ENCE and FaZe Clan advanced to the quarterfinals with Round of 12 victories Tuesday, kicking off the Playoff Stage of the ESL Pro League Season 15 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
ENCE swept Fnatic 2-0 while FaZe Clan outlasted Players 2-1. ENCE will face Movistar Riders in the quarters and FaZe will take on Natus Vincere. Fnatic and Players were eliminated from the competition.
The second-place finisher in Group B, ENCE cruised to a 16-5 win on Overpass before finishing Fnatic off with a 16-12 win on Nuke. Lotan “Spinx” Giladi of Israel led ENCE with 52 kills and a dominating plus-28 kills-to-deaths differential. All five team members for ENCE finished with positive K-Ds.
FaZe opened with a 16-4 win on Inferno before Players answered with a 16-5 victory on Mirage. FaZe took the deciding map, Overpass, 16-9.
Robin “ropz” Kool of Estonia posted game highs of 63 kills and a plus-23 differential for FaZe. Helvijs “broky” Saukants of Latvia added 48 kills with a plus-9. Abay “HObbit” Khasenov had 55 kills to carry Players.
The 24-team Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event was divided into four round-robin groups in the opening stage. The winners from each group advanced to the quarterfinals while second- and third-place teams advanced to the round of 12. All matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final on April 10.
The winner of the $823,000 event earns $175,000 and entry to the BLAST World Final 2022. That team will also garner 1,300 Pro Tour points.
Round of 12 action continues Wednesday with two matches:
–Entropiq vs. Astralis
–Heroic vs. Team Liquid
ESL Pro League Season 15 prize pool:
1. TBD — $175,000, 2,800 BLAST Premier points
2. TBD — $70,000, 1,400 BLAST Premier points
3-4. TBD — $35,000, 875 BLAST Premier points
5-8. TBD — $17,500, 262.5 BLAST Premier points
9-12. Fnatic, Players, TBD — $12,000
13-16. MOUZ, Team Vitality, BIG, AGO — $19,000
17-18. G2 Esports, Outsiders — $17,500
19-20. GODSENT, Complexity Gaming — $12,500
21-24. LookingForOrg, Sprout, Party Astronauts, Evil Geniuses — $6,000
Teams were awarded a $5,000 bonus for each Group Stage win, leading G2 Esports and Outsiders to earn more than GODSENT and Complexity.
–Field Level Media