BOOM Esports and Entity were the first two teams to advance out of the Elite League Swiss Stage by notching victories Tuesday.
BOOM rallied to a 2-1 victory over Talon Esports and Entity swept OG 2-0 in the two Round 3 High matches. With 3-0 records through three days, BOOM and Entity locked up their spots in the Round Robin Stage.
Sixteen teams are taking part in the Elite League Swiss Stage (Group Stage 1), using a modified Swiss system, which runs through Thursday. Nine came from closed qualifier seeds, and seven others were invited. All matches are best-of-three.
The top eight teams will move 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 $960,000 prize pool.
On Tuesday, Talon picked up a 43-minute win on red to get the early edge over BOOM, but BOOM tied it with a 30-minute victory on red and prevailed in the decisive round in 36 minutes on green. Jordan “SLATEM$” Vega of Peru had 19 kills, just two deaths and 18 assists on the final map to lead BOOM.
Entity defeated OG in 32 minutes on red and 41 minutes on green. Volodymyr “No(o)ne-” Minenko of Ukraine tallied 21 kills, just four deaths and 27 assists over the two maps for Entity, while Kazakhstan’s Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov contributed 21 kills with two deaths and 18 assists.
Tuesday also saw 9Pandas and Rest Farmers become the first two teams eliminated from the tournament. In a pair of matches among 0-2 clubs, KEV outlasted 9Pandas for a 2-1 win and Virtus.pro swept Rest Farmers 2-0.
Wednesday’s six Round 4 matches will split teams into high and low groups as follows:
–Tundra Esports vs. Blacklist International (2-1 group)
–HEROIC vs. OG (2-1 group)
–Talon Esports vs. PSG Quest (2-1 group)
–KEV vs. Aurora (1-2 group)
–Virtus.pro vs. nouns (1-2 group)
–Team Secret vs. Nigma Galaxy (1-2 group)
Elite League Swiss Stage standings:
T1. BOOM Esports 3-0
T1. Entity, 3-0
T3. Blacklist International, 2-1
T3. HEROIC, 2-1
T3. OG, 2-1
T3. PSG Quest, 2-1
T3. Talon Esports, 2-1
T3. Tundra Esports, 2-1
T9. Aurora, 1-2
T9. KEV, 1-2
T9. Nigma Galaxy, 1-2
T9. nouns, 1-2
T9. Team Secret, 1-2
T9. Virtus.pro, 1-2
T15. 9Pandas, 0-3
T15. Rest Farmers, 0-3
Prize Pool ($960,000):
1. $300,000, TBD
2. $150,000, TBD
3. $80,000, TBD
4. $50,000, TBD
5-6. $40,000, TBD
7-8. $30,000, TBD
9-10. $20,000, TBD
11-12. $20,000, TBD
13-14. $20,000, TBD
15-16. $20,000, TBD
17-19. $10,000, TBD
20-22. $10,000, TBD
23-24. $10,000 — 9Pandas, Rest Farmers
–Field Level Media