FURIA Esports and Cloud9 posted identical 2-1 wins to move on to the semifinals in the Intel Extreme Masters Season XVII – Dallas on Friday.
FURIA will take on ENCE, the Group A upper bracket winner, in one semifinal on Saturday. Cloud9 draws BIG, the Group B upper bracket winner, in Saturday’s other semifinal.
Those winners go on to meet in the grand final on Sunday.
The $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with 16 teams divided into two groups for the double-elimination opening stage.
The first-round matches were best-of-one. All other matches through the group stage and the playoffs are best-of-three except for the final on Sunday, which will use a best-of-five format. The championship side will receive $100,000, 1,000 ESL Pro Tour points and 2,400 BLAST Premier points.
On Friday, FURIA fell behind G2 Esports with a 16-13 loss on Inferno. But they responded with back-to-back wins on Vertigo (19-17) and Mirage (16-5) to take the match.
Yuri “yuurih” Santos led the All-Brazilian FURIA team with 76 kills and a plus-18 kill-death differential. Nikola “NiKo” Kovac of Bosnia-Herzegovina finished with 65 kills and a plus-five for G2, which had survived the Group A lower bracket.
Cloud9 followed a similar path to victory in taking on FaZe Clan, the Group A upper-bracket runner-up. FaZe won 16-14 on Overpass, before Cloud9 bounced back with 16-13 wins on Inferno and Mirage.
Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov of Russia led Cloud9 with 85 kills and a plus-28 differential. Robin “ropz” Kool of Estonia had 64 kills and a plus-six differential to lead FaZe.
Intel Extreme Masters Season XVII – Dallas prize pool and points distribution
1. $100,000, 1,000 ESL Pro Tour points, 2,400 BLAST Premier points
2. $42,000, 750 ESL Pro Tour points, 1,200 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $20,000, 525 ESL Pro Tour points, 750 BLAST Premier points
5-6. $10,000, 350 ESL Pro Tour points, 225 BLAST Premier points — G2 Esports, FaZe Clan
7-8. $6,000, 200 ESL Pro Tour points, 225 BLAST Premier points — Team Vitality, Team Liquid
9-12. $5,000, 100 ESL Pro Tour points, no BLAST Premier points — Astralis, MOUZ, MIBR, Ninjas in Pyjamas
13-16. $4,000, no ESL Pro Tour points, no BLAST Premier points — Movistar Riders, Encore Esports Club, Imperial Esports, Complexity Gaming
–Field Level Media
