A day after Team Vitality recorded its second straight sweep to advance to the Gamers8 2023 semifinals, ENCE matched the feat with its 2-0 victory against Cloud9 Friday at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
That victory came on the heels of a 2-0 sweep of Team Liquid in the first round, leaving both ENCE and Team Vitality undefeated as they prepare for Saturday matchups against Heroic and G2 Esports, respectively.
ENCE made short work of Cloud9, cruising to a 16-7 win on Ancient and a 16-6 victory on Anubis.
Israel’s Guy “NertZ” Iluz racked up 44 kills against 25 deaths for a plus-19 K/D ratio to lead ENCE. Teammates Pavle “Maden” Boskovic of Montenegro (plus-14) and Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia of Spain (plus-12) also finished with double-digit positive ratios.
ENCE’s next opponent, Heroic, defeated GamerLegion 2-1. The Denmark-based squad won 16-3 on Inferno and lost 16-9 on Vertigo before rallying to take the final game 16-7 on Overpass.
Martin “stavn” Lund paced the winners with 60 kills against 32 deaths (plus-28), while teammates Rene “TeSeS” Madsen (54 kills) and Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard (52 kills) also finished with at least 50 kills apiece.
In the final match of the day, G2 outlasted Virtus.pro 2-1. The European squad dropped the opener 16-11 on Mirage before rallying to win 16-9 on Inferno and 16-12 on Vertigo.
Bosnia and Herzegovina national Nikola “NiKo” Kovac led G2 with 68 kills and a plus-16 K-D ratio. Russia’s Petr “fame” Bolyshev was the top performer for Virtus (64 kills, plus-9).
The $1 million tournament began with 16 teams vying to win the first-place prize of $400,000. All matches in the single-elimination event are best-of-three. The five-day tourney ends Sunday with the grand final.
The tournament resumes Saturday with two semifinal matches:
–Heroic vs. ENCE
–G2 Esports vs. Team Vitality
Gamers8 2023 prize pool:
1st: $400,000 — TBD
2nd: $180,000 — TBD
3rd-4th: $80,000 — TBD
5th-8th: $35,000 — Natus Vincere, GamerLegion, Cloud9, Virtus.pro
9th-16th: $15,000 — Team Falcons, Apeks, Fnatic, Team Liquid, FURIA Esports, MIBR, FaZe Clan, 9INE
–Field Level Media