds of the next 28 in the entire series. The tilt set in early for ENCE, which has never been a problem for the team previously. It was a bizarre watch, as they capitulated time and time again. While Nuke ended 13:5, it was Anubis where FaZe really stamped their authority on the series.

FaZe managed to 13:0 ENCE on Anubis (ENCE’s map pick!), condemning them to the long flight home on the big stage. Twistzz was playing like it was a DM session, hitting every shot at times. MR12 or MR15, it doesn’t matter – FaZe were playing so well, this was going to be a clean sweep regardless. The FaZe Clan on stage buff is real.

Complexity Overcome BetBoom Team

Credit: IEM on Twitter

On the other side of the IEM Sydney Quarter-Finals, Complexity also managed to 2:0 BetBoom Team in a much closer affair. It’s hard not to be impressed by Complexity at the moment, who seem to be improving every time they step onto the server. EliGE has seemingly transformed the team, but there’s no doubt the individual form of the other players has ramped up massively.

Spare a thought for BetBoom Team, though. After IGL nafany took so much flak towards the end of his stint at Cloud9, it was nice to see him reach the IEM Sydney 2023 Quarter-Finals with his new roster. For a team put together just under three months ago, a placement like this isn’t a bad result at all.

While the first map finished 13:6 and was always going the way of Complexity, map two on Ancient finished 13:11. It was the slimmest of margins, and we easily could’ve gone to a third map. Still, these are two teams that are still improving, and are ones to watch as we move into CS2.