MIBR and MOUZ pulled out victories in the Group B mid-bracket quarterfinals to stay alive at the ESL Pro League Season in 18 on Friday in Malta.
MIBR came from behind to beat Monte 2-1 and MOUZ earned a 2-0 win over Heroic. Monte and Heroic dropped into the lower-bracket semifinals.
The $850,000 event features 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Group-stage winners advance to the quarterfinals; runners-up advance to the Round of 12 as the high seeds; third-place teams in each group advance to the Round of 16 as the high seeds; and fourth-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the low seeds.
The group stage is triple-elimination with upper, middle and lower brackets. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final, which is best-of-five.
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament runs through Oct. 1. The winner earns $200,000 and qualifies for the 2024 IEM Katowice event and the 2023 BLAST World Final.
On Friday, Monte opened with a 16-6 win over MIBR on Vertigo, but MIBR rallied with wins of 16-12 on Anubis and 16-11 on Mirage. Rafael “saffee” Costa of Brazil led MIBR with 61 kills and a plus-16 kills-to-deaths differential.
MOUZ earned a 16-8 result on Mirage and closed Heroic out with a 16-10 win on Nuke. David “frozen” Cernansky of Slovakia had 41 kills on a plus-22 K-D to guide MOUZ.
Group B action continues Saturday with three matches:
–MIBR vs. MOUZ (mid-bracket semifinal)
–Rooster vs. Evil Geniuses (lower-bracket quarterfinal)
–Monte vs. Heroic (lower-bracket semifinal)
ESL Pro League Season 18 prize pool:
1. $200,000, 3,000 BLAST Premier points — TBD
2. $90,000, 2,000 BLAST points — TBD
3-4. $50,000, 1,200 points — TBD
5-8. $35,000, 500 points — TBD
9-12. $25,000 — TBD
13-16. $20,000 — TBD
17-20. $15,000 — Gamer Legion, TBD
21-28. $8,000 — Ninjas in Pyjamas, Grayhound Gaming, TBD
29-32. $4,000 — ORKS, TBD
–Field Level Media