paiN Gaming defeated Grayhound on Saturday to clinch third place in Group C at the ESL Pro League Season 17 in Malta.
paiN Gaming won 2-1 in the mid-bracket final, locking up a spot in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. Grayhound drops to a lower-bracket semifinal match against 00 Nation on Sunday.
The winner of that match advances to play Ninjas in Pyjamas, hoping to grab the final qualifying spot from Group C.
FaZe Clan and Team Vitality battle Sunday in the upper-bracket final for Group C.
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.
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 last week with Heroic in first, followed by MOUZ, FURIA Esports and Movistar Riders. Group D play will start on March 15.
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.
On Saturday, paiN Gaming lost the opening map, 16-7 on Inferno. But they rallied to win Nuke 16-12 and Anubis 16-12 to advance. Brazilian Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt led paiN with 56 kills and a plus-5 kills-to-deaths ratio.
Ninjas advanced to the lower-bracket final by sweeping OG, 16-11 on Vertigo and 22-18 on Mirage.
00 Nation defeated Rooster 2-1 in the lower-bracket quarterfinals to advance. 00 Nation lost 16-3 on Anubis, won 16-14 on Inferno and clinched on Mirage, 16-12.
Group C concludes Sunday with three matches:
FaZe Clan vs. Team Vitality (upper-bracket final)
Grayhound vs. 00 Nation (lower-bracket semifinal)
NiP vs. Grayhound/00 Nation (lower-bracket final)
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
21-28. $8,000 — MIBR, IHC Esports, SAW, Complexity Gaming, OG
29-32. $4,000 — Evil Geniuses, Imperial Esports, Rooster
–Field Level Media
