ENCE continued their dominance while Team Vitality needed overtime on the final map to punch their ticket to the grand final of Gamers8 2023 at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Vitality will try to defeat ENCE on Sunday in the tournament finale. ENCE have yet to drop a map in the event, going 6-0 to this point.
On Saturday, ENCE beat Heroic 22-20 on Nuke and 16-5 on Overpass to keep their unblemished mark intact. Spaniard Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia racked up 50 kills and a team-best plus-17 kills-to-deaths differential for ENCE.
Vitality had to work much harder, outlasting G2 Esports 2-1. Vitality took Inferno 16-12 but dropped Anubis 16-10. Vitality trailed 15-12 on Mirage before winning the last three rounds to force OT, where Vitality dominated for the 19-15 win. Emil “Magisk” Reif of Denmark led Vitality with 68 kills and a plus-14 K-D differential.
Vitality survived a monster game by G2’s Nikola “NiKo” Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who had match highs in kills (76) and K-D differential (plus-24).
The $1 million tournament began with 16 teams vying to win the first-place prize of $400,000. All matches in the single-elimination event are best-of-three.
Gamers8 2023 prize pool:
1st: $400,000 — TBD
2nd: $180,000 — TBD
3rd-4th: $80,000 — Heroic, G2 Esports
5th-8th: $35,000 — GamerLegion, Cloud9, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere
9th-16th: $15,000 — Team Falcons, Apeks, Fnatic, Team Liquid, FaZe Clan, 9INE, FURIA Esports, MIBR
–Field Level Media
