K23 and Entropiq opened the $250,000 Funspark ULTI 2021 event with victories on Tuesday.
Entropiq swept ECSTATIC while K23 struggled to get past Astralis, 2-1. K23 and Entropiq advanced to the upper bracket semifinals while Astralis and ECSTATIC dropped to the lower bracket.
Funspark ULTI is a double-elimination tournament that runs through Monday. All matches are best-of-three except for the grand final, which is best-of-five. The upper bracket side will be given a 1-0 lead in the finale. The event winner earns $150,000 and one of two Funspark ULTI 2022 berths.
On Tuesday, Entropiq rolled to the sweep, 16-5 on Mirage and 22-18 on Vertigo. Every player on Entropiq finished with a positive kills-to-deaths ratio. Russian Igor “Forester” Bezotecheskiy led the squad with 55 kills and a plus-10 ratio.
American Adam “WolfY” Andersson led ECSTATIC with 47 kills and a plus-5 ratio, the only one to finish with a positive K-D.
K23 opened with a 22-19 win in overtime on Mirage but lost the second map to Astralis, 16-8 on Inferno. K23 again needed overtime in the clincher, 19-16 on Overpass, to advance. K23 led 10-5 at intermission but found themselves down 13-12 and 15-13 after a rally by Astralis. K23 took the last two rounds to force OT where they won it.
Russian Bogdan “xsepower” Chernikov nearly won the match singlehandedly for K23, finishing with 73 kills and a plus-7 differential. None of his teammates finished with a positive K-D differential. Benjamin “blameF” Bremer led the all-Denmark side with 88 kills and a whopping plus-39 differential.
Upper bracket quarterfinals continue Wednesday with two matches:
Gambit Esports vs. Complexity
Fnatic vs. BIG
–Field Level Media