BIG and ENCE pulled off victories on Thursday to advance to the upper-bracket final of Group B at the ESL Pro League Season 18 in Malta.
In the upper-bracket semifinals, BIG swept Heroic 2-0 and ENCE beat MIBR 2-1. BIG will face ENCE in the upper-bracket final on Sunday.
In mid-bracket Round 1, MOUZ swept Evil Geniuses 2-0 and Monte defeated Rooster 2-1. On Friday, MOUZ will take on Heroic and Monte will face MIBR in the mid-bracket semifinals.
The $850,000 event features 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Group-stage winners advance to the quarterfinals; runners-up advance to the Round of 12 as the high seeds; third-place teams in each group advance to the Round of 16 as the high seeds; and fourth-place teams advance 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 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament runs through Oct. 1. The winner earns $200,000 and qualifies for the 2024 IEM Katowice event and the 2023 BLAST World Final.
On Thursday, BIG edged Heroic 25-23 on Ancient and 16-13 on Inferno. Karim “Krimbo” Moussa led the all-German BIG with 66 kills and a plus-24 differential.
ENCE opened with a 22-18 win on Vertigo before MIBR evened the score by taking Anubis 19-17. ENCE then clinched a spot in the final, winning 16-12 on Ancient. Guy “Nertz” Iluz of Israel posted 97 kills and a plus-33 differential to guide ENCE.
MOUZ advanced over Heroic with wins on Ancient (19-15) and Inferno (16-13) as Adam “torzsi” Torzsas of Hungary led the way with 49 kills and a plus-12 differential.
Monte lost the first game to Rooster 16-8 on Nuke but rebounded with 16-10 victories on Anubis and Mirage to advance. Sergiy “DemQQ” Demchenko led Monte with 61 kills, while fellow Ukrainian Volodymyr ‘Woro2k’ Veletniuk posted a plus-12 differential.
Group B action continues Friday with two matches:
–MOUZ vs. Heroic (mid-bracket semifinals)
–Rooster vs. Monte (mid-bracket semifinals)
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 — TBD
9-12. $25,000 — TBD
13-16. $20,000 — TBD
17-20. $15,000 — Gamer Legion, TBD
21-28. $8,000 — Ninjas in Pyjamas, Grayhound Gaming, TBD
29-32. $4,000 — ORKS, TBD
–Field Level Media