ENCE and Heroic recorded sweeps to advance to the upper-bracket semifinals of Group B at the ESL Pro League Season 18 in Malta on Wednesday.
Heroic swept Rooster and ENCE swept Evil Geniuses in the Group B upper-bracket quarterfinals.
Heroic will next play BIG, a 2-1 winner over Monte. ENCE will take on MIBR in the semis. MIBR defeated MOUZ 2-1 to advance. The semis will be played on Thursday.
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 to the 2024 IEM Katowice event and the 2023 BLAST World Final.
On Wednesday, Heroic breezed past Rooster 16-2 on Inferno and 16-4 on Mirage. Martin “stavn” Lund led the all-Danish Heroic with 38 kills, adding a plus-18 kills-to-deaths differential. Rasmus “sjuush” Beck led the team with a plus-20 differential, adding 36 kills.
BIG opened with a 16-13 win on Vertigo, but Monte replied with a 16-14 win on Anubis. BIG clinched with a 16-5 win on Ancient. German Karim “Krimbo” Moussa led BIG with 75 kills and a plus-30 differential.
MIBR opened with a 16-9 win on Vertigo before MOUZ responded with a 16-7 win on Inferno. MIBR then prevailed 16-14 on Mirage. Felipe “insani” Yuji led the all-Brazilian winners with 67 kills and a plus-17 K-D differential.
ENCE blew past EG, 16-9 on Mirage and 16-14 on Nuke. Guy “NertZ” Iluz of Israel paced ENCE with 50 kills and a plus-22 differential.
Group B action continues Thursday with four matches:
–Heroic vs. BIG (upper-bracket semifinals)
–MIBR vs. ENCE (upper-bracket semifinals)
–Rooster vs. Monte (mid-bracket Round 1)
–MOUZ vs. Evil Geniuses (mid-bracket Round 1)
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