FaZe Clan won a battle of 2-0 squads on Friday to join G2 Esports as the last remaining undefeated teams in Group B at ESL Pro League Season 16 in Malta.
FaZe moved to 3-0 in group-stage action by winning 2-1 over Outsiders. G2 (3-0) pulled off its third straight sweep with a 2-0 victory over winless FTW Esports (0-3). BIG also earned their first win by a 2-1 score over MIBR, who dropped to 0-3.
The $835,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event features 24 teams vying for a $175,000 first prize and a berth in the BLAST Premier World Final. Only the Season 16 champion will clinch a spot in the $1 million Final set for Dec. 14-18 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The Pro League teams are divided into four groups for the initial round-robin phase. The four group champions will advance to the playoff quarterfinals, while the teams that come in second and third in each group will move on to the playoffs’ Round of 12.
All matches in the group stage and the playoffs are best-of-three until the best-of-five final on Oct. 2.
FaZe ripped off the first seven points of their opening map on Dust II before cruising to a 16-5 win, but Outsiders replied strongly, taking Ancient by the same score to even the match — fueled by a 12-0 run. In the decisive map on Inferno, Outsiders led 3-0 early but FaZe’s 9-0 flurry helped them to a 16-11 triumph. Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken of Canada led the way for FaZe with match highs of 53 kills and a plus-12 kills-to-deaths differential.
G2 was hardly challenged by FTW, claiming successive maps by scores of 16-5 on Inferno and 16-6 on Ancient. Russia’s Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov carried G2 with 46 kills and a plus-22 K-D differential.
In a matchup of 0-2 teams entering the day, BIG and MIBR duked it out over two roller-coaster maps before a BIG blowout in the finale.
On Vertigo, BIG flipped an early deficit with a 10-0 spurt to lead 12-5 before MIBR tied it at 13 apiece. BIG took the map 16-14 to lead 1-0, but MIBR evened the match — winning 16-14 on Nuke despite nearly wasting a 13-5 edge. But BIG crushed MIBR 16-1 on Dust II for their first Group B victory.
Florian “syrsoN” Rische had 59 kills for the all-German BIG lineup while Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz put up a match-best plus-17 K-D.
Group B will conclude Sunday. Group C will be contested from Sept. 14-18 and Group D from Sept. 21-25.
Saturday will be highlighted by three more Group B matches:
–BIG vs. FTW Esports
–Outsiders vs. MIBR
–FaZe Clan vs. G2 Esports
ESL Pro League Season 16 group standings, with win-loss record, score differential and points:
Group A
1. Team Vitality, 5-0, +40, 15 points
2. Fnatic, 3-2, +36, 9 points
3. Natus Vincere, 3-2, +6, 6 points
4. Team Spirit, 2-3, -9, 6 points
5. Ninjas in Pyjamas, 2-3, -31, 6 points
6. Endpoint, 1-4, -42, 3 points
Group B
1. G2 Esports, 3-0, +43, 9 points
2. FaZe Clan, 3-0, +42, 9 points
3. Outsiders, 2-1, +21, 6 points
4. BIG, 1-2, -2, 3 points
5. MIBR, 0-3, -45, 0 points
6. FTW Esports, 0-3, -59, 0 points
Group C
ENCE
Heroic
Astralis
MOUZ
Complexity
HEET
Group D
Cloud9
Movistar Riders
Team Liquid
FURIA Esports
Evil Geniuses
Eternal Fire
–Field Level Media