BetBoom Team and Aurora Gaming became the first two teams to punch their tickets to the playoffs following wins at the PGL Wallachia Season 8 on Monday in Bucharest, Romania.
BetBoom defeated Team Falcons and Aurora outlasted PARIVISION, both by 2-1 scores. In doing so, BetBoom and Aurora went 3-0 through the first three days of the group stage, enough to lock up their spots in the next round.
The $1 million Dota 2 tournament began Saturday with 16 teams in the Swiss-system group stage, which concludes Wednesday. Eight teams advance to the double-elimination playoffs on April 23-26. All matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final.
On Monday, BetBoom fell to Falcons in 47 minutes while playing on green before bouncing back with a 51-minute win on red and a 41-minute victory on green. Russian teammates Ilya “Kiritych” Ulyanov and Danil “gpk” Skutin each tallied 34 kills across the three maps for BetBoom, with Kiritych notching 18 kills, zero deaths and eight assists on the do-or-die third map.
Playing on red throughout the closely-played match, Aurora prevailed in 50 minutes, fell to PARIVISION in 54 minutes and triumphed in 52 minutes. Indonesia’s Rafli “Mikoto” Fathur Rahman averaged a 13.0-2.0-15.3 kills-deaths-assists ratio for Aurora.
Monday also saw the first two eliminations of the tournament. Natus Vincere knocked out Team Yandex 2-1, losing in 25 minutes on red before working for a pair of 44-minute wins on green. MOUZ beat Tundra Esports 2-1 as well, sandwiching 38- and 41-minute wins on green around a 45-minute loss, also on green.
Those were the two “0-2 matches” of the day, while four matchups pitted opponents with 1-1 records. GamerLegion swept Team Spirit 2-0, HEROIC did the same to Virtus.pro, Team Liquid edged Vici Gaming 2-1 and South America Rejects beat Xtreme Gaming 2-1.
The tournament continues Tuesday with six Round 4 matches:
2-1 teams:
–Team Liquid vs. HEROIC
–Team Falcons vs. GamerLegion
–PARIVISION vs. South America Rejects
1-2 teams:
–Team Spirit vs. Natus Vincere
–Xtreme Gaming vs. Vici Gaming
–Virtus.pro vs. MOUZ
PGL Wallachia Season 8 prize pool:
1. $300,000 — TBD
2. $175,000 — TBD
3. $120,000 — TBD
4. $80,000 — TBD
5-6. $60,000 — TBD
7-8. $40,000 — TBD
9-11. $20,000 — TBD
12-14. $15,000 — TBD
15-16. $10,000 — Team Yandex, Tundra Esports
–Field Level Media
