Imperial Esports, FURIA Esports, Complexity Gaming and MIBR emerged as the biggest winners from Day 1 of the PGL Major Antwerp: American RMR event Monday in Bucharest, Romania.
That group of four won their first two matches to kick off the Swiss Stage and will participate in the High Matches in Round 3.
Sixteen teams are competing for six berths to the $1 million PGL Major Antwerp next month. In the Swiss System format, elimination and advancement matches will be best-of-three and all other matches will be best-of-1. After five rounds of the Swiss Stage, the first-place team will be awarded Legend Status for Antwerp, the second and third teams will win Challenger Status and Nos. 4-6 will begin with Contender Status.
Monday began with eight first-round matches to sort the winners and losers into High and Low Matches for Round 2. FURIA destroyed Leviatan 16-4 on Inferno in the most lopsided Round 1 match, with both Andrei “arT” Piovezan and Yuri “yuurih” Santos of Brazil notching plus-13 kills-to-deaths differentials.
Complexity beat Team oNe 16-8 on Nuke, guided by South African Johnny “JT” Theodosiou’s 25 kills and plus-13 K/D differential. In an all-Brazilian matchup, Imperial took care of Sao Caetano 16-12 on Inferno with Fernando “fer” Alvarenga posting a whopping 34 kills and a plus-15 for the winners. MIBR got by 9z Team 16-13 on Dust II with three different players notching at least 20 kills.
In the Round 2 High Matches, FURIA posted another 16-4 victory, this time on Nuke over Isurus. André ‘drop’ Abreu of Brazil had a game-high 24 kills for FURIA, yuurih had 21 and both players had plus-14 K-D differentials.
Imperial beat Case Esports 16-6 on Dust II thanks to Brazilian Ricardo “boltz” Prass’s 29 kills and plus-17. Complexity took down 00 Nation 16-5 on Nuke, getting 27 kills and a plus-19 from American Paytyn “junior” Johnson. And MIBR eked out a 25-23 overtime win on Vertigo over paiN Gaming, with four players scoring at least 34 kills.
In the Round 2 Low matches, Party Astronauts beat Leviatan 16-11 on Inferno, Sao Caetano beat Bad News Bears 16-12 on Overpass, Team Liquid destroyed Team oNe 16-3 on Inferno and Evil Geniuses defeated 9z 16-5 on Mirage. Those four losing teams will play in the Round 3 Low Matches, which will be best-of-three elimination series.
The Swiss Stage continues with eight matches Tuesday:
Imperial vs. MIBR (Round 3 High)
FURIA Esports vs. Complexity Gaming (Round 3 High)
00 Nation vs. Evil Geniuses (Round 3 Mid)
Isurus vs. Sao Caetano Esports (Round 3 Mid)
Case Esports vs. Party Astronauts (Round 3 Mid)
paiN Gaming vs. Team Liquid (Round 3 Mid)
9z Team vs. Bad News Bears (Round 3 Low)
Team oNe eSports vs. Leviatan (Round 3 Low)
PGL Major Antwerp American RMR prize pool:
1. $25,000, Legend status — TBD
2. $12,500, Challenger status — TBD
3. $7,500, Challenger status — TBD
4. $5,000, Contender status — TBD
5-6. No prize money, Contender status — TBD
7-16. No prize money — TBD
–Field Level Media