Team Liquid and Team Spirit won three-map matches on Thursday to advance to the upper-bracket final of the Riyadh Masters.
Liquid outlasted Talon Esports 2-1 and Team Spirit took down BetBoom Team by the same score. The losing clubs dropped into the lower-bracket quarterfinals.
Also on Thursday, 9Pandas beat Team Secret 2-0 in the final first-round match of the lower bracket, eliminating Secret from the tournament.
The $15 million Riyadh Masters began with 20 teams, and 12 were left standing after the play-in and group stages.
The group stage featured two groups of eight teams and concluded on Monday. Those matches were best-of-two in a single round-robin format. The top four teams advanced to the upper bracket of the playoffs, while the fifth- and sixth-place teams from each group advanced to the lower bracket. The remaining teams have been eliminated.
The double-elimination playoff stage runs through Sunday. All matches are best-of-three except for the grand final, which is best-of-five.
The winning team pockets $5 million with $2.5 million going to the runner-up.
On Thursday, Liquid opened with a 42-minute win on red before Talon won in 49 minutes on red. The final map truly went the distance, with Liquid pulling out the victory in 60 minutes on red. Michael “miCKe” Vu of Sweden averaged a kills-deaths-assists ratio of 7.0-5.7-7.7 to lead Liquid.
Spirit opened with a 45-minute win on green, but BetBoom, the Group B winner, responded with a 44-minute win on green. Spirit needed even more time than Liquid to take the decisive third map — winning in 72 minutes on red. Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk of Ukraine posted a 9-4-8 K-D-A on the final map to guide Spirit.
9Pandas beat Secret in 34 minutes on red and 39 minutes on green. Matvey “MieRo`” Vasyunin of Russia averaged a 7.5-2.0-14.0 K-D-A.
Three matches are scheduled for Thursday:
–Quest Esports vs. Gaimin Gladiators (lower-bracket second round)
–Team Aster vs. 9Pandas (lower-bracket second round)
–BetBoom Team vs. Quest/Gaimin winner (lower-bracket quarterfinals)
Riyadh Masters prize pool:
1. $5 million — TBD
2. $2.5 million — TBD
3. $1.7 million — TBD
4. $1.2 million — TBD
5-6. $800,000 — TBD
7-8. $500,000 — TBD
9-12. $300,000 — PSG.LGD, Tundra Esports, Evil Geniuses, Team Secret
13-14. $200,000 — OG, TSM
15-16. $100,000 — Xtreme Gaming, Shopify Rebellion
17-20. $50,000 — beastcoast, Entity, Virtus.pro, Execration
–Field Level Media