Team Vitality and Heroic won their quarterfinal matches to advance to the final four at the Intel Extreme Masters Rio event on Friday in Rio de Janeiro.
On the first day of the playoff stage, Vitality swept BIG 2-0 and Heroic rallied to defeat FURIA Esports 2-1. BIG and FURIA were eliminated from the tournament.
Next up, Vitality will face Cloud9 in one semifinal match and Heroic will square off with Natus Vincere in the other.
The $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with 16 teams divided into two groups for the double-elimination opening phase. Each team’s first match consisted of a single map, while all other matches were best-of-three.
The group winners qualified for the playoff semifinals. The group runners-up moved into the playoff quarterfinals as high seeds, and the third-place finishers in each group started the playoff quarterfinals as low seeds.
The quarterfinals and semifinals are best-of-three and the grand final on Sunday is best-of-five.
The tournament champion will earn $100,000 and a berth in the $1 million Intel Extreme Masters Cologne scheduled for July 25-Aug. 6 in Germany. The Rio runner-up will receive $42,000.
On Friday, Vitality beat BIG 16-12 on both Nuke and Mirage for the sweep.
Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen of Denmark and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut had identical lines of 42 kills and a plus-11 kills-to-deaths differential to lead Vitality. Karim “Krimbo” Moussa led the all-German BIG squad with 38 kills.
In a tight battle, FURIA opened with a 16-12 victory on Inferno, but Heroic answered with a 16-12 triumph on Mirage and a 16-13 win on Ancient.
Martin “stavn” Lund carried the all-Danish Heroic roster with 70 kills and a plus-7 K-D. FURIA’s Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato of Brazil posted match highs of 71 kills and a plus-18 K-D.
The playoffs continue Saturday with two semifinal matches:
–Natus Vincere vs. Heroic
–Cloud9 vs. Team Vitality
Intel Extreme Masters Rio prize pool
1. $100,000, berth in IEM Cologne
2. $42,000
3-4. $20,000
5-6. $10,000 — FURIA Esports, BIG
7-8. $6,000 — Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG
9-12. $5,000 — 9INE, The MongolZ, Fnatic, FaZe Clan
13-16. $4,000 — MOUZ, Imperial Esports, 9z Team, MIBR
–Field Level Media