SunPayus shines bright as ENCE romp to IEM Dallas title over MOUZ

Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz and Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković were also on point as MOUZ crumbled to a straightforward defeat.

ENCE comfortably dispatched MOUZ 2-0 to win the IEM Dallas trophy, taking Mirage 16-9 and Nuke 16-10.

Ultimately ENCE were good value for their victory, bar a few streaks early in halves from MOUZ it was virtually entirely one-way traffic. ENCE got fantastic performances out of NertZ, Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García and Maden throughout the series, whilst MOUZ only had Jon "⁠JDC⁠" de Castro and David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský offering serious resistance, whilst the other three on the squad were virtually entirely absent.

SunPayus was a threatening presence throughout the series

MOUZ’s pick of Mirage opened the series, with Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong and co. starting off on the T side. Unfortunately they ran into a superlative CT performance from SunPayus, the Spaniard making Mirage his playground with aggressive maneuvers across the map, keeping MOUZ guessing. Even when MOUZ did find traction in a round, ENCE usually made the right rotation or had a player ready to make a play and multi-frag. Some tidy rifle work from frozen and JDC put a few rounds on the board for MOUZ, but only enough for a 4-11 half.

With the sides switched MOUZ came out swinging, showing a level of confidence and aggression that seemed to catch ENCE flat-footed. However, after a four-round streak a couple of missteps granted ENCE a round, and this combined with a vital clutch from NertZ allowed ENCE to eventually steal their opponent’s map pick 16-9.

Over on Nuke, ENCE’s pick, MOUZ kicked off on the CT side and ran out to a 4-0 lead thanks to some imperious play from frozen. Once ENCE got their economy in order, however, the game flipped on its head. ENCE ran over MOUZ time and time again with a combination of tidy A executes, good calling from Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer, and potent mid-round fragging in chaotic situations from their individuals. frozen and JDC combined for 38 frags and offered admirable resistance throughout, but ENCE were still dominant and took a 9-6 lead into the second period.

Once again MOUZ started a half strongly, taking four on the bounce as they switched to their T side, but once again ENCE recovered and never looked back once they had. MOUZ just couldn’t seem to find a way to consistently challenge in gun rounds, their upper executes had no teeth to them and dexter, Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás and Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman struggled to find frags or have any impact. ENCE duly romped to a 16-10 victory to seal the trophy.

IEM Dallas 2023Best of 3 MOUZMatchpage 0 2 4th June 2023 ENCE 9Mirage 16 10Nuke 16

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jon 'JDC' de CastroJDC	49 - 34	+15	95.9	1.27
David 'frozen' Čerňanskýfrozen	41 - 34	+7	90.2	1.26
Dorian 'xertioN' BermanxertioN	24 - 42	-18	66.1	0.81
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsástorzsi	27 - 37	-10	54.8	0.76
Christopher 'dexter' Nongdexter	19 - 42	-23	47.0	0.55

ENCE	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Álvaro 'SunPayus' GarcíaSunPayus	45 - 29	+16	97.7	1.45
Guy 'NertZ' IluzNertZ	40 - 28	+12	81.2	1.30
Pavle 'Maden' BoškovićMaden	41 - 35	+6	90.1	1.17
Paweł 'dycha' Dychadycha	36 - 34	+2	73.2	1.02
Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferSnappi	27 - 34	-7	56.7	0.84

MOUZ can be pleased with their vastly improved performance here in Dallas, having spent much of the year so far floundering and struggling to make it out of the group stages of tournaments. frozen and JDC continued to show this improved level in the final and were making ENCE work hard for some of their round wins, but overall the team seemed to regress to what has become the norm for MOUZ so far this year. torzsi and xertioN were particularly poor in this grand final, and rumblings that MOUZ need changes to be successful will not be entirely banished by their run.

ENCE on the other hand will be thrilled to have finally added a LAN title to the list of achievements they have garnered since Snappi took the IGL reins and they switched to a European roster. It took some time for the team to find their feet after the departures of Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz and Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi last year, but since NertZ was brought into the fold just before ESL Pro League, the team has gone from strength to strength. SunPayus in particular was an absolute menace throughout the series, the Spaniard living up to the reputation that encouraged ENCE to pick him up in the first place.

The IEM Dallas final standings were:

1. ENCE - $100,000

2. MOUZ - $42,000

3-4. FaZe - $20,000
3-4. HEROIC - $20,000

5-6. G2 - $10,000
5-6. Astralis - $10,000

7-8. Cloud9 - $6,000
7-8. OG - $6,000

9-12. Complexity - $5,000
9-12. Liquid - $5,000
9-12. 9z - $5,000
9-12. FURIA - $5,000

13-16. Grayhound - $4,000
13-16. Evil Geniuses - $4,000
13-16. fnatic - $4,000
13-16. Nouns - $4,000

MOUZ #18 Christopher 'dexter' NongDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýJon 'JDC' de CastroÁdám 'torzsi' TorzsásDorian 'xertioN' Berman Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen Pavle 'Maden' Bošković Age: 24 Team: ENCE Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 829 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.70 Nouns #38 Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' JonesEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoDavid 'cynic' PolsterBrendan 'Bwills' WilliamsCarson 'nosraC' O'Reilly Kory 'SEMPHIS' Friesen Liquid #8 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Damian 'daps' Steele HEROIC #2 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard Richard 'Xizt' Landström Evil Geniuses #55 Timothy 'autimatic' TaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteIsmail 'refrezh' AliSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovJerric 'wiz' Jiang Daniel 'Vorborg' Vorborg Olek 'hades' Miskiewicz Age: 23 Team: 9INE Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 855 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.62 Jon 'JDC' de Castro Age: 23 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 631 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.67 OG #17 Nikolaj 'niko' KristensenAdam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharShahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' GasanovMaciej 'F1KU' Miklas Casper 'ruggah' Due Astralis #25 Lukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzBenjamin 'blameF' BremerAlexander 'Altekz' GivskovChristian 'Buzz' Andersen Peter 'casle' Ardenskjold Dorian 'xertioN' Berman Age: 18 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 323 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás Age: 21 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 588 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.61 Complexity #24 Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliMichael 'Grim' WinceJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Tiaan 'T.c' Coertzen Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer Age: 32 Team: ENCE Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 1726 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.68 Christopher 'dexter' Nong Age: 28 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1114 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67 Álvaro 'SunPayus' García Age: 24 Team: ENCE Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 461 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.59 Guy 'NertZ' Iluz Age: 23 Team: ENCE Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 384 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.69 fnatic #14 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonDion 'FASHR' DerksenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' Merriman Jamie 'keita' Hall FURIA #12 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRafael 'saffee' CostaAndré 'drop' Abreu Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira David 'frozen' Čerňanský Age: 20 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1321 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.64 FaZe #3 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi Age: 22 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 570 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.64 ENCE #11 Guy 'NertZ' IluzPavle 'Maden' BoškovićMarco 'Snappi' PfeifferPaweł 'dycha' DychaÁlvaro 'SunPayus' García Eetu 'sAw' Saha Cloud9 #5 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimur 'buster' TulepovSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner Grayhound #27 Simon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJoshua 'INS' PotterDeclan 'Vexite' Portelli 9z #42 Maximiliano 'max' GonzalezFranco 'dgt' GarciaDavid 'dav1deuS' Tapia MaldonadoSantino 'try' RigalNicolás 'buda' Kramer Gustavo 'tge' Motta G2 #6 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačJustin 'jks' SavageRasmus 'HooXi' NielsenIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov Jan 'Swani' Müller