Ninjas in Pyjamas and Astralis claimed berths in the semifinals with wins Friday at the YaLLA Compass event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The Ninjas swept their quarterfinal match against Fnatic in two maps, while Astralis needed three to subdue BetBoom Team.
The Ninjas will take on Group B champion FURIA Esports in one of Saturday’s semifinals, and Astralis will go up against Group A winner The MongolZ.
The $400,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event featured 12 teams separated into two groups for round-robin play, which consisted of best-of-one matches. The first-place team in each group advanced to the playoff semifinals, the second-place team in each group moved to the quarters as a high seed, and the third-place team in each group qualified as a low seed.
The single-elimination playoffs are best-of-three matches, and the winner of the grand final on Sunday will earn $200,000.
The Ninjas began their match with a 13-6 win on Anubis and survived a closer call, 13-11, on Ancient. Artem “r1nkle” Moroz of Ukraine led the winners with 39 kills and a plus-17 kills-deaths differential. Aurelien “afro” Drapier of France had a team-best 26 kills for Fnatic, who had no players with a plus KD differential.
Astralis opened their match with a 13-5 victory on Nuke, but BetBoom responded 13-7 on Mirage. On a tight clinching map, Ancient, BetBoom won four of the final five rounds to force overtime, but Astralis won the next three rounds to end the match.
Alexander “br0” Bro of the all-Denmark lineup led the win with 61 kills and a plus-18 differential. Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko of the all-Russian BetBoom squad finished with 55 kills and a plus-8 differential.
The tournament continues Saturday with two semifinal matches:
–MongolZ vs. Astralis
–FURIA Esports vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
YaLLa Compass prize pool
1. $200,000
2. $56,000
3-4. $28,000
5-6. $20,000 — BetBoom Team, Fnatic
7-8. $8,000 — HEROIC, Complexity Gaming
9-10. $8,000 — ENCE, Eternal Fire
11-12. $8,000 — Sashi Esport, BIG
–Field Level Media
