Falcons, Complexity, Virtus.pro advance at BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown

Team Falcons, Complexity Gaming and Virtus.pro earned 2-0 sweeps in their first matches of the BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown on Thursday.

Team Falcons got by M80, Complexity eliminated Metizport and Virtus.pro did the same to Zero Tenacity to advance to the quarterfinals.

The $135,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with 16 teams vying for the last two berths in the $425,000 BLAST Premier: Fall Final, scheduled for Sept. 25-29 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Team Spirit, Team Vitality, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere and Astralis already booked their spots in the Fall Final based on their results in the Fall Groups.

The top two teams in the Fall Showdown will each receive $20,000 and 900 BLAST Premier points in addition to the coveted trip to Copenhagen. The Fall Showdown features a single-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches.

On Thursday, Falcons beat M80 13-9 on Ancient before eking out a 16-14 overtime victory on Dust II. Spaniard Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia led Falcons with 40 kills and a plus-16 kills-to-deaths differential.

Complexity blasted Metizport 13-3 on ancient before earning a 16-12 overtime win on Vertigo. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski of the U.S. scored 51 kills on a plus-26 K-D as all five Complexity players finished with positive differentials.

Virtus.pro took down Zero Tenacity 13-11 on Anubis and 13-8 on Dust II. Petr "fame" Bolyshev led the all-Russian Virtus.pro roster with 39 kills and a plus-16.

The tournament continues Friday with three matches:

--Cloud9 vs. paiN Gaming (Round of 16)

--BIG vs. GamerLegion (Round of 16)

--OG vs. AMKAL Esports (quarterfinals)

BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown prize pool

1-2. $20,000, 900 BLAST Premier points, berth in BLAST Premier: Fall Final

3-4. $12,500, 600 BLAST Premier points

5-8. $7,500, 250 BLAST Premier points

9-16. $5,000, no BLAST Premier points -- Rare Atom, HEROIC, Ninjas in Pyjamas, M80, Metizport, Zero Tenacity, two teams TBD

--Field Level Media