ENCE and MOUZ advanced to the semifinals of the ESL Pro Leagues Season 18 playoffs on Friday in Saint Julian’s, Malta.
ENCE soundly defeated Movistar Riders 2-0 and MOUZ outlasted G2 Esports 2-1 to reach the tournament’s final four. Movistar Riders and G2 were eliminated.
The $850,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Group-stage winners advanced to the quarterfinals; runners-up advanced to the Round of 12 as the high seeds; third-place teams advanced to the Round of 16 as the high seeds; and fourth-place teams advanced to the Round of 16 as the low seeds.
The group stage is triple elimination with upper, middle and lower brackets. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final, which is best-of-five.
The tournament runs through Sunday. The winner earns $200,000 and qualifies for the 2024 IEM Katowice event and the 2023 BLAST World Final.
On Friday, ENCE blitzed Movistar Riders 16-2 on Overpass and 16-5 on Anubis. Spaniard Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia starred for ENCE, putting up 41 kills on a plus-27 kills-to-deaths differential.
MOUZ beat G2 16-13 on Mirage to start, but G2 squeaked out a 16-14 result on Ancient to tie it. The final map was Inferno, where MOUZ prevailed 16-7. Hungary’s Adam “torzsi” Torzsas led MOUZ with 64 kills on a plus-20 K-D.
The playoffs resume Saturday with two semifinal matches:
–Monte vs. Natus Vincere
–ENCE vs. MOUZ
ESL Pro League Season 18 prize pool
1. $200,000, 3,000 BLAST Premier points — TBD
2. $90,000, 2,000 BLAST points — TBD
3-4. $50,000, 1,200 points — TBD
5-8. $35,000, 500 points — Eternal Fire, Team Vitality, Movistar Riders, G2 Esports
9-12. $25,000 — Complexity Gaming, BIG, 9z Team, FaZe Clan
13-16. $20,000 — Fnatic, Astralis, Virtus.pro, FURIA Esports
17-20. $15,000 — Gamer Legion, MIBR, 5yclone, Team Liquid
21-28. $8,000 — Ninjas in Pyjamas, Grayhound Gaming, Heroic, Evil Geniuses, Imperial Esports, Apeks, Cloud9, Lynn Vision Gaming
29-32. $4,000 — ORKS, Rooster, M80, 9INE
–Field Level Media