FURIA, G2 survive and advance at Esports World Cup

FURIA Esports grabbed the final playoff berth by sweeping through the resurrection stage of the $1 million CS:GO tournament at the Esports World Cup on Thursday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

FURIA earned the eighth and final spot in the quarterfinals, while G2 Esports became the first team to advance one step further to the semifinals of the single-elimination bracket.

The tournament began Wednesday with seven qualification matches to determine who would advance directly to the playoffs and who would head to the play-in, or so-called resurrection stage. The seven losing teams joined Middle Eastern qualifier JiJieHao in the resurrection stage, a do-or-die bracket where all matches were best-of-one.

FURIA Esports defeated FlyQuest 13-5 on Nuke to open the day. They ran into Sashi Esport in the semifinals and pulled off a 19-15, double-overtime win on Nuke. FURIA star Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato of Brazil put up 29 kills on a plus-10 kills-to-deaths differential.

In the resurrection stage final, FURIA faced The MongolZ and once again played on Nuke. FURIA prevailed 13-9, with KSCERATO posting 20 kills and the team's only positive K-D (plus-8).

Next, FURIA will face MOUZ in the quarterfinals of the playoff stage, where all matches are best-of-three.

The first playoff quarterfinal match saw G2 defeat Team Spirit 2-1. G2 sandwiched a 13-8 win on Mirage and a 13-5 rout on Ancient around a 16-14 overtime loss on Nuke. Cousins Nikola "NiKo" Kovac and Nemanja "huNter-" Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina each tallied 56 kills for G2.

The winning team will earn a $400,000 top prize along with 1,000 Esports World Cup points for their club.

The tournament continues Friday with three quarterfinal matches:

--Team Vitality vs. Virtus.pro

--Natus Vincere vs. FaZe Clan

--MOUZ vs. FURIA Esports

Esports World Cup CS:GO prize pool (money, club points)

1. $400,000, 1,000 points

2. $175,000, 600

3-4. $85,000, 275

5-8. $40,000, 60 -- Team Spirit, three teams TBD

9. $25,000, no points -- The MongolZ

10-11. $15,000, no points -- Sashi Esport, M80

12-15. $10,000, no points -- JiJieHao, FlyQuest, MIBR, Complexity Gaming

--Field Level Media