Astralis and Virtus.pro rolled into the upper bracket final in Group B on Day 2 of the IEM Chengdu event in China on Tuesday.
In Group A, HEROIC and G2 Esports each posted a victory on Tuesday to advance to the lower bracket final.
Sixteen teams in two groups are vying for the $250,000 prize pool in the one-week tournament that will end Sunday. All of Monday’s opening-round matches were best-of-one. The top three teams from each group in the double-elimination group stage advance to the playoffs. Group stage winners advance to the semifinals, runners-up move on to the quarterfinals as the high seeds and the third-place teams advance to the quarters as the low seeds.
The playoffs are single elimination and all matches best-of-three.
On Tuesday in Group B, Astralis notched a 2-0 victory over FaZe Clan after posting a 13-7 triumph on Ancient and 13-4 on Nuke. Martin “stavn” Lund had 34 kills and fellow Denmark native Nicolai “device” Reedtz had a plus-12 kills-to-death differential versus FaZe Clan, who reached the upper-bracket semifinals after securing a 13-8 victory over Nemiga Gaming on Monday.
Nemiga Gaming rebounded with a 2-0 win over Steel Helmet and will meet FlyQuest in a Group B lower bracket semifinal on Wednesday. Russian Timur “FL4MUS” Marev collected 37 kills and a plus-18 kills-to-death differential for Nemiga Gaming, who posted a 13-3 victory on Mirage and 13-4 triumph on Ancient.
Cloud9 swept Wildcard Gaming to set up a date versus FaZe Clan in the other lower bracket semi. Cloud9 cruised to a 13-1 victory on Mirage and 13-5 triumph on Overpass due in large part to 33 kills and plus-19 kills-to-death differential for Abay “HObbit” Khassenov of Kazakhstan. .
In Group A, HEROIC recorded a 2-1 win over FURIA Esports and G2 Esports swept Lynn Vision Gaming to set up their lower bracket final on Wednesday.
HEROIC overcame a 13-6 setback on Ancient to record a 13-6 victory on Nuke and 13-11 triumph on Overpass. Israel’s Guy “NertZ” Iluz had 48 kills and a plus-10 kills-to-death differential to pace HEROIC.
G2 Esports dispatched Lynn Vision following a 13-8 win on Anubis and 13-11 victory on Inferno. Russian Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov had 48 kills and a plus-22 differential for G2.
Group action continues Wednesday with six matches:
Team Liquid vs. MOUZ (Group A upper bracket final)
HEROIC vs. G2 Esports (Group A lower bracket final)
Astralis vs. Virtus.pro (Group B upper bracket final)
FlyQuest vs. Nemiga Gaming (Group B lower bracket semis)
FaZe Clan vs. Cloud 9 (Group B lower bracket semis)
TBA vs. TBA (Group B lower bracket final)
IEG Chengdu prize pool:
1. $100,000, 1,400 BLAST Premier points, qualification to IEM Cologne 2024
2. 42,000, 1,000 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $20,000, 600 BLAST Premier points
5-6. $10,000, 400 BLAST Premier points
7-8. $6,000, 300 BLAST Premier points
9-12. $5,000 — FURIA Esports, Lynn Vision Gaming, TBD, TBD
13-16. $4,000 — 9x Team, TYLOO, Steel Helmet, Wildcard Gaming
–Field Level Media