Don’t give up Team Falcons quite yet.
The top-seeded team coming out of group play, which then opened the playoffs with a 2-0 loss, bounced back with a pair of wins on Friday, advancing to the lower bracket semifinal of the FISSURE Playground 2 event in Belgrade, Serbia.
Team Liquid got the win in Friday’s other match, beating HEROIC 2-1 in a lower bracket opening-round match.
The $1 million Dota 2 event began with 16 teams competing in a Swiss system group stage from Oct. 23-27. The top eight teams from that stage advanced to the double-elimination playoffs.
Team Yandex and BetBoom Team advanced to the upper bracket final and will play Saturday for a spot in the grand final Sunday. The lower bracket semi takes place Saturday with the lower backet final set for Sunday, to be played before the grand final.
All playoff matches are best-of-three except for the grand final, which is best-of-five. The winning team will take home a $300,000 prize plus a $50,000 club reward.
Falcons opened play Friday with a 2-1 win over Tundra Esports in the lower bracket opener. Falcons won in 38 minutes on red before losing on red in 43 minutes. The winner-take-all final map was a marathon, with Falcons winning in 60 minutes on green. Oliver “skiter” Lepko of Slovakia led Falcons with a 40-9-33 kill-death-assist ratio.
In the other lower bracket first-round match, Liquid and HEROIC played their long match in the opening map, with Liquid winning in 66 minutes on red. HEROIC responded with a 47-minute on green but Liquid took the final map in 45 minutes on red. Poland’s Michal “Nisha” Jankowski posted a 25-20-43 K-D-A in the win.
Team Spirit, who lost Wednesday in the upper bracket semis, was waiting for Falcons in the lower bracket quarterfinals. As with the day’s other two matches, the teams split the first two maps with Falcons winning in 34 minutes on green and Spirit winning in 33 minutes on green. Then came the map of day, with Falcons taking down Spirit on green in a whopping 72 minutes. Russia’s Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak and skiter led the way in victory with 21 and 20 kills, respectively.
Saturday’s FISSURE Playground 2 matches
–MOUZ vs. Team Liquid (lower bracket quarterfinal)
–Team Falcons vs. MOUZ-Team Liquid winner (lower bracket semifinal)
–Team Yandex vs. BetBoom Team (upper bracket final)
FISSURE Playground 2 Prize pool (money plus club reward)
1. $350,000, TBD
2. $180,000, TBD
3. $105,000, TBD
4. $80,000, TBD
5-6. $55,000, Team Spirit, TBD
7-8. $37,000, Tundra Esports, HEROIC
9-11. $15,000, Aurora Gaming, Vici Gaming, PARIVISION
12-14. $12,000, Nigma Galaxy, Team Cobra, Runa Team
15-16. $10,000, Yakult Brothers, Virtus.pro
–Field Level Media