Team Spirit finished atop Group C and qualified for the playoffs of the Thunderpick World Championship thanks to a 2-0 sweep of MOUZ on Monday.
Spirit won the Group C winners match to clinch a berth in the eight-team playoff stage. MOUZ moved into a decider match against Complexity Gaming, who beat M80 2-0 in the group’s elimination match.
Group D also kicked off Monday with Heroic topping Nouns Esports 2-1 and BIG defeating FURIA Esports 2-0 in the opening matches.
Sixteen teams were divided into four double-elimination groups of four at the $500,000 event. The top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination bracket that concludes Nov. 5. All matches are best-of-three.
On Monday, Team Spirit edged MOUZ 16-14 on Ancient before securing a 13-6 clinching win on Mirage. Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia of Ukraine starred for Spirit with 55 kills on a plus-25 kills-to-deaths differential.
Complexity took care of M80 with a 13-8 win on Overpass and a 13-6 result on Vertigo. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski led the American-based victors with 39 kills on a plus-21 K-D.
Heroic opened their match with a 13-5 victory on Nuke, but Nouns leveled the match with a 13-11 score on Mirage. The final map was Vertigo, where Heroic ran away with it, 13-4. Rene “TeSeS” Madsen led the all-Danish Heroic squad with 55 kills on a plus-17 K-D.
BIG blew out FURIA 13-1 on Nuke and 13-6 on Ancient. Poland’s Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski topped BIG with 32 kills on a plus-16.
Group stage action continues Tuesday with four matches:
–Complexity Gaming vs. MOUZ (Group C decider match)
–Nouns Esports vs. FURIA Esports (Group D elimination match)
–Heroic vs. BIG (Group D winners match)
–Nouns-FURIA winner vs. Heroic-BIG loser (Group D decider match)
Group stage standings (W-L, point differential):
Group A
1. Cloud9, 2-0, plus-10
2. Virtus.pro, 2-1, plus-16
3. Fnatic, 1-2, minus-9 (eliminated)
4. Ninjas in Pyjamas, 0-2, minus-17 (eliminated)
Group B
1. FaZe Clan, 2-0, plus-23
2. Monte, 2-1, plus-16
3. SAW, 1-2, minus-9 (eliminated)
4. Wildcard Gaming, 0-2, minus-30 (eliminated)
Group C
1. Team Spirit, 2-0, plus-22
T2. Complexity Gaming, 1-1, minus-1
T2. MOUZ, 1-1, minus-1
4. M80, 0-2, minus-20 (eliminated)
Group D
T1. BIG, 1-0, plus-19
T1. Heroic, 1-0, plus-15
T3. FURIA Esports, 0-1, minus-19
T3. Nouns Esports, 0-1, minus-15
Thunderpick World Championship prize pool
1. $250,000
2. $100,000
3-4. $50,000
5-8. $12,500
9-12. no prize money — Fnatic, SAW, two teams TBD
13-16. no prize money — Ninjas in Pyjamas, Wildcard Gaming, two teams TBD
–Field Level Media