Team Liquid blanked AMKAL ESPORTS 2-0 in a winners match on Sunday, polishing off a perfect performance in Group C to secure a playoff berth at the Champion of Champions Tour Season 1 Global Finals.
Paired with Saturday’s 2-1 victory over OG in an opening match, Sunday’s shutout gave Team Liquid a 2-0 record in group action.
After falling to Liquid, AMKAL ESPORTS bounced back for a 2-0 win against paiN Gaming in a decider match to lock down Group C’s other playoff spot. paiN had set up the meeting with AMKAL by way of a 2-1 elimination-match victory over OG, who were knocked out of the event with the setback.
The CCT Season 1 Global Finals split 16 teams into four double-elimination groups of four. The top two teams out of each group will advance to the single-elimination playoff bracket. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final on Thursday, which is best-of-five.
The winner will receive half of the $500,000 prize pool.
On Sunday, Team Liquid beat AMKAL ESPORTS 13-2 on Inferno and 13-11 on Nuke. Brazil’s Felipe “skullz” Medeiros led the winners with 35 kills and a plus-17 kill-death differential. No one playing for AMKAL finished with a positive K-D.
But AMKAL recovered, taking Inferno 16-13 and Nuke 13-4 to oust OG. Kaisar “ICY” Faiznurov of Kazakhstan finished with 36 kills and a plus-13 K-D ratio in the victory.
OG squandered an early lead that stemmed from a 16-14 win on Vertigo against paiN, which proceeded to prevail on Mirage (13-10) and Dust II (13-6).
Group D action also began on Sunday, with Astralis topping BIG 2-0 in an opening match.
The tournament continues with four Group D matches on Monday:
–MIBR vs. BetBoom Team (opening match)
–BIG vs. TBD (elimination match)
–Astralis vs. TBD (winners match)
–Winner of elimination match vs. loser of winners match (decider match)
Teams already qualified for playoffs:
Group A
–Eternal Fire
–Aurora Gaming
Group B
–GamerLegion
–ENCE
Group C
–Team Liquid
–AMKAL ESPORTS
CCT Season 1 Global Finals prize pool:
1. $250,000 — TBD
2. $100,000 — TBD
3-4. $50,000 — TBD
5-8. $12,500 — TBD
9-12. no money — SAW, Fnatic, paiN Gaming, one team TBD
13-16. no money — PARIVISION, Gaimin Gladiators, OG, one team TBD
–Field Level Media