BetBoom, GamerLegion bounce back in IEM Atlanta openers

BetBoom Team and GamerLegion rallied for wins on Monday as the Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta event got underway.

The day's other six matches all ended in 2-0 sweeps.

The $300,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event features 16 teams divided into two groups for the double-elimination opening round. The group winners will head to the playoff semifinals. The group runners-up will move to the playoff quarterfinals as high seeds, and the third-place team from each group will head to the playoff quarterfinals as low seeds.

All matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final on Sunday. The winning side will receive $125,000.

In the Group A upper-bracket quarterfinals on Monday, B8 opened with a 16-14 overtime win on Mirage before BetBoom Team rebounded to capture Nuke 13-8 and Dust II 13-5.

Kirill "Magnojez" Rodnov paced all-Russian BetBoom Team with 53 kills and a plus-10 kill-death differential. Andrii "npl" Kukharskyi recorded 51 kills and an even K-D differential for all-Ukrainian B8.

The other Group A upper-bracket quarterfinals saw Team Vitality top BC.Game Esports, paiN Gaming get past FaZe Clan, and FUT Esports defeat NRG.

In the Group B upper-bracket quarterfinals, SINNERS Esports couldn't hold on after a 13-10 victory on Mirage. GamerLegion responded with a 13-9 win on Inferno and a 13-8 triumph on Nuke.

Sweden's Fredrik "REZ" Sterner produced 53 kills and a plus-12 K-D differential for GamerLegion. North Macedonia's Jordan "stressarN" Manevski posted 45 kills and a minus-1 K-D differential for SINNERS Esports.

Rounding out the Group B upper-bracket quarterfinals, Natus Vincere bested Passion UA, Legacy dumped M80, and Astralis downed Team Liquid.

The Tuesday schedule:

Group A upper-bracket semifinals

--Team Vitality vs. BetBoom Team

--paiN Gaming vs. FUT Esports

Group A lower-bracket quarterfinals

--BC.Game Esports vs. B8

--FaZe Clan vs. NRG

Group B upper-bracket semifinals

--Natus Vincere vs. GamerLegion

--Legacy vs. Astralis

Group B lower-bracket quarterfinals

--Passion UA vs. SINNERS Esports

--M80 vs. Team Liquid

Intel Extreme Masters Atlanta 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