Action gets underway at $300K IEM Chengdu event

Competition started Monday at the $300,000 Intel Extreme Masters Chengdu 25 tournament in China.

Sixteen Counter-Strike 2 teams are competing in this week's competition for a top prize of $125,000.

The double-elimination group stage began Monday with two groups of eight teams, with all matches best-of-three. The group winners advance to the playoff semifinals, with the group runners-up entering the quarterfinals as high seeds and the third-place teams entering the quarterfinals as low seeds.

The single-elimination playoffs start Friday with all matches best-of-three until Sunday's best-of-five grand final.

In Group A's upper-bracket quarterfinals Monday, Team Falcons swept TYLOO and Team Spirit swept paiN Gaming. The MongolZ defeated HEROIC and Astralis beat Natus Vincere, both by 2-1 scores.

In Group B's upper-bracket quarterfinals, FURIA swept Lynn Vision Gaming, G2 Esports swept 3DMAX and MOUZ swept FaZe Clan. Team Vitality rallied for a 2-1 win against Virtus.pro.

The tournament continues Tuesday with eight more matches:

Group A upper-bracket semifinals:

--The MongolZ vs. Astralis

--Team Falcons vs. Team Spirit

Group A lower-bracket quarterfinals:

--HEROIC vs. Natus Vincere

--TYLOO vs. paiN Gaming

Group B upper-bracket semifinals:

--FURIA vs. G2 Esports

--MOUZ vs. Team Vitality

Group B lower-bracket quarterfinals:

--Lynn Vision Gaming vs. 3DMAX

--FaZe Clan vs. Virtus.pro

IEM Chengdu prize pool:

1. $125,000

2. $50,000

3. $30,000

4. $20,000

5-6. $12,500

7-8. $7,000

9-12. $5,000

13-16. $4,000

--Field Level Media