Astralis remains unbeaten, advances to ESL Pro League playoffs

Astralis swept 3DMAX 2-0 in the Group A upper-bracket final in Saint Julian's, Malta, on Saturday as both teams qualified for the ESL Pro League Season 19 playoffs.

Astralis had little trouble in the match, winning 13-7 on Inferno and 13-3 on Ancient in improving to 6-0 on maps so far in the event. Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard led all players with 41 kills while Nicolai "device" Reedtz had a match-high plus-23 kill-death differential for the all-Danish Astralis side.

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.

Also Saturday, Virtus.pro swept Fnatic and SAW did the same to Eternal Fire as both clubs advanced to the Group A lower-bracket final to be played Sunday.

In the Group B lower-bracket semifinals, a pair of clubs pulled off reverse sweeps to advance to their finals.

G2 Esports fell 16-13 in overtime on Vertigo to open its match against Team Falcons but responded with a 13-3 win on Anubis and 13-5 win on Nuke to take the match.

In the other semi, M80 fell 13-7 on Inferno to TYLOO but won 13-3 on Ancient and 13-1 on Overpass to set up Sunday's final date with G2.

Group play continues on Sunday:

--Group A lower-bracket final: Virtus.pro vs. SAW

--Group B upper-bracket final: Team Vitality vs. The MongolZ

--Group B lower-bracket final: G2 Esports vs. M80

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 -- 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