AMKAL squeak out win at BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown

AMKAL ESPORTS worked double overtime on the final map to beat Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 on Wednesday in the opening round of the BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown.

In the day's other round-of-16 matches, FaZe Clan defeated Rare Atom 2-0, and OG swept HEROIC 2-0.

The $135,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with 16 teams vying for the last two berths in the $425,000 BLAST Premier: Fall Final, scheduled for Sept. 25-29 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Team Spirit, Team Vitality, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere and Astralis already booked their spots in the Fall Final based on their results in the Fall Groups.

The top two teams in the Fall Showdown will each receive $20,000 and 900 BLAST Premier points in addition to the coveted trip to Copenhagen. The Fall Showdown features a single-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches.

On Wednesday, AMKAL opened with a 13-3 victory on Inferno before Ninjas in Pyjamas responded with a 13-3 win on Ancient. On the decisive third map, Vertigo, AMKAL prevailed 19-17 in double OT.

Aleksandr "TRAVIS" Timkiv led the all-Russian AMKAL lineup with 54 kills and a plus-8 kill-death differential. Sweden's Fredrik "REZ" Sterner topped Ninjas in Pyjamas with 55 kills and a plus-9 K-D differential.

OG got past HEROIC 13-10 on Anubis and 13-11 on Nuke thanks to 40 kills and a plus-11 K-D differential from Romania's Madalin-Andrei "MoDo" Mirea. Israel's Guy "NertZ" Iluz posted 34 kills and a plus-2 K-D differential for HEROIC.

FaZe Clan rolled past Rare Atom 13-8 on Inferno, 13-9 on Ancient.

Latvia's Helvijs "broky" Saukants amassed 34 kills for FaZe Clan, and Norwegian teammate Havard "rain" Nygaard had a plus-9 K-D differential.

China's HaoWen "somebody" Xu logged 33 kills for Rare Atom, while Malaysian teammate Andrew "kaze" Khong produced a plus-3 K-D differential.

OG and AMKAL will square off in the second round on Friday. FaZe Clan next plays on Saturday against either Cloud9 or paiN Gaming.

The remaining first-round matchups:

Thursday

--Team Falcons vs. M80

--Complexity Gaming vs. Metizport

--Virtus.pro vs. Zero Tenacity

Friday

--Cloud9 vs. paiN Gaming

--BIG vs. GamerLegion

BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown prize pool

1-2. $20,000, 900 BLAST Premier points, berth in BLAST Premier: Fall Final

3-4. $12,500, 600 BLAST Premier points

5-8. $7,500, 250 BLAST Premier points

9-16. $5,000, no BLAST Premier points -- Rare Atom, HEROIC, Ninjas in Pyjamas, five more teams TBD

--Field Level Media