With a quarterfinal berth in next week’s playoff bracket at stake, forZe swept ENCE in impressive fashion Sunday to clinch the top playoff spot in Group D at the ESL Pro League Season 17 in Saint Julian’s, Malta.
forZe earned the top spot in the group with a 2-0 victory over ENCE, who also qualified for the playoff bracket. Unlike forZe, who will get byes in each of the first two rounds for winning the group, ENCE will skip one round and be placed in the Round of 12.
Team Liquid grabbed the final playoff berth out of Group D by defeating Astralis 2-0 in the lower-bracket final. Astralis had earlier survived a lower-bracket semifinal by eliminating Team Spirit 2-1.
The $850,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began on Feb. 22 with 32 teams divided into four groups for the triple-elimination opening round.
The group-stage winners move into the quarterfinals, with the group runners-up heading to the Round of 12 as high seeds. The four third-place teams enter in the Round of 16 as high seeds, and the four fourth-place teams go to the Round of 16 as low seeds.
The tournament champion will receive $200,000 plus berths in the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne this summer and the BLAST Premier World Final in December.
In the Group D headliner on Sunday, forZe quickly took charge with a 16-3 win on Overpass before having to grind out a 16-13 victory on Anubis. Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko had a match-high 41 kills for the all-Russian forZe squad, while Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko had a plus-17 kills-to-deaths differential.
Astralis started lower-bracket action by winning a three-map thriller. Spirit took the early lead by ending the first map with a 6-0 run for a 16-12 win on Nuke. Astralis bounced back to win a pair of nail-biters, winning 16-14 on Mirage and 16-12 on Ancient to advance. Nicolai “device” Reedtz topped the all-Danish Astralis lineup with 68 kills, while Benjamin “blameF” Bremer led all players with a plus-23 K-D ratio.
Astralis proved no match for Liquid, however. Liquid opened on Nuke and finished on an 8-1 spurt to win 16-8 for the early edge. Then trailing 11-5 on Mirage, Liquid scored 11 of the final 12 points for a 16-12 victory to secure the sweep. American Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and Latvia’s Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis each had 42 kills, with EliGE also posting a plus-11 K-D differential.
Group A play finished on Feb. 26 with Cloud9 coming in first, Outsiders in second, G2 Esports in third and Fnatic in fourth. Group B action ended on March 5 with Heroic in first, followed by MOUZ, FURIA Esports and Movistar Riders. In Group C, which concluded last Sunday, the top four, in order, were Team Vitality, FaZe Clan, paiN Gaming and 00 Nation.
Playoff action kicks off on Tuesday with four matches in the Round of 16:
–Natus Vincere vs. 00 Nation
–FURIA Esports vs. Fnatic
–paiN Gaming vs. Team Liquid
–G2 Esports vs. Movistar Riders
ESL Pro League Season 17 prize pool and points distribution:
1. $200,000, 3,000 BLAST Premier points, qualification for Intel Extreme Masters Cologne and BLAST Premier World Final
2. $90,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $50,000, 1,200 BLAST Premier points
5-8. $35,000, 500 BLAST Premier points
9-12. $25,000
13-16. $20,000
17-20. $15,000 — Eternal Fire, BIG, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis
21-28. $8,000 — MIBR, IHC Esports, SAW, Complexity Gaming, OG, Grayhound Gaming, Rare Atom, Team Spirit
29-32. $4,000 — Evil Geniuses, Imperial Esports, Rooster, ATK
–Field Level Media
