BESTIA bounce back, move on at Thunderpick World Championship

BESTIA shook off a triple-overtime map loss to beat M80 2-1 on Friday and earn a quarterfinal berth at the Thunderpick World Championship in Berlin.

The last playoff positions were settled on Friday as all four groups played their decider matches. BESTIA rallied past M80 in D, and Fnatic edged Cloud9 2-1 in Group B. OG swept Virtus.pro 2-0 in Group A, and Imperial Esports eliminated Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in Group C.

The $850,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began Monday and runs through Nov. 3.

A series of qualifiers in Europe, North America and South America set the 16-team field for the World Championship. The teams are divided into four groups of four teams. Each group plays a double-elimination tournament (best-of-three format), with the group winner advancing to the quarterfinals and the second- and third-place teams playing a decider match for the group's other spot in the quarterfinals.

The single-elimination playoffs are best-of-three except for the final, which will be best-of-five. The championship team will take home $500,000, while the runner-up will get $150,000.

On Friday, M80 opened with a 22-20 triple-overtime win, but BESTIA came back to take Ancient 13-5 and Anubis 13-7. Argentina's Tomas "tomaszin" Corna logged 70 kills and a plus-24 kill-death differential for BESTIA. The United States' Michael "Swisher" Schmid produced 62 kills and a plus-4 K-D differential.

Fnatic took Anubis 13-8 before Cloud9 claimed Ancient 13-5. On the decisive third map, Nuke, Fnatic prevailed 13-9. Denmark's Benjamin "blameF" Bremer put up 45 kills and a plus-9 K-D differential for Fnatic. Israel's Nikita "HeavyGod" Martynenko wound up with 43 kills and a plus-2 K-D differential for Cloud9.

OG handled Virtus.pro 13-10 on Ancient and 16-14 in overtime on Dust II behind 47 kills and a plus-16 K-D differential for Poland's Maciej "F1KU" Miklas. Dzhami 'Jame' Ali finished with 37 kills and a plus-8 K-D differential for Virtus.pro's all-Russian roster.

Imperial Esports topped Ninjas in Pyjamas 13-2 on Dust II and 15-12 in overtime on Vertigo. Argentina's Santino "try" Rigal amassed 39 kills and a plus-18 K-D differential for Imperial, while Sweden's Fredrik "REZ" Sterner recorded 34 kills and a plus-3 K-D differential for Ninjas in Pyjamas.

The playoffs begin Saturday with the four quarterfinal matches:

--3D Max vs. BESTIA

--Imperial Esports vs. The MongolZ

--HEROIC vs. Fnatic

--OG vs. BIG

The semifinals are scheduled for Nov. 2, with the third-place match and grand final set for Nov. 3.

Thunderpick World Championship prize pool

1. $500,000

2. $150,000

3. $70,000

4. $50,000

5-8. $20,000

9-12. no money -- Virtus.pro, Cloud9, Ninjas in Pyjamas, M80

13-16. no money -- Team Falcons, 9z Team, Legacy, Aurora Gaming

--Field Level Media