The MongolZ and Ninjas in Pyjamas will meet on Sunday in the grand final of the YaLLA Compass event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
In the semifinals on Saturday, the MongolZ opened with a 2-1 win over Astralis, and the Ninjas took out FURIA Esports in the second match, 2-0.
Sunday’s winner will claim $200,000 of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event’s $400,000 prize pool.
The MongolZ and Astralis split the first two maps, with the former winning 13-7 on Nuke and the latter prevailing 13-6 on Mirage. On Ancient, the deciding map, the teams battled to a 15-15 tie and into overtime. The MongolZ were able to break away from an 18-18 tie for a 22-19 victory.
Usukhbayar “910” Banzragch of the all-Mongolia lineup led the winners with 71 kills and a kills-deaths differential of plus-22, while Martin “stavn” Lund paced the All-Danish Astralis team with 70 kills and a plus-16 differential.
The Ninjas prevailed on Ancient and Nuke by identical scores of 13-7. Artem “r1nkle” Moroz of Ukraine and Fredrik “REZ” Sterner of Sweden had 34 kills apiece for the Ninjas, and r1nkle led with a plus-16 differential. Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes of the all-Brazilian lineup posted 26 kills for FURIA, while none of their players finished with a positive differential.
YaLLa Compass prize pool
1. $200,000
2. $56,000
3-4. $28,000 — Astralis, FURIA Esports
5-6. $20,000 — BetBoom Team, Fnatic
7-8. $8,000 — HEROIC, Complexity Gaming
9-10. $8,000 — ENCE, Eternal Fire
11-12. $8,000 — Sashi Esport, BIG
–Field Level Media