OG, Fnatic to attend IEM Dallas; Virtus.pro withdraws

ESL has today announced the final team list for IEM Dallas 2023, set to start on Monday May 29th. Changes to the participant list come in the form of withdrawal by Virtus.pro and an unannounced team which was unable to confirm their attendance. Their replacements are Fnatic and OG, respectively, both coming from the European closed qualifier.

OG will be attending the event with two stand-ins; long-term stand-in Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen and Dallas-exclusive stand-in Iulian "regali" Harjău. As OG were not expecting to attend IEM Dallas after losing out in the qualifiers, Abdul "degster" Gasanov had already been granted a leave of absence since OG would not be playing any tournaments until after the player break.

Virtus.pro, on the other hand, have withdrawn due to visa issues and have opted to not participant in "such a large-scale tournament with stand-ins". Virtus.pro acknowledged that ESL attempted to assist with visas, but not all their players were able to secure entry to the United States. Sources also confirmed to Dust2.us that the second replaced team also suffered visa issues and were unable to attend for similar reasons.

With a disappointing 9th-11th place finish at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, Fnatic will have one final chance at an international LAN trophy before the player break this year. Fnatic will hope to shine and show their losses to Monte, GamerLegion, and Into The Breach were flukes rather than a sign of the team continuing to struggle since the start of the year.

With the last minute team changes, the final team list for IEM Dallas 2023 is as follows:

Taking place from May 29th to June 4th, IEM Dallas will play host 16 teams playing for a share of the $250,000 prize pool and direct qualification to IEM Cologne, on top of EPT and BLAST Premier points. The playoffs will be held in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, alongside DreamHack Dallas.