FURIA Esports defeated BIG on Saturday to clinch third place in Group B at the ESL Pro League Season 17 in Malta.
FURIA knocked off BIG 2-1 in the mid-bracket final, locking up a spot in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. BIG fell to a lower-bracket semifinal match against Complexity on Sunday. The winner of that match will face Movistar Riders later Sunday, hoping to grab the final qualifying spot from Group B.
Complexity stayed alive with a 2-1 win their lower-bracket quarterfinal over Imperial Esports on Saturday, while Movistar blanked SAW 2-0 in the first lower-bracket semifinal.
The group’s top two qualifying berths will go to Heroic and MOUZ, who will square off in the upper-bracket final on Sunday.
The tournament began with 32 teams divided into four groups for the triple-elimination opening round.
The group-stage winners move into the quarterfinals, with the group runners-up heading to the Round of 12 as high seeds. The four third-place teams enter in the Round of 16 as high seeds, and the four fourth-place teams go to the Round of 16 as low seeds.
Group A was completed last week, with Cloud9 coming in first, Outsiders in second, G2 Esports in third and Fnatic in fourth. Group C play will begin on March 8, and Group D play will start on March 15.
The tournament champion will receive $200,000 plus berths in the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne this summer and the BLAST Premier World Final in December.
FURIA edged BIG 16-3 on the first map, Nuke, but BIG came back with a 16-11 victory on Vertigo. On the final map, Inferno, FURIA trailed 8-6 but ran off eight straight points en route to a 16-10 clincher.
Rafael “saffee” Costa and Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato of FURIA’s all-Brazilian team led with 66 kills apiece, and the former had a plus-20 kill-death differential. Nils “k1to” paced the all-German BIG team with 58 kills and a plus-6 differential.
Movistar’s sweep of SAW began 16-7 on Overpass and ended 16-11 on Nuke. Alejandro “alex” Masanet led the all-Spanish Movistar lineup with 43 kills and teammate Antonio “Martinez” Martinez led with a plus-21 differential. Three players had 28 kills apiece for the Portuguese SAW team, and no player had a positive differential.
Complexity had to come from behind in their win, getting wiped out 16-1 on the first map, Inferno. But the next two maps were close calls, as Complexity broke away from a 13-13 tie to win 16-14 on Ancient, then needed overtime to clinch the match, 25-23 on Overpass.
Hakon “hallzerk” Fjaerli of Norway dominated for Complexity, posting 72 kills and a plus-15 differential. Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo paced the all-Brazil line with 80 kills and a plus-27 differential.
Group B action concludes on Sunday with three matches:
–Lower-bracket semifinal: BIG vs. Complexity
–Upper-bracket final: Heroic vs. MOUZ
–Lower-bracket final: BIG-Complexity winner vs. Movistar Riders
ESL Pro League Season 17 prize pool and points distribution
1. $200,000, 3,000 BLAST Premier points, qualification for Intel Extreme Masters Cologne and BLAST Premier World Final
2. $90,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $50,000, 1,200 BLAST Premier points
5-8. $35,000, 500 BLAST Premier points
9-12. $25,000
13-16. $20,000
17-20. $15,000 — Eternal Fire
21-28. $8,000 — MIBR, IHC Esports, SAW
29-32. $4,000 — Evil Geniuses, Imperial Esports
–Field Level Media