FURIA, Team Vitality advance to grand final at IEM Krakow

FURIA and Team Vitality posted semifinal victories Saturday to advance to Sunday's grand final at the Intel Extreme Masters Krakow tournament in Poland.

In the first semifinal, FURIA handled Team Spirit 2-1, then Team Vitality swept MOUZ 2-0 to move on to the grand final.

The $1 million Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament started with 24 teams, with 16 teams advancing to a double-elimination group stage involving best-of-three matches. The group winners earned spots in the playoff semifinals and the group runners-up and third-place teams advanced to the quarterfinals.

The playoffs consist of a single-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches until the grand final on Sunday, which will be best-of-five. The championship team will receive $400,000, and the runner-up will get $180,000.

On Saturday, FURIA opened with a hard-fought 16-13 victory in overtime on Mirage, but Team Spirit evened it up with a 13-8 win on Dust II. FURIA bounced back to advance on a 13-7 victory on Nuke. Danil "molodoy" Golubenko of Kazakhstan guided FURIA with a 65-44 kill-death ratio.

Team Vitality had a much easier time, posting a 13-7 win on Nuke and a 13-6 victory on Dust II to quickly finish off MOUZ. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut of France led the way for Team Vitality, notching a K-D ratio of 40-19.

The tournament continues Sunday with two matches:

--Grand final: FURIA vs. Team Vitality

--Third-place match: Team Spirit vs. MOUZ

Intel Extreme Masters Krakow prize pool

1. $400,000

2. $180,000

3. $100,000

4. $60,000

5-6. $40,000 -- Aurora Gaming, G2 Esports

7-8. $24,000 -- Astralis, Team Falcons

9-12. $16,000 -- Natus Vincere, FUT Esports, FaZe Clan, 3DMAX

13-16. $10,000 -- The MongolZ, PARIVISION, BC.Game Esports, NRG

17-20. $4,500 -- GamerLegion, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Liquid, paiN Gaming

21-24. $2,500 -- Passion UA, Legacy, B8, HEROIC

--Field Level Media