(Photo credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)

Monte and Natus Vincere each recorded a sweep on Thursday to advance to the semifinals of the ESL Pro League Season 18 playoffs in Saint Julian's, Malta.

Monte posted a 2-0 victory over Team Vitality and Natus Vincere won by the same score over Eternal Fire. The victorious teams will square off on Saturday.

The $850,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Group-stage winners advanced to the quarterfinals; runners-up advanced to the Round of 12 as the high seeds; third-place teams advanced to the Round of 16 as the high seeds; and fourth-place teams advanced to the Round of 16 as the low seeds.

The group stage is triple elimination with upper, middle and lower brackets. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final, which is best-of-five.

The tournament runs through Sunday. The winner earns $200,000 and qualifies for the 2024 IEM Katowice event and the 2023 BLAST World Final.

On Thursday, Monte punched their ticket to the semifinals with a 16-11 win on Anubis and 16-14 victory on Nuke.

Sergiy "DemQQ" Demchenko of the Ukraine recorded 53 kills and a plus-21 kills-to-death differential for Monte.

Frenchman Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut paced Vitality with 46 kills and a plus-4 kills-to-death differential.

Natus Vincere dispatched Eternal Fire following their 16-7 win on Anubis and 16-10 victory on Nuke.

Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev of the Ukraine had 43 kills and a plus-14 kills-to-death differential to pace Natus Vincere.

Engin "MAJER" Kupeli had 31 kills to fuel the all-China team of Eternal Fire.

The playoffs pick up again Friday with two quarterfinal matches:

--ENCE vs. Movistar Riders

--MOUZ vs. G2 Esports

ESL Pro League Season 18 prize pool

1. $200,000, 3,000 BLAST Premier points -- TBD

2. $90,000, 2,000 BLAST points -- TBD

3-4. $50,000, 1,200 points -- TBD

5-8. $35,000, 500 points -- Eternal Fire, Team Vitality, TBD

9-12. $25,000 -- Complexity Gaming, BIG, 9z Team, FaZe Clan

13-16. $20,000 -- Fnatic, Astralis, Virtus.pro, FURIA Esports

17-20. $15,000 -- Gamer Legion, MIBR, 5yclone, Team Liquid

21-28. $8,000 -- Ninjas in Pyjamas, Grayhound Gaming, Heroic, Evil Geniuses, Imperial Esports, Apeks, Cloud9, Lynn Vision Gaming

29-32. $4,000 -- ORKS, Rooster, M80, 9INE