Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

Team Vitality knocked out Team Spirit in three straight maps to win the grand final of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice event in Poland on Sunday.

Vitality claimed the top prize of $460,000, which was revised upward from $400,000 over the weekend. Spirit pocketed $216,000 as the runner-up.

Vitality rolled to 13-6 and 13-5 wins on Dust II and Nuke to start the grand final, and then led 11-4 on Mirage before hanging on for the clinching 13-11 victory.

Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut of France led the winners with 67 kills and a plus-38 kill-death differential. Russia’s Danil “donk” Kryshkovets posted 40 kills, but nobody on the Spirit squad had a plus KD differential.

Group play in the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event featured 16 teams that were split into two double-elimination brackets, with all matches best-of-three. The two group-phase winners advanced directly to the playoff semifinals; the two group-phase runners-up moved to the quarterfinals as high seeds; and the two third-place teams made the quarterfinals as low seeds.

The playoffs were single elimination, with best-of-three matches for the quarterfinals and semifinals. Sunday’s grand final was the only use of a best-of-five format in the competition.

Intel Extreme Masters Katowice prize pool:
1. $460,000 — Team Vitality
2. $216,000 — Team Spirit
3-4. $108,000 — The MongolZ, Natus Vincere
5-6. $61,000 — Eternal Fire, Virtus.pro
7-8. $38,000 — FaZe Clan, GamerLegion
9-12. $23,000 — G2 Esports, 3DMAX, Astralis, Team Liquid
13-16. $10,000 — Team Falcons, BIG, FURIA Esports, MOUZ
17-20. $4,500 — Wildcard, paiN Gaming, MIBR, HEROIC
21-24. $2,500 — Complexity, FlyQuest, SAW, Imperial Female

–Field Level Media