Thanks to their respective 2-0 sweeps Thursday, Team Vitality and The MongolZ reached the upper-bracket final of Group B at the ESL Pro League Season 19 in Saint Julian’s, Malta.
Vitality beat BetBoom Team 2-0 via a 13-4 rout on Mirage and a 13-9 win on Anubis. Frenchman Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut starred for Vitality, racking up 50 kills on a plus-32 kills-to-deaths differential.
The MongolZ had a similarly easy time beating G2 Esports 2-0. They started with a 13-4 cruise on Ancient and wrapped things up with a 13-7 result on Anubis. All five players of the Mongolian roster had at least 25 kills, with Usukhbayar “910” Banzragch topping the group with 37 on a plus-21 K-D.
The $750,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event features 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Group-stage winners will advance to the quarterfinals; runners-up advance to the Round of 12 as the high seeds; third-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the high seeds; and fourth-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the low seeds.
The group stage is triple-elimination with upper, middle and lower brackets. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final, which is best-of-five.
The tournament runs through May 12. The winner earns $170,000 and qualifies for the IEM Cologne 2024 event.
In other Group B action Thursday, M80 and Team Falcons won in three sets in the first round of the mid bracket.
M80 opened with a 13-9 win on Vertigo, absorbed a 13-10 loss to Sharks Esports on Mirage and prevailed 13-9 on Anubis. German Elias “s1n” Stein paced M80 with 54 kills on a plus-20 K-D.
TYLOO earned a 13-11 win on Mirage before Falcons rallied, taking Vertigo 13-9 and Nuke 13-10. Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia of Spain led Falcons with 53 kills on a plus-14.
In Group A, Eternal Fire and FaZe Clan reached the mid bracket semifinal, where the winner will earn third place.
Eternal Fire beat Fnatic 2-1, sandwiching a 13-10 result on overpass and a 16-12 overtime win on Vertigo around a 16-13 overtime defeat on Inferno. FaZe Clan swept Virtus.pro, winning 13-10 on Vertigo and 13-4 on Mirage.
The group stage continues Friday with six matches:
–Eternal Fire vs. FaZe Clan (Group A mid-bracket semifinal)
–Imperial Esports vs. SAW (Group A lower-bracket quarterfinal)
–G2 Esports vs. M80 (Group B mid-bracket quarterfinal)
–BetBoom Team vs. Team Falcons (Group B mid-bracket quarterfinal)
–G2/M80 winner vs. BetBoom/Falcons winner (Group B mid-bracket semifinal)
–Sharks Esports vs. TYLOO (Group B lower-bracket quarterfinal)
ESL Pro League Season 19 prize pool
1. $170,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points — TBD
2. $80,000, 1,400 points — TBD
3-4. $45,000, 750 points — TBD
5-8. $32,000, 275 points — TBD
9-12. $23,500 — TBD
13-16. $17,500 — TBD
17-20. $12,000 — TBD
21-28. $7,000 — TBD
29-32. $3,500 — TBD
–Field Level Media
