Falcons, Aurora clinch first berths into FISSURE Playground 2 playoffs

Team Falcons and Aurora Gaming were the first two teams to punch their tickets to the playoffs at the $500,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive FISSURE Playground No. 2 event on the strength of 2-0 sweeps during Monday's action in Belgrade, Serbia.

Falcons defeated FaZe Clan, and Aurora swept FURIA in the two Round 3 High matches to go 3-0 in the opening stage. They're exempt from Rounds 4 and 5. Meanwhile, the losers of the two Round 3 Low matches -- Lynn Vision Gaming and HEROIC -- were the first two eliminated from the competition.

The 16 teams are competing in an opening-round Swiss Stage -- essentially a triple-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches. From the third round on, high-match winners advance to the playoffs and low-match losers are eliminated.

The top eight teams will advance to the single-elimination playoffs, which begin Friday. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be best-of-three, while the grand final on Sept. 21 will be best-of-five.

The championship side will make $200,000, while the runner-up will receive $100,000.

On Monday, Team Falcons edged FaZe 13-11 on Nuke and 13-6 on Dust II. Nikola "NiKo" Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina starred for Falcons, scoring 36 kills on a plus-14 kills-to-deaths differential.

Aurora prevailed over FURIA 13-5 on Inferno and 13-11 on Dust II. Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dortkardes of Turkey paced all players with 45 kills and a plus-21 K-D for Aurora.

In the Low matches, Virtus.pro topped Lynn Vision Gaming 19-17 on Dust II and 13-10 on Train. Russia's Evgenii "FL1T" Lebedev led Virtus.pro with 49 kills and a plus-12 differential.

Team Liquid eliminated HEROIC with a 2-1 victory. Liquid won 13-8 on Ancient, suffered a 13-8 setback on Dust II and rounded it out with a 13-10 victory on Mirage. Israel's Guy "NertZ" Iluz had 57 kills and a plus-16 K-D to pace Liquid.

There were also four Round 3 Mid matches, the winners of which moved on to the Round 4 High matches while the losers dropped into the Low matches.

The MongolZ rallied past TYLOO 2-1; GamerLegion did the same against 3DMAX; G2 Esports crushed Legacy in a 2-0 sweep; and paiN Gaming beat Astralis 2-0, the latter map requiring overtime.

Tuesday's Round 4 Matches:

High Matches

--G2 Esports vs. GamerLegion

--FaZe Clan vs. The MongolZ

--FURIA vs. paiN Gaming

Low Matches

--3DMAX vs. Virtus.pro

--TYLOO vs. Team Liquid

--Astralis vs. Legacy

FISSURE Playground No. 2, Swiss Stage standings

1. Team Falcons, 3-0 (minus-1 Buchholz score)

2. Aurora Gaming, 3-0 (minus-1)

3. FaZe Clan, 2-1 (plus-3)

4. FURIA, 2-1 (plus-3)

5. G2 Esports, 2-1 (minus-3)

6. GamerLegion, 2-1 (minus-3)

7. paiN Gaming, 2-1 (minus-3)

8. The MongolZ, 2-1 (minus-5)

9. TYLOO, 1-2 (plus-5)

10. 3DMAX, 1-2 (plus-3)

11. Astralis, 1-2 (plus-3)

12. Legacy, 1-2 (plus-1)

13. Virtus.pro, 1-2 (minus-1)

14. Team Liquid, 1-2 (minus-1)

15. Lynn Vision Gaming, 0-3 (plus-1)

16. HEROIC, 0-3 (minus-1)

--Field Level Media