Talon Esports, Team Liquid, Team Spirit and BetBoom Team opened the playoff stage of the Riyadh Masters with victories on Tuesday.
Talon upset Group A winner Quest Esports 2-1, Liquid rallied to beat Gaimin Gladiators 2-1, Spirit blanked Team Aster 2-0 and BetBoom outlasted 9Pandas 2-1.
The four winning teams advanced to the upper-bracket semifinals, while the losing clubs fell into the lower bracket.
The $15 million Riyadh Masters features 20 teams, with 12 left standing after the play-in and group stages.
The group stage featured two groups of eight teams and concluded on Monday. Those matches were best-of-two in a single round-robin format. The top four teams advanced to the upper bracket of the playoffs, while the fifth- and sixth-place teams from each group advanced to the lower bracket. The remaining teams have been eliminated.
The double-elimination playoff stage runs through Sunday. All matches are best-of-three except for the grand final, which is best-of-five.
The winning team pockets $5 million with $2.5 million going to the runner-up.
On Tuesday, Talon opened with a 53-minute win on red before Quest tied the match with a 38-minute triumph on green. Talon then pulled out a 59-minute win on green to advance. Rafli “Mikoto” Fathur Rahman of Indonesia posted a 15-4-14 kills-deaths-assists ratio on the final map to help Talon.
Gaimin Gladiators started their match with a 42-minute win on red, but Liquid prevailed in 39 minutes on red and in 43 minutes on green for the comeback. Michal “Nisha” Jankowski of Poland averaged a K-D-A of 13.0-1.7-14.0 to power Liquid.
Spirit swept Aster in 40 minutes on green and 25 minutes on red. Denis “Larl” Sigitov of Russia averaged 6.0-1.5-9.5 over the two maps for Spirit.
BetBoom Team opened their match with a 60-minute win on green, but 9Pandas extended it with a 39-minute triumph on red. On the final map, BetBoom took a 37-minute victory, with Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko of Russia averaging a 12.0-2.5-12.5 ratio.
The playoffs continue Wednesday with three of the first-round, lower-bracket matches:
–Quest Esports vs. PSG.LGD
–Gaimin Gladiators vs. Tundra Esports
–Team Aster vs. Evil Geniuses
Riyadh Masters prize pool:
1. $5 million — TBD
2. $2.5 million — TBD
3. $1.7 million — TBD
4. $1.2 million — TBD
5-6. $800,000 — TBD
7-8. $500,000 — TBD
9-12. $300,000 — TBD
13-14. $200,000 — OG, TSM
15-16. $100,000 — Xtreme Gaming, Shopify Rebellion
17-20. $50,000 — beastcoast, Entity, Virtus.pro, Execration
–Field Level Media
