Heroic and GamerLegion opened with wins on Wednesday in first-round action of Gamers8 2023 at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Heroic swept Team Falcons and GL did the same to Apeks to advance to the quarterfinals. Heroic and GL will play each other on Thursday.
The $1 million tournament began with 16 teams vying to win the first-place prize of $400,000. All matches in the single-elimination event are best-of-three. The five-day tourney ends Sunday with the grand final.
In other action Wednesday, Cloud9 swept Fnatic to advance to the quarters, where they’ll play ENCE, also a 2-0 winner over Team Liquid.
Natus Vincere and Team Vitality also advanced on Day 1.
Vitality swept MIBR while NAVI needed a reverse sweep to claim their victory. FURIA Esports opened with a 16-11 triumph on Nuke before Natus Vincere responded with a 16-13 win on Mirage and a 16-4 victory on Ancient to clinch the win.
Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy led NAVI with a plus-17 kills-to-deaths differential, posting 57 kills. Fellow Ukrainian teammate Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev chipped in with a plus-12 K-D, finishing with a team-high 61 kills.
The tournament continues Thursday with three matches:
–FaZe Clan vs. Virtus.pro (first round)
–9INE vs. G2 Esports (first round)
–Heroic vs GamerLegion (quarterfinals)
Gamers8 2023 prize pool:
1st: $400,000 – TBD
2nd: $180,000 – TBD
3rd-4th: $80,000 – TBD
5th-8th: $35,000 – TBD
9th-16th: $15,000 – Team Falcons, Apeks, Fnatic, Team Liquid, FURIA Esports, MIBR, TBD, TBD
–Field Level Media
