Field Level Media
29 Sep 2023, 06:19 GMT+10
(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
--Field Level Media
Get a daily dose of Pakistan Telegraph news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Pakistan Telegraph.
More InformationJAKARTA, Indonesia: The death toll from the eruption of Indonesia's Marapi volcano surged to 22 as rescuers discovered additional climbers ...
In September, Tamir Pardo, who headed the Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from 2011 to ...
HONOLULU, Hawaii: U.S. Navy officials say that it would cost some $1.5 million to salvage a P-8A jet plane that ...
NEW YORK, New York - In a rare move, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has taken a dramatic constitutional step ...
BUKITTINGGI, Indonesia: On December 2, Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province, Indonesia, erupted, sending hot ash clouds several miles (kilometers) ...
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania: In a measure supporters claimed will increase public safety amid high violent crime rates, Philadelphia City Council passed ...
NEW YORK, New York - AI set the scene for solid gains in technology shares on Thursday. Demand for Alphabet ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: To help reduce car collisions with wildlife and help animals safely cross roadways, the U.S. Transportation Department has ...
BRUSSELS, Belgium: To address power shortages at electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, last week, the European Commission announced plans to ...
BEIJING, China: Falling hog prices, mounting losses and rising debt are putting pressure on the biggest pig breeders in China, ...
NEW YORK, New York - A decline in labor costs as measured by ADP failed to boost U.S. Markets Wednesday."ADP's ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: A U.S. auto safety regulator said this week it is opening an investigation into 73,000 Chevrolet Volt plug-in ...