Team Vitality and Ninjas in Pyjamas were among four teams to open with sweeps on Day 1 of the ESL Pro League Season 18 on Wednesday in Malta.
Movistar Riders and GamerLegion also posted sweeps in Group A action. The four winners advance to the upper-bracket semifinals of the group.
Vitality swept ORKS, NiP beat Astralis, Movistar dumped FURIA Esports and GamerLegion swept Grayhound Gaming. Wednesday’s losers drop down to Round 1 of the mid bracket.
The $850,000 event features 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Group stage winners advance to the quarterfinals; runners-up advance to the Round of 12 as the high seeds; group third-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the high seeds; fourth-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the low seeds.
The tournament runs through Oct. 1. The winner earns $200,000 and qualifies to the 2024 IEM Katowice event and the 2023 BLAST World Final.
On Wednesday, Vitality defeated ORKS 16-7 on Mirage and 16-6 on Nuke. Israel’s Lotan “Spinx” Giladi led Vitality with 44 kills and a plus-25 kills-to-deaths differential.
NiP swept past Astralis 16-10 on Ancient and 16-11 on Inferno. Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov of Ukraine led NiP with a plus-18 K-D differential on 40 kills.
Movistar rolled 16-8 on Overpass and 16-13 on Nuke to down FURIA. Romanian Adam “adamS” Marian led the Riders with 41 kills and a plus-5 differential.
GL beat Grayhound 16-9 on Anubis and 16-13 on Ancient. Belgium’s Nicolas “Keoz” Dgus led GamerLegion with 40 kills and a plus-5 differential.
Group A action continues Thursday with four matches:
–Team Vitality vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas (upper-bracket semifinals)
–Movistar Riders vs. GamerLegion (upper-bracket semifinals)
–ORKS vs. Astralis (mid-bracket Round 1)
–FURIA Esports vs. Grayhound Gaming (mid-bracket Round 1)
ESL Pro League Season 18 prize pool:
1st: $200,000, 3,000 BLAST Premier points — TBD
2nd: $90,000, 2,000 BLAST points — TBD
3rd-4th: $50,000, 1,200 points — TBD
5th-8th: $35,000, 500 points — TBD
9th-12th: $25,000 — TBD
13th-16th: $20,000 — TBD
17th-20th: $15,000 –TBD
21st-28th: $8,000 — TBD
29th-32nd: $4,000 — TBD
–Field Level Media
