Team Falcons and Azure Ray moved on to the upper-bracket final of the Elite League playoffs by notching semifinal wins Friday.
Falcons upended Xtreme Gaming 2-0, while Azure Ray pulled out a 2-1 win over Team Liquid. Meanwhile, in lower-bracket action, Gaimin Gladiators swept G2.ig 2-0 and PSG Quest did the same to Tundra Esports, eliminating the losing sides from the tournament.
Friday was the first day of the playoff stage after the field was whittled from 24 participants to eight over the span of two group stages. All matches are best-of-three until Sunday’s best-of-five grand final. The winner will take home $300,000 from the $960,000 prize pool.
Falcons won in 32 minutes on green and 60 minutes on red to defeat Xtreme Gaming. Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak of Russia totaled 24 kills, just six deaths and 19 assists to help guide Falcons.
Azure Ray opened with a 45-minute win on red, but Liquid responded with a 48-minute victory on green. Azure Ray pulled out the final map in 53 minutes on red, buoyed by Zeng “Ori” Jiaoyang of China posting a 18-4-21 kills-deaths-assists ratio.
Gaimin Gladiators defeated G2.ig in 39 minutes on green and 37 minutes on red. Quinn “Quinn” Callahan posted a sparkling 11-0-19 K-D-A on the latter map.
PSG Quest needed 56 minutes to win its first map on green before wrapping up the sweep of Tundra in 37 minutes on red. Tony “No!ob” Assaf of Lebanon totaled 18 kills and 30 assists with just five deaths over the two maps.
The playoff stage continues Saturday with four matches:
–Team Falcons vs. Azure Ray (upper-bracket final)
–Team Liquid vs. Gaimin Gladiators (lower-bracket quarterfinals)
–Xtreme Gaming vs. PSG Quest (lower-bracket quarterfinals)
–Liquid-GG winner vs. Xtreme-PSG Quest winner (lower-bracket semifinal)
Elite League prize pool ($960,000)
1. $300,000
2. $150,000
3. $80,000
4. $50,000
5-6. $40,000
7-8. $30,000 — G2.ig, Tundra Esports
9-10. $20,000 — OG, Aurora
11-12. $20,000 — Entity, BetBoom Team
13-14. $20,000 — Team Spirit, BOOM Esports
15-16. $20,000 — HEROIC, Blacklist International
17-19. $10,000 — Talon Esports, Team Secret, Virtus.pro
20-22. $10,000 — KEV, Nigma Galaxy, nouns
23-24. $10,000 — 9Pandas, Rest Farmers
–Field Level Media
