Team Vitality swept The MongolZ 2-0 in the upper-bracket final of Group B to polish off a flawless performance in the group stage of the ESL Pro League Season 19 on Sunday in Saint Julian’s, Malta.
Both Vitality and MongolZ will compete in the playoff stage, but Vitality earned a bye into the quarterfinals by prevailing 13-10 on Mirage and 13-6 on Nuke to win all six maps they played in Group B. Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut of France starred for Vitality as usual, putting up 48 kills on a plus-25 kills-to-deaths differential.
Sunday’s action also featured a pair of win-or-go-home lower-bracket finals.
In Group A, Virtus.pro defeated SAW 13-3 on Vertigo and 13-10 on Overpass. Russian Petr “fame” Bolyshev led Virtus.pro’s balanced attack with 39 kills on a plus-18 K-D.
And in Group B, G2 Esports got past M80 in two maps. The first required a lengthy overtime period before G2 won 22-20 on Ancient; they finished up with a 13-6 victory on Inferno. G2 got 52 kills on a plus-7 K-D from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Nemanja “huNter-” Kovac, along with 48 kills and a plus-5 from his cousin Nikola “NiKo” Kovac.
SAW and M80 were eliminated from the tournament.
The $750,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Group-stage winners advance to the quarterfinals; runners-up advance to the Round of 12 as the high seeds; third-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the high seeds; and fourth-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the low seeds.
The group stage is triple-elimination with upper, middle and lower brackets. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final, which is best-of-five.
The tournament runs through May 12. The winner earns $170,000 and qualifies for the IEM Cologne 2024 event.
Groups C and D will begin play Tuesday.
ESL Pro League Season 19 prize pool
1. $170,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points — TBD
2. $80,000, 1,400 points — TBD
3-4. $45,000, 750 points — TBD
5-8. $32,000, 275 points — TBD
9-12. $23,500 — TBD
13-16. $17,500 — TBD
17-20. $12,000 — SAW, M80, two teams TBD
21-28. $7,000 — Fnatic, Eternal Fire, Team Falcons, TYLOO, four teams TBD
29-32. $3,500 — Imperial Esports, Sharks Esports, two teams TBD
–Field Level Media