FaZe Clan recorded a 2-1 win over Team Liquid on Thursday to clinch a group-stage berth at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne event in Germany.
Ninjas in Pyjamas and GamerLegion also won their upper-bracket second-round matches on Thursday to advance. Ninjas in Pyjamas dumped 3DMAX 2-0, and GamerLegion pushed past Virtus.pro 2-0.
The play-in phase of the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with 16 teams competing in a double-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches. Eight teams will earn spots in the group stage, which also will include eight teams that received direct berths: Team Vitality, MOUZ, Team Spirit, Team Falcons, The MongolZ, Aurora Gaming, G2 Esports and Natus Vincere.
The group stage, which begins Saturday, will consist of two double-elimination groups contesting best-of-three matches. The two group winners will advance directly to the semifinals, the two runners-up will move to the quarterfinals as high seeds, and the two third-place teams will head to the quarterfinals as low seeds.
The playoffs, which will start on Aug. 1, will be single elimination. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be best-of-three ahead of the best-of-five final on Aug. 3.
The winning team will receive $400,000, and the runner-up will get $180,000.
On Thursday, FaZe Clan opened with a 13-6 win on Mirage before Team Liquid equalized with a 13-10 victory on Inferno. FaZe Clan took the decisive third map, Nuke, in 13-2 blowout.
Latvia’s Helvijs “broky” Saukants paced FaZe Clan with 49 kills and a plus-21 kill-death differential. Poland’s Roland ‘ultimate’ Tomkowiak topped Team Liquid with 45 kills and a plus-5 K-D differential.
Ninjas in Pyjamas toppled 3DMAX 13-8 on Nuke, 13-7 on Dust II behind 38 kills and a plus-8 K-D differential from Poland’s Kacper “xKacpersky” Gabara. Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro produced 35 kills and a plus-10 K-D differential for all-French 3DMAX.
GamerLegion downed Virtus.pro 13-8 on Dust II and 13-11 on Ancient. The Czech Republic’s Oldrich “PR” Novy wound up with 38 kills and a plus-9 K-D differential for GamerLegion. Russia’s Evgenii “FL1T” Lebedev starred for Virtus.pro with 33 kills and a plus-5 K-D differential.
The last upper-bracket second-round match, Astralis vs. FURIA, is scheduled for Friday.
Three of the four lower-bracket first-round matches were contested on Thursday. HEROIC swept MIBR 2-0, TYLOO came from behind to beat Complexity 2-1, and FlyQuest edged B8 2-1, prevailing 19-16 in double overtime on the third map, Inferno.
The Friday schedule:
Upper-bracket second-round match (winner advances)
–Astralis vs. FURIA
Lower-bracket first-round match
–BIG vs. paiN Gaming
Lower-bracket second-round matches (winners advance)
–Virtus.pro vs. HEROIC
–3DMAX vs. TYLOO
–Team Liquid vs. FlyQuest
–BIG-paiN Gaming winner vs. Astralis-FURIA loser
Intel Extreme Masters Cologne prize pool
1. $400,000
2. $180,000
3-4. $80,000
5-6. $40,000
7-8. $24,000
9-12. $16,000
13-16. $10,000
17-20. $4,500
21-24. $2,500 — MIBR, Complexity, B8, one team TBD
–Field Level Media
