MOUZ and Ence each posted 2-1 victories on Saturday to advance to the grand final at the Intel Extreme Masters Dallas.
MOUZ toppled Heroic, while Ence ousted FaZe Clan. The two squads will meet on Sunday, with the winner taking home $100,000 and 2,400 BLAST Premier points. A berth in the $1 million Intel Extreme Masters Cologne, scheduled for July 25-Aug. 6 in Germany, is also at stake.
The $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event opened on Monday with 16 teams divided into two double-elimination groups. The opening matches consisted of a single map, while all remaining matches in the tournament are best-of-three.
The group winners headed straight to the semifinals of the single-elimination playoffs. The second-place teams in each group were placed as high seeds in the quarterfinals, and the third-place teams in each group were the low seeds in the quarters.
MOUZ opened with a commanding 16-8 victory on Vertigo, but Heroic leveled the match with a 16-9 win on Overpass. On the decisive third map, Ancient, MOUZ prevailed 16-14 to punch their ticket to the grand final.
David “frozen” Cernansky of Slovakia led MOUZ with 57 kills and a plus-15 kills-deaths differential, while Rasmus “sjuush” Beck racked up 56 kills to go along with a plus-7 K-D for the all-Danish Heroic side.
After suffering a 16-8 loss on Mirage, ENCE bounced back with a 16-6 triumph on Anubis before pulling off a wild 31-28 victory on Ancient.
Pavle “Maden” Boskovic of Montenegro finished with 78 kills and a plus-10 ratio for ENCE, while Norway’s Havard “rain” Nygaard supplied a match-high 82 kills for FaZe Clan.
Intel Extreme Masters Dallas prize pool and BLAST Premier points distribution
1. $100,000, 2,400 points, berth in Intel Extreme Masters Cologne
2. $42,000, 1,200 points
3-4. $20,000, 750 points — Heroic, FaZe Clan
5-6. $10,000, 225 points — Astralis, G2 Esports
7-8. $6,000, 225 points — OG, Cloud9
9-12. $5,000, no points — 9z Team, FURIA Esports, Complexity Gaming, Team Liquid
13-16. $4,000, no points — Fnatic, Nouns Esports, Evil Geniuses, Grayhound Gaming
–Field Level Media