ENCE and Cloud9 earned semifinal victories on Saturday, setting up a grand final matchup between the two Sunday for a $100,000 grand prize in the Intel Extreme Masters Season XVII.
ENCE opened the day’s action with a 2-0 win over FURIA Esports. The Finnish organization won 16-14 on Vertigo and 16-9 on Nuke to claim the victory.
Denmark’s Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer paced the winning squad with a kill-to-death ratio of 42-31 (plus-11). Teammates Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski and Pawel “dycha” Dycha, both of Poland, had 43 and 41 kills, respectively.
Four of FURIA’s players finished with negative K-D ratios, with Andre “drop” Abreu of Brazil finishing even (38-38).
In the other semifinal, Cloud9 took care of BIG 2-1, rallying from a 16-14 defeat on Overpass to win 16-9 on Dust II and 16-3 on Ancient.
Abay “HObbit” Khasenov of Kazakhstan led the way for Cloud9 with 68 kills (plus-23), with all four of his Russian teammates also finishing with positive K-D ratios. BIG was led by Germany’s Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz’s 53 kills.
The $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with 16 teams divided into two groups for the double-elimination opening stage.
The first-round matches were best-of-one. All other matches through the group stage and the playoffs were best-of-three except for the final on Sunday, which will use a best-of-five format. The championship side will receive $100,000, 1,000 ESL Pro Tour points and 2,400 BLAST Premier points.
Intel Extreme Masters Season XVII – Dallas prize pool and points distribution
1. $100,000, 1,000 ESL Pro Tour points, 2,400 BLAST Premier points
2. $42,000, 750 ESL Pro Tour points, 1,200 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $20,000, 525 ESL Pro Tour points, 750 BLAST Premier points — FURIA Esports, BIG
5-6. $10,000, 350 ESL Pro Tour points, 225 BLAST Premier points — G2 Esports, FaZe Clan
7-8. $6,000, 200 ESL Pro Tour points, 225 BLAST Premier points — Team Vitality, Team Liquid
9-12. $5,000, 100 ESL Pro Tour points, no BLAST Premier points — Astralis, MOUZ, MIBR, Ninjas in Pyjamas
13-16. $4,000, no ESL Pro Tour points, no BLAST Premier points — Movistar Riders, Encore Esports Club, Imperial Esports, Complexity Gaming
–Field Level Media