Cloud9 secured their attendance at IEM Dallas 2023

To be eligible to defend their championship starting in 2022, the Russian team defeated OG 2-0 in the consolidation final. Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov and colleagues won the $250,000 event's debut edition last year, however they did not receive an original invitation and had to compete in a closed qualification. The Russian fivesome won over sYnck and Ninjas in Pyjamas on their route to the upper bracket final, where they faced Astralis, after being accepted straight to the online tournament.

In the final series versus OG, Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov was excellent, especially on the first map when he helped his side to a close 16-14 victory on Mirage owing to his 1.84 rating and 29-8 K-D. In Overpass, the 21-year-old marksman slowed down, finishing the game with a 1.52 average score over the two levels.