G2 Esports, Eternal Fire, Natus Vincere and The MongolZ opened Group B action with wins at the BLAST Open Spring tournament on Thursday in Copenhagen, Denmark.
G2, Eternal Fire and NaVi each won in 2-0 sweeps over Imperial Esports, Team Liquid and FURIA, respectively. Meanwhile, The MongolZ outlasted M80 2-1 in the last of the four upper-bracket quarterfinals.
The $400,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event starts with the 16 teams divided into two groups for double-elimination play. The group winners move into the playoff semifinals, the group runners-up head to the quarterfinals as high seeds and the third-place teams in each group become the low seeds in the quarterfinals.
All group-stage matches are best-of-three.
The single-elimination playoffs, to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, begin March 28. All playoff matches are best-of-three until the grand final on March 30, which will be best-of-five. The winning team will earn $150,000.
On Thursday, G2 defeated Imperial 13-8 on Mirage and 13-11 on Inferno. Nemanja “huNter-” Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina had a day to remember for G2, racking up 56 kills on a massive plus-32 kills-to-deaths differential.
The all-Turkish Eternal Fire squad defeated Team Liquid by 13-7 scores on Dust II and Anubis. They were led by Engin “MAJ3R” Kupeli, who had 35 kills on a plus-15 K-D.
NaVi earned a 16-12 overtime win on Anubis before finishing off FURIA 13-8 on Mirage. Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy of Ukraine guided NaVi with 36 kills on a plus-4 K-D.
The MongolZ sandwiched a 13-11 win on Dust II and a 13-3 victory on Inferno around a 13-11 setback to M80 on Ancient. Sodbayar “Techno” Munkhbold of Mongolia led the victors with 51 kills and a plus-16 differential.
The tournament continues Friday with four Group A matches:
–Team Spirit vs. MOUZ (upper-bracket semifinals)
–Virtus.pro vs. Team Vitality (upper-bracket semifinals)
–The Huns Esports vs. Team Falcons (lower-bracket quarterfinals)
–FaZe Clan vs. Astralis (lower-bracket quarterfinals)
BLAST Open Spring prize pool
1. $150,000
2. $60,000
3-4. $40,000
5-6. $20,000
7-8. $10,000
9-12. $7,500
13-16. $5,000
–Field Level Media
