Fnatic emerged as the winner of Group B and qualified for the semifinals of the Elisa Masters Espoo on Thursday in Espoo, Finland.
Fnatic finished group action 4-1, including with a 22-20 overtime win over SAW on Vertigo.
The other two teams to advance out of Group B were 500 and Astralis. Fnatic handed 500 its only loss to own the tiebreaker when both teams finished 4-1. Astralis came in third at 3-2. Those teams will play in the quarterfinals.
The $200,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with 12 teams initially parsed into two groups, with each team playing five best-of-one matches in the group stage. The top three teams from each group qualify for the playoffs, with group-stage winners earning semifinal berths. Group runners-up clinch spots in quarterfinals as the high seeds, with third-place teams tabbed as the low seeds.
Once the single-elimination playoffs are set, all matches are best-of-three. The champion will make $100,000 and earn a spot in the play-in portion of the $1 million IEM Katowice event scheduled for Jan. 31-Feb. 12 in Katowice, Poland.
Fnatic opened the day with its victory over 500, 16-11 on Overpass. They were handed a 16-6 defeat on Nuke by Complexity Gaming before rebounding to win their final three matches. Fnatic topped Astralis 16-7 on Overpass, outlasted SAW and defeated Bad News Eagles 16-12 on Inferno.
500 beat Complexity 16-14 on Overpass shortly before the loss to Fnatic. They also ran off three straight wins to close out the day: 16-8 on Dust II over Bad News Eagles, 16-1 on Ancient over Astralis and 19-17 on Dust II over SAW.
Though Astralis lost to Fnatic and 500, it beat the other three teams in the group, with two going to overtime (19-16 on Mirage over BNE and 19-17 on Nuke over Complexity). Complexity finished fourth in the group at 2-3, while BNE and SAW tied at 1-4.
The tournament will continue Friday with two quarterfinal matches:
–500 vs. BIG
–ENCE vs. Astralis
Intel Extreme Masters XVII Rio Major prize pool:
1. $100,000, qualify for IEM Katowice 2023 Play-In
2. $28,000
3-4. $14,000
5-6. $10,000
7-8. $4,000 — HEET, Complexity Gaming
9-10. $4,000 — Team GamerLegion, Bad News Eagles
11-12. $4,000 — HAVU Gaming, SAW
–Field Level Media
