Astralis and FURIA Esports won their respective matches Friday to advance to the Group A mid-bracket semifinal at the ESL Pro League Season 18 in Malta.
Astralis swept GamerLegion 2-0 and FURIA beat Ninjas in Pyjamas by the same score. The two losing clubs dropped into the lower-bracket semifinal.
The $850,000 event features 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 in each group 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 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament runs through Oct. 1. The winner earns $200,000 and qualifies to the 2024 IEM Katowice event and the 2023 BLAST World Final.
On Friday, Astralis topped GamerLegion 16-12 on Vertigo and 16-8 on Inferno. Benjamin “blameF” Bremer led the all-Danish Astralis squad with 51 kills and a plus-21 kills-to-deaths differential, while teammate Nicolai “device” Reedtz added 43 kills on a plus-18 K-D.
FURIA earned 16-12 wins on both Mirage and Nuke to sweep Ninjas in Pyjamas. Yuri “yuurih” Santos led the all-Brazilian victors with 44 kills and a plus-16.
Group A action continues Saturday with three matches:
–Astralis vs. FURIA Esports (mid-bracket semifinal)
–ORKS vs. Grayhound Gaming (lower-bracket quarterfinal)
–GamerLegion vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas (lower-bracket semifinal)
ESL Pro League Season 18 prize pool:
1. $200,000, 3,000 BLAST Premier points — TBD
2. $90,000, 2,000 BLAST points — TBD
3-4. $50,000, 1,200 points — TBD
5-8. $35,000, 500 points — TBD
9-12. $25,000 — TBD
13-16. $20,000 — TBD
17-20. $15,000 –TBD
21-28. $8,000 — TBD
29-32. $4,000 — TBD
–Field Level Media