Stewie is first American to reach Dallas stage since 2019
For some reason, IEM Dallas has been a bit of a troubling event for North American players. After winning the event in 2019, Liquid have missed out on the Dallas stage for the last three years as they finished in 7th/8th in 2022, 9th/12th in 2023, and now 7th/8th in 2024 when they had Josh "oSee" Ohm, Nick "nitr0" Cannella, Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, and the Canadian Keith "NAF" Markovic.
Complexity have also failed to make it to the storied stage in their qualification history as they finished last in 2022, 9th/12th in 2023, and last in 2024, meaning that Ricky "floppy" Kemery, Michael "Grim" Wince, and EliGE missed out on the big stage in the Post-COVID era.
For what it's worth, this will also be the first time that Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken has missed out on the stage as he and FaZe made it to the Top 6 in both 2022 and 2023 while he was on the squad.
For Stewie, this a return to the stage where he celebrated an important win for Liquid during their historic 2019 Intel Grand Slam win. He has stood in for G2 with the absence of Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen who is celebrating his sister's wedding. So far the American has held his own while in the team and even produced a standout performance last night against his former organization.
Fans in the arena will rally around an unlikely hero as Jake "Stewie2k" Yip continues to hint that he would like to return to top level competition. In an interview with Dust2.us he said, "I know for a fact this won't be the last time you see me".
G-Stew is set to kick off their playoff campaign against FaZe on Friday in front of a full crowd of fans.
