Natus Vincere pulled out an overtime win against 3DMAX on Thursday and moved within one victory of reaching the playoffs at the BLAST.tv Austin Major in Texas.
In the second match of the day between two sides that won their openers in Group Stage 3, Natus Vincere prevailed 16-14 on Inferno.
Other second-round winners-bracket matchups saw Virtus.pro top Legacy 13-11 on Ancient, FURIA down Aurora Gaming 13-7 on Dust II and Team Spirit top Lynn Vision Gaming 13-7 on Dust II.
In second-round action involving teams that lost their openers, FaZe Clan pushed past MOUZ 13-10 on Ancient, Team Vitality cruised past Nemiga Gaming 13-6 on Dust II, The MongolZ thrashed Team Liquid 13-7 on Ancient and G2 Esports handled paiN Gaming 13-6 on Dust II.
The $1.25 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event, which began with 32 teams, features three Swiss-system group stages.
Sixteen teams advanced through qualifying events to reach Group Stage 1, where all early-round matches were a single map while advancement and elimination matches were best-of-three.
The top eight teams in Group Stage 1 advanced to Group Stage 2, where eight invited teams awaited: Team Falcons, FaZe Clan, 3DMAX, Virtus.pro, paiN Gaming, FURIA, MIBR and M80.
The same process applied in Group Stage 2, with the top eight squads moving on to Group Stage 3, where eight more invited teams joined the action: Team Vitality, MOUZ, Team Spirit, G2 Esports, The MongolZ, Aurora Gaming, Natus Vincere and Team Liquid.
The top eight teams in Group Stage 3 advance to the single-elimination playoffs, where all matches will be best-of-3, including the grand final on June 22.
The winning team will earn $500,000, and the runner-up will pocket $170,000.
On Thursday, Romania’s Mihai “iM” Ivan led Natus Vincere past 3DMAX with 21 kills and a plus-1 kill-death differential. Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro put up 20 kills and an even K-D differential for all-French 3DMAX.
Kazakhstan’s Danil “molodoy” Golubenko registered 22 kills and a plus-11 K-D differential for FURIA in its win over Aurora Gaming. Ozgur “woxic” Eker produced 16 kills and a plus-2 K-D differential for all-Turkish Aurora Gaming.
Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov led all-Russian Team Spirit past Lynn Vision Gaming with 17 kills and a plus-8 K-D differential. Lizhi “Starry” Ye and Zhe “Westmelon” Niu each had 12 kills for all-Chinese Lynn Vision Gaming.
Virtus.pro got 20 kills from both Kazakhstan’s Kaisar “ICY” Faiznurov and Russia’s Timur “FL4MUS” Marev while beating all-Brazilian Legacy. Eduardo “dumau” Wolkmer topped Legacy with 22 kills and a plus-6 K-D differential.
Results of the Group Stage 3 first-round matches on Thursday:
–Legacy def. Team Vitality 13-3 on Inferno
–Virtus.pro def. MOUZ 13-11 on Mirage
–Team Spirit def. paiN Gaming 13-3 on Dust II
–3DMAX def. G2 Esports 13-5 on Nuke
–FURIA def. The MongolZ 13-11 on Inferno
–Aurora Gaming def. FaZe Clan 13-5 on Anubis
–Natus Vincere def. Nemiga Gaming 13-7 on Train
–Lynn Vision Gaming def. Team Liquid 13-5 on Dust II
The Friday schedule:
Round 3 high matches
–Team Spirit vs. Natus Vincere
–FURIA vs. Virtus.pro
Round 3 mid matches
–3DMAX vs. Team Vitality
–Legacy vs. FaZe Clan
–Aurora Gaming vs. G2 Esports
–The MongolZ vs. Lynn Vision Gaming
Round 3 low matches
–MOUZ vs. Team Liquid
–paiN Gaming vs. Nemiga Gaming
BLAST.tv Austin Major Group Stage 3 standings
T1. FURIA, 2-0
T1. Team Spirit, 2-0
T1. Natus Vincere, 2-0
T1. Virtus.pro, 2-0
T5. Aurora Gaming, 1-1
T5. Legacy, 1-1
T5. 3DMAX, 1-1
T5. The MongolZ, 1-1
T5. Lynn Vision Gaming, 1-1
T5. Team Vitality, 1-1
T5. G2 Esports, 1-1
T5. FaZe Clan 1-1
T13. MOUZ, 0-2
T13. paiN Gaming, 0-2
T13. Nemiga Gaming, 0-2
T13. Team Liquid, 0-2
BLAST.tv Austin Major prize pool
1. $500,000
2. $170,000
3-4. $80,000
5-8. $45,000
9-11. $15,000
12-14. $15,000
15-16. $15,000
17-19. $10,000 — B8, MIBR, HEROIC
20-22. $10,000 — TYLOO, Team Falcons, M80
23-24. $10,000 — OG, BetBoom Team
25-27. $5,000 — FlyQuest, NRG, Wildcard
28-30. $5,000 — Imperial Esports, Chinggis Warriors, Complexity
31-32. $5,000 — Metizport, Fluxo
–Field Level Media
