ENCE and a resilient FaZe Clan squad will meet in Sunday’s best-of-five ESL Pro League Season 15 grand final in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The winner of the $823,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event earns $175,000 and entry to the BLAST World Final 2022. The runner-up takes home $70,000.
Both teams advanced with 2-0 sweeps in Saturday’s semifinals, with ENCE taking down Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan twice overcoming big deficits against FURIA Esports.
ENCE edged NiP 16-10 on Nuke and 16-14 on Ancient. Pawel “dycha” Dycha of Poland had 48 kills and a plus-17 kills-deaths differential for the winners.
FaZe Clan overcame a 13-5 hole to beat FURIA 16-13 on Inferno, then rallied from 13-8 down on Mirage to win 19-16 in overtime. Robin “ropz” Kool of Estonia finished with 53 kills and a plus-16 differential for FaZe Clan.
ENCE and FaZe Clan both advanced out of Group B. ENCE came from behind for a 2-1 victory in their round-robin match on March 16.
The 24-team event began March 9 and 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 were best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final on Sunday.
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. Ninjas in Pyjamas, FURIA Esports — $35,000; 875 BLAST Premier points
5-8. Movistar Riders, Natus Vincere — $42,500, Team Liquid, Astralis — $32,500; 262.5 BLAST Premier points
9-12. Players, Heroic, Entropiq — $32,000, Fnatic — $27,000
13-16. MOUZ, Team Vitality, BIG, AGO — $19,000
17-20. G2 Esports, Outsiders — $17,500, 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 some teams to earn more than others that were tied for the same finish.
–Field Level Media