GamerLegion and BIG have qualified for the playoff stage of the ESL Pro League Season 19 playoffs by coming out of the mid brackets Friday in Saint Julian’s, Malta.
In Group C, GamerLegion swept ENCE 2-0 in the final match of the mid bracket to clinch third place. BIG won two matches in Group D, rallying to beat both Pera Esports and HEROIC 2-1, to punch their ticket.
The $750,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Group-stage winners advance to the quarterfinals; runners-up advance to the Round of 12 as the high seeds; third-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the high seeds; and fourth-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the low seeds.
The group stage is triple-elimination with upper, middle and lower brackets. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final, which is best-of-five.
The tournament runs through May 12. The winner earns $170,000 and qualifies for the IEM Cologne 2024 event.
On Friday, GamerLegion tackled ENCE 13-5 on Nuke before eking out a 13-10 win on Overpass. Hungary’s Henrich “sl3nd” Hevesi and Estonia’s Andreas “aNdu” Maasing each racked up 39 kills for GamerLegion, with sl3nd posting a plus-19 kills-to-deaths differential and aNdu a plus-11.
Also in Group C, the lower bracket began when FURIA Esports swept Bad News Kangaroos 13-6 on Inferno and 13-6 again on Mirage. Bad News Kangaroos are out of the tournament.
As for Group D, BIG faced Pera in the mid bracket quarterfinals and promptly lost their opening map 13-4 on Anubis. They stomped Pera 13-1 on Vertigo to set up the winner-take-all third map, which BIG won 13-10 on Ancient. Karim “Krimbo” Moussa of Germany had 49 kills on a plus-19 K-D to lead BIG.
In the other quarterfinal, HEROIC beat FlyQuest 13-8 on Ancient and 16-12 in overtime on Nuke. Upon meeting BIG in the semifinal, HEROIC took a 13-5 decision on Nuke but BIG bounced back in overtime, 16-13 on Vertigo. The final map was Ancient, where BIG won 13-5; Jon “JDC” de Castro of Germany paced the victors with 51 kills on a plus-8.
The final match of the day saw Ninjas in Pyjamas eliminate BOSS with a 2-1 win in the Group D lower-bracket opener. NiP won 13-8 on Ancient, absorbed a 13-11 defeat on Vertigo and posted a 13-5 clincher on Inferno.
The group stage continues Saturday with five matches:
–MOUZ vs. Team Liquid (Group C upper-bracket final)
–Monte vs. FORZE Esports (Group C lower-bracket semifinal)
–ENCE vs. FURIA Esports (Group C lower-bracket semifinal)
–Pera Esports vs. FlyQuest (Group D lower-bracket semifinal)
–HEROIC vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas (Group D lower-bracket semifinal)
ESL Pro League Season 19 prize pool
1. $170,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points — TBD
2. $80,000, 1,400 points — TBD
3-4. $45,000, 750 points — TBD
5-8. $32,000, 275 points — TBD
9-12. $23,500 — TBD
13-16. $17,500 — TBD
17-20. $12,000 — SAW, M80, two teams TBD
21-28. $7,000 — Fnatic, Eternal Fire, Team Falcons, TYLOO, four teams TBD
29-32. $3,500 — Imperial Esports, Sharks Esports, Bad News Kangaroos, BOSS
–Field Level Media