Aurora earn playoff berth at CCT Global Finals

Aurora edged SAW 2-1 on Friday to claim the second and final playoff berth out of Group A at the Champion of Champions Tour Season 1 Global Finals.

Eternal Fire had already claimed first place in Group A, and PARIVISION were already eliminated. That left Aurora and SAW to compete in the decider match.

Aurora opened with a 13-8 win on Nuke before SAW claimed Dust II 16-13 in overtime. Aurora then sealed advancement with a 16-14 overtime decision on Ancient.

Russia's Evgeny "r3salt" Frolov paced Aurora with 68 kills while producing a plus-17 kill-death differential. Rafael "arrozdoce" Wing posted 68 kills and a plus-10 K-D differential for SAW's all-Portuguese roster.

The CCT Season 1 Global Finals split 16 teams into four double-elimination groups of four. The top two teams out of each group will advance to the single-elimination playoff bracket. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final May 23, which is best-of-five.

The winner will receive half of the $500,000 prize pool.

The other matches on Friday were the beginning of Group B.

In opening matches, Fnatic swept ENCE 2-0, and GamerLegion edged Gaimin Gladiators 2-1. ENCE subsequently eliminated Gaimin Gladiators 2-0.

Fnatic prevailed 13-10 on Ancient and 13-8 on Anubis thanks to 45 kills and a plus-19 K-D differential from Slovakia's Matus "MATYS" Simko. Poland's Olek "hades" Miskiewicz registered 33 kills and a plus-7 K-D differential for ENCE.

GamerLegion took Vertigo 13-8 before Gaimin Gladiators captured Dust II 13-9. The decisive third map, Nuke, went to GamerLegion 16-14 in overtime. Poland's Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski had 59 kills and a plus-16 K-D differential for GamerLegion. Jonas "Queenix" Dideriksen wound up with 52 kills and a plus-2 K-D differential for Gaimin Gladiators.

In the elimination match, ENCE topped the Gladiators 13-4 on Vertigo and 13-9 on Dust II behind 42 kills and a plus-24 K-D differential from Poland's Pawel "dycha" Dycha. Queenix logged 31 kills and a plus-1 K-D differential for Gaimin.

The tournament continues Saturday with four matches:

--Fnatic vs. GamerLegion (Group B winners match)

--ENCE vs. the Fnatic-GamerLegion loser (Group B decider match)

--paiN Gaming vs. AMKAL ESPORTS (Group C opening round)

--Team Liquid vs. OG (Group C opening round)

CCT Season 1 Global Finals prize pool

1. $250,000 -- TBD

2. $100,000 -- TBD

3-4. $50,000 -- TBD

5-8. $12,500 -- TBD

9-12. no money -- TBD

13-16. no money -- PARIVISION, three teams TBD

--Field Level Media