Cloud9 and FaZe Clan each won their winners matches in the group stage on Saturday at the Thunderpick World Championship.
In Group A, Cloud9 beat Virtus.pro 2-1, while FaZe Clan swept Monte 2-0 in Group B. VP and Monte will both play in decider matches on Sunday for a chance to land a spot in the playoffs.
In elimination matches on Saturday, Fnatic blanked Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in a Group A clash and SAW edged Wildcard Gaming 2-1 in Group B. Ninjas will face Virtus.pro in one of Sunday’s decider matches, while SAW is set to play Monte in the other.
Sixteen teams were divided into four double-elimination groups of four. The top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination bracket that concludes Nov. 5. All matches are best-of-three.
After dropping Vertigo 13-5, Cloud9 responded with wins on Ancient (13-6) and Anubis (13-8). Russia’s Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov led the winners with 42 kills and a plus-2 kills-deaths ratio, while Dzhami “Jame” Ali paced the all-Russian Virtus side with match bests in kills (48) and K-D ratio (plus-19).
Robin “ropz” Kool of Estonia dropped 47 kills with a plus-22 K-D to help FaZe to a 13-9 victory on Mirage and a 13-8 triumph on Nuke. None of Monte’s players finished with a positive ratio, but Ukrainian Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev logged 34 kills.
Fnatic prevailed 13-6 on Ancient before completing the sweep with a 16-14 decision on Inferno. Great Britain’s William “mezii” Merriman went for 46 kills and a plus-14 K-D for Fnatic. Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke of Denmark racked up 36 kills for NiP.
SAW overcame a 13-9 setback on Anubis to win 13-4 on Nuke and 13-6 on Ancient. Joao “story” Vieira supplied 49 kills for the all-Portuguese SAW squad, while Americans Matthew “d4rty” Paplawskas and Keller “SLIGHT” Nilan each had 43 for Wildcard.
Group stage action continues Sunday with four matches:
–Virtus.pro vs. Fnatic (Group A decider match)
–Monte vs. SAW (Group B decider match)
–Team Spirit vs. Complexity Gaming (Group C opening match)
–MOUZ vs. M80 (Group C opening match)
Group stage standings (W-L, point differential):
Group A
1. Cloud9, 2-0, plus-10
T2. Fnatic, 1-1, plus-3
T2. Virtus.pro, 1-1, plus-4
4. Ninjas in Pyjamas, 0-2, minus-17 (eliminated)
Group B
1. FaZe Clan, 2-0, plus-23
2. Monte, 1-1, plus-9
2. SAW, 1-1, minus-2
4. Wildcard Gaming, 0-2, minus-30 (eliminated)
–Field Level Media