IEM Sydney gets underway next week, and whilst last minute changes are not desired they can not always be avoided. With not all players on either team being granted Australian VISAs in time.

Despite the best efforts of Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke who ended the 3 map series with 80 kills, 47 of those coming on his team's map choice, it was not enough for Optic Gaming as Renegades won 2 maps to 1 to secure the last place at the DreamHack Masters tournament in France.

The first map was Cloud9's pick of Mirage, and as such they started out on the Terrorist side. The pistol round went the way of the French side, but the American (desert) eagles answer back and the match balanced out once more at 1-1. After a slightly stressful timeout, the game was restarted and Cloud9 go on to take two more rounds. Eventually the first half came to an extremely close 8-7 half in favour of the American side. The second half however started out with a six rounds straight for the Cloud9 side and things were looking frightening for the Frenchmen. G2 only picked up one more round before they found themselves facing match point and that is where the map ended, 16-8 for the Cloud9 side.

The event will see 16 teams competing for their share of the $250,000 prize pool, over the weekend of April 21-22 in front of a live audience at Le Dôme, whilst the group stage will take place earlier in the week between the 18-20.

The first round of matches saw a rematch of the IEM Oakland Grand Final as Faze Clan took on NiP Gaming, but both this and the game between North and G2 Esports ended as draws. The third game saw the Danes of Astralis with a comprehensive victory over SK Gaming.