Team Liquid and Imperial Esports posted sweeps and Bad News Eagles rallied to win their Round 5 match as the Challengers Stage concluded Thursday at PGL Major Antwerp 2022 in Belgium.
Liquid, Imperial and BNE advanced to the Legends Stage along with G2 Esports, Team Vitality, ENCE, Team Spirit and Outsiders. Action in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament resumes on Saturday.
Liquid swept Astralis and Imperial swept forZe. BNE lost the opening map to MIBR but rallied to win the next two.
Astralis, forZe and MIBR were knocked out, joining Complexity Gaming, Eternal Fire, IHC Esports, 9z Team and Renegades.
The major’s opening Challengers Stage featured 16 teams competing for eight berths into the Legends Stage. Utilizing the Swiss System format, the eight teams that won in Round 1 proceeded to the Round 2 “High” matches and the eight that lost moved to the Round 2 “Low” matches. All matches are best-of-one except elimination and advancement matches, which are best-of-three.
The 16-team Legends Stage runs May 14-17 in the same format to determine which eight teams will clinch spots in the May 19-22 Champions Stage.
On Thursday, Liquid won 16-14 on Vertigo and 16-13 on Ancient. Keith “NAF” Markovic of Canada led Liquid with 50 kills and a plus-10 kills-deaths differential.
Imperial cruised to 16-5 wins over forZe on both Overpass and Mirage. Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo led the all-Brazilian squad with 39 kills and a plus-23 K-D differential.
After blowing an 11-3 lead and falling 16-13 to MIBR on Nuke, Bad News Eagles won 16-8 on Ancient and 16-10 on Vertigo. Switzerland’s Rigon “rigoN” Gashi had 75 kills and a plus-17 differential for BNE.
Saturday’s Round 1 matches in the Legends Stage:
Heroic vs. Team Liquid
Copenhagen Flames vs. Bad News Eagles
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team Vitality
Cloud9 vs. Outsiders
FaZe Clan vs. ENCE
FURIA Esports vs. Team Spirit
Natus Vincere vs. G2 Esports
BIG vs. Imperial Esports
–Field Level Media
