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Cloud9, FaZe Clan and Monte kicked off the eight-team playoff stage with victories and moved into the semifinals of the Thunderpick World Championship on Friday.

Cloud9 swept BIG 2-0, FaZe stormed past MOUZ 2-1 and Monte topped Team Spirit 2-0. The losing sides were eliminated and finished tied for fifth place.

A fourth quarterfinal match features Virtus.pro and Heroic. Virtus.pro won the first map (Vertigo) 13-11 and trailed 9-7 on Overpass when the match was paused because Heroic’s players were experiencing internet connectivity issues. That match will resume Saturday.

Sixteen teams were divided into four double-elimination groups of four at the $500,000 event. The top two teams from each group advanced to the playoffs, a single-elimination bracket that concludes Sunday. All matches are best-of-three.

On Friday, Cloud9 beat BIG 13-6 on Inferno and 13-9 on Nuke. Kazakhstan’s Abay “HObbit” Khassenov led Cloud9 with 34 kills and a plus-10 kills-to-deaths differential. BIG got a team-high 30 kills from Poland’s Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski.

MOUZ opened their match with a 13-5 triumph on Vertigo, but FaZe leveled the contest with a 13-8 win on Nuke before blasting MOUZ 13-4 on Ancient to clinch the match. FaZe relied on Helvijs “broky” Saukants of Latvia (47 kills, plus-11) and Canadian Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken (45 kills, plus-8). For MOUZ, Slovakia’s David “frozen” Cernansky had 47 kills on a plus-10.

Monte fended off Team Spirit 13-8 on Nuke and 16-12 in overtime on Vertigo. Poland’s Szymon “kRaSnaL” Mrozek starred for Monte with 46 kills on a plus-17 K-D. Russian Danil “donk” Kryshkovets led Spirit with 38 kills.

The playoff stage continues Saturday with three matches:
–Heroic vs. Virtus.pro (completion of suspended quarterfinal match)
–Cloud9 vs. FaZe Clan (semifinals)
–Monte vs. Heroic-Virtus.pro winner (semifinals)

Thunderpick World Championship prize pool
1. $250,000
2. $100,000
3-4. $50,000
5-8. $12,500 — BIG, Team Spirit, MOUZ, one team TBD
9-12. no prize money — Fnatic, SAW, Complexity Gaming, FURIA Esports
13-16. no prize money — Ninjas in Pyjamas, Wildcard Gaming, M80, Nouns Esports

–Field Level Media