Cloud9 and Team Liquid moved onto the semifinals at the ESL Pro League Season 16 with victories Thursday in Malta.
Cloud9 took down FaZe Clan 2-1 and Liquid swept Group C champion MOUZ 2-0 in quarterfinal action. FaZe and MOUZ bowed out of the tournament.
Next up, Cloud9 and Team Liquid will face one another Saturday in the semifinals of the event.
The $835,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with 24 teams vying for a $175,000 first prize and a berth in the BLAST Premier World Final. Only the Season 16 champion will clinch a spot in the $1 million Final set for Dec. 14-18 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The Season 16 winner also secures a berth in the $1 million Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2023, scheduled for Jan. 31-Feb. 12 in Poland.
The Pro League teams were divided into four groups for the initial round-robin Group Stage. The four group champions advanced to the playoff quarterfinals, while the teams that came in second and third in each group moved on to the playoffs’ Round of 12.
All matches in the group stage and the playoffs are best-of-three until the best-of-five final on Sunday.
FaZe opened their match with a close 16-13 victory on Inferno and before Cloud9 rallied by winning 16-8 on Ancient and 16-11 on Mirage. Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov of Russia starred for Cloud9, collecting 75 kills on a plus-28 kills-to-deaths differential. Robin “ropz” Kool of Estonia led FaZe with 57 kills.
Liquid topped MOUZ 16-10 on Inferno and 16-11 on Ancient. Josh “oSee” Ohm of the U.S. guided Liquid with 45 kills on a plus-16 K-D. Slovakia’s David “frozen” Cernansky posted game highs of 53 kills and a plus-18 K-D for MOUZ.
The quarterfinals will conclude Friday with two more matches:
–G2 Esports vs. Natus Vincere
–Team Vitality vs. Outsiders
ESL Pro League Season 16 prize pool
1. TBD — $175,000
2. TBD — $70,000
3-4. TBD — $35,000
5-8. MOUZ, FaZe Clan — $37,500; TBD — $17,500
9-12. Complexity Gaming, Fnatic — $27,000; Heroic — $12,000; FURIA Esports — $32,000
13-16. Team Spirit, BIG, Astralis, Evil Geniuses — $19,000
17-20. Ninjas in Pyjamas, Eternal Fire — $17,500; MIBR, ENCE — $12,500
21-24. Endpoint, HEET — $11,000; FTW Esports, Movistar Riders — $6,000
–Field Level Media