FaZe Clan and MOUZ each earned quarterfinal victories on Friday at the Intel Extreme Masters Dallas.
FaZe pulled off a comeback 2-1 win over G2 Esports while MOUZ swept Astralis 2-0, with both victors having qualified from their respective lower brackets in the prior group stage — MOUZ out of Group A and FaZe from Group B.
The semifinal matchups on Saturday will pit FaZe against ENCE, the Group B playoff champion, while MOUZ will take on Heroic, the top seed out of Group A.
ENCE swept FaZe 2-0 on Tuesday in the upper-bracket semifinals in Group B, and Heroic did the same to MOUZ on Monday in Group A’s upper-bracket semis.
The $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event opened on Monday with 16 teams divided into two double-elimination groups. The opening matches consisted of a single map, while all remaining matches in the tournament are best-of-three.
The group winners headed straight to the semifinals of the single-elimination playoffs. The second-place teams in each group were placed as high seeds in the quarterfinals, and the third-place teams in each group were the low seeds in the quarters.
The grand final is scheduled for Sunday, with the champion receiving $100,000, 2,400 BLAST Premier points and a berth in the $1 million Intel Extreme Masters Cologne, scheduled for July 25-Aug. 6 in Germany.
FaZe Clan were forced to rally after a tough loss on their opening map. They dropped a 16-14 decision after bolting to a 7-0 lead and also holding a 14-12 edge on Ancient. But FaZe were unfazed, charging to a 9-0 advantage before claiming Inferno 16-6 to even the match. They then cruised to win 16-10 on Mirage to advance.
Robin “ropz” Kool of Estonia had a match-high 64 kills for FaZe, tying Latvian teammate Helvijs “broky” Saukants with a plus-21 kill-to-death differential. Russia’s Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov led G2 with 62 kills.
The first map of the MOUZ-Astralis battle was a thriller that included five lead changes, with MOUZ fighting back from 7-1 and 15-12 deficits for a 22-20 double-overtime win on Inferno. MOUZ then broke open a close match on Ancient with a map-ending 5-0 run for a 16-9 triumph.
German Jon “JDC” de Castro led MOUZ with 51 kills while Hungarian teammate Adam “torzsi” Torzsas had a team-best plus-12 K/D ratio. Denmark’s Nicolai “device” Reedtz led all players on both sides with 55 kills, also notching a plus-12 K/D differential.
Intel Extreme Masters Dallas prize pool and BLAST Premier points distribution
1. $100,000, 2,400 points, berth in Intel Extreme Masters Cologne
2. $42,000, 1,200 points
3-4. $20,000, 750 points
5-6. $10,000, 225 points — Astralis, G2 Esports
7-8. $6,000, 225 points — OG, Cloud9
9-12. $5,000, no points — 9z Team, FURIA Esports, Complexity Gaming, Team Liquid
13-16. $4,000, no points — Fnatic, Nouns Esports, Evil Geniuses, Grayhound Gaming
–Field Level Media
