Team Vitality and Team Spirit rode sweeping wins into the grand final of Intel Extreme Masters Katowice event in Poland on Saturday.
Those teams will meet for the title on Sunday.
Vitality eliminated The MongolZ with victories on Mirage (13-7) and Nuke (13-9).
Mathieu “ZywOo) Herbaut of France led the winners with 41 kills and a plus-18 kill-death differential. Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren led the all-Mongolia team with 29 kills. Nobody on the squad had a positive KD differential.
Spirit’s win over Natus Vincere ended with a bit of drama. After Spirit took the first map, Mirage, 13-8, the action on Dust II went down to the wire, with Spirit winning 16-14.
Russia’s Danil “donk” Kryshkovets posted 55 kills and a plus-19 KD differential. Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy of Ukraine led Natus Vincere with 38 kills and a plus-4 KD.
Group play in the $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event featured 16 teams 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 will be a best-of-five match. The champion will earn $400,000.
Intel Extreme Masters Katowice prize pool:
1. $400,000
2. $180,000
3-4. $80,000 — The MongolZ, Natus Vincere
5-6. $40,000 — Eternal Fire, Virtus.pro
7-8. $24,000 — FaZe Clan, GamerLegion
9-12. $16,000 — 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
