G2 Esports and Team Liquid each picked up wins Friday and reached the semifinals of the BLAST Premier World Final in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
G2 defeated Team Vitality and Liquid eliminated Natus Vincere, both by 2-1 scores, in Friday’s quarterfinals.
G2 will face FaZe Clan and Liquid will take on OG in Saturday’s semifinals of the $1 million event, the final Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major of the year.
All matches are best-of-three, including Sunday’s grand final. The champion earns $500,000, with $250,000 going to the runner-up. The semifinal losers each pocket $85,000.
G2 sandwiched a 16-3 win on Nuke and a 16-11 victory on Anubis around a 19-15 overtime defeat on Vertigo. G2 closed the decisive map by taking eoight of the match’s final nine points. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov of Russia had 63 kills and a plus-23 kills/deaths differential to lead G2.
Liquid followed the same pattern, winning 16-10 on Overpass and losing 16-14 on Ancient (NaVi ending on a 12-1 run) before advancing with a 16-9 victory on Mirage. Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galiinskis of Latvia paced Liquid with 73 kills and a plus-21 K/D ratio.
BLAST Premier World Final 2022 prize pool:
1. $500,000 — TBD
2. $250,000 — TBD
3-4. $85,000 — TBD
5-6. $25,000 — Team Vitality, Natus Vincere
7-8. $15,000 — Outsiders, Heroic
–Field Level Media