Blacklist International, Aurora and HEROIC won their do-or-die matches Thursday to earn the final three spots in the Round Robin Stage of the Elite League.
Round 5 of the Swiss Stage saw Blacklist International sweeping Virtus.pro 2-0, Aurora beating Team Secret 2-1 and HEROIC rallying past Talon Esports 2-1. The losing sides were eliminated from the competition.
Sixteen teams began the Elite League’s Swiss Stage (Group Stage 1), using a modified Swiss system. Nine came from closed qualifier seeds, and seven others were invited. All matches are best-of-three.
The top eight teams moved on to the Round Robin Stage (Group Stage 2), joining eight other teams that were seeded by invitation. That stage begins Friday, with two single round-robin groups of eight teams apiece. Those matches are also best-of-three.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the upper bracket of the playoffs, while the third- and fourth-place teams will go to the lower bracket. The playoffs begin April 12, and matches stay best-of-three until a best-of-five grand final.
The winner takes home $300,000 from the $960,000 prize pool.
On Thursday, Blacklist won in 36 minutes and 52 minutes on red to eliminate Virtus.pro. Abed “Abed” Yusop of the Philippines averaged 12.5 kills, 2.5 deaths and 14.5 assists to lead Blacklist.
Aurora fell behind when Team Secret won their opening map in 40 minutes on red, then scored a 55-minute win on red and a 34-minute victory on green to complete the comeback. Artem “lorenof” Melnick of Ukraine averaged 13 kills, 1.3 deaths and 11 assists per map for Aurora.
HEROIC, likewise, was playing from behind when Talon prevailed in 38 minutes on green for the early lead. HEROIC bounced back and won in 40 minutes on red and 43 minutes on green. On the decisive map, Joao “4nalog” Giannini of Brazil put up a 10-0-19 kills-deaths-assists ratio for HEROIC and Belgian-American Cedric “Davai Lama” Deckmyn had a 12-4-13.
The Round Robin Stage begins Friday with 10 matches:
–Entity vs. OG (Group A)
–Team Spirit vs. HEROIC (Group A)
–G2.ig vs. OG (Group A)
–Team Falcons vs. PSG Quest (Group A)
–HEROIC vs. G2.ig (Group A)
–BOOM Esports vs. Tundra Esports (Group B)
–Blacklist International vs. Aurora (Group B)
–Team Liquid vs. BetBoom Team (Group B)
–BOOM Esports vs. Aurora (Group B)
–BetBoom Team vs. Gaimin Gladiators (Group B)
Elite League Swiss stage standings
T1. BOOM Esports 3-0
T1. Entity, 3-0
T3. OG, 3-1
T3. PSG Quest, 3-1
T3. Tundra Esports, 3-1
T6. Aurora, 3-2
T6. Blacklist International, 3-2
T6. HEROIC, 3-2
T9. Talon Esports, 2-3
T9. Team Secret, 2-3
T9. Virtus.pro, 2-3
T12. KEV, 1-3
T12. Nigma Galaxy, 1-3
T12. nouns, 1-3
T15. 9Pandas, 0-3
T15. Rest Farmers, 0-3
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
9-10. $20,000
11-12. $20,000
13-14. $20,000
15-16. $20,000
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