Team Liquid and MOUZ rolled into the upper bracket final in Group A on Day 1 of the IEM Chengdu event in China on Monday.
In Group B, FaZe Clan vs. Astralis and FlyQuest vs. Virtus.pro are set to square off in the upper bracket semifinals.
Sixteen teams in two groups are vying for the $250,000 prize pool in the one-week tournament that will end Sunday. All of Monday’s opening-round matches were best-of-one. The top three teams from each group in the double-elimination group stage advance to the playoffs. Group stage winners advance to the semifinals, runners-up move on to the quarterfinals as the high seeds and the third-place teams advance to the quarters as the low seeds.
The playoffs are single elimination and all matches best-of-three.
On Monday in Group A, Liquid beat G2 Esports 2-1 to advance to the upper bracket final. Liquid won 13-6 on Ancient before losing on Anubis, 13-10. Liquid clinched with a 13-9 win on Inferno. Canada’s Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken led Liquid with 57 kills and a plus-21 kills-to-deaths differential.
MOUZ had to rally from a map down to advance, as FURIA Esports opened with a 13-8 win on Nuke. MOUZ then took Vertigo 16-14 in overtime and clinched on Mirage, 13-9. Adam “torzsi” Torzsas of Hungary led MOUZ with 58 kills and a plus-13 K-D differential.
FURIA and G2 dropped to the lower bracket semifinals.
In Group B, FaZe Clan defeated Nemiga Gaming 13-8 to advance to the upper semifinals. Astralis crushed Steel Helmet 13-2, FlyQuest downed Cloud9 13-6, and Virtus.pro blasted Wildcard Gaming 13-1 to advance.
Group action continues Tuesday with six matches:
FURIA Esports vs. HEROIC (Group A lower bracket semis)
G2 Esports vs. Lynn Vision (Group A lower bracket semis)
FaZe Clan vs. Astralis (Group B upper bracket semis)
FlyQuest vs. Virtus.pro (Group upper bracket semis)
Nemiga Gaming vs. Steel Helmet (Group B lower bracket semis)
Cloud9 vs. Wildcard Gaming (Group B lower bracket semis)
IEG Chengdu prize pool:
1. $100,000, 1,400 BLAST Premier points, qualification to IEM Cologne 2024
2. 42,000, 1,000 BLAST Premier points
3-4. $20,000, 600 BLAST Premier points
5-6. $10,000, 400 BLAST Premier points
7-8. $6,000, 300 BLAST Premier points
9-12. $5,000
13-16. $4,000
–Field Level Media
