G2, Team Liquid advance to group finals at BLAST Fall Groups

G2 Esports and Team Liquid both went the distance in the upper-bracket finals of their respective groups on Thursday at the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 event in Copenhagen, Denmark.

G2 rallied for a 2-1 victory over FaZe Clan to reach the Group C grand final, while Liquid pulled out a 2-1 win over Natus Vincere in Group D to advance to the grand final there. The losing sides are still alive, having dropped into the lower brackets.

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event began with a double-elimination group stage, with the field split into four groups of four teams. All matches are best-of-three.

The winners of each group will advance directly to the Fall Final. The four second-place teams will proceed to the play-in stage, a pair of single-elimination, best-of-three matches to determine the remaining two berths for the Fall Final.

On Thursday, FaZe Clan opened with a 13-9 win on Ancient but G2 responded with matching 13-6 results on Nuke and Mirage. Nemanja "huNter-" Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina paced G2 with 53 kills and a plus-16 kills-to-deaths ratio.

In Group D, Liquid sandwiched tight 13-11 wins on Anubis and Inferno around a 13-2 setback to NaVi on Mirage. Keith 'NAF' Markovic of Canada led Liquid with 52 kills on a plus-12 K-D.

The lower brackets in Groups C and D also got underway Thursday. In Group C, Ninjas in Pyjamas stormed back to defeat Cloud9 2-1, losing 13-4 on Mirage before winning 13-11 on both Ancient and Anubis. Ukraine's Artem "r1nkle" Moroz posted 48 kills on a plus-17 to guide Ninjas.

In the Group D lower-bracket opener, BIG eliminated Virtus.pro 2-1. BIG opened with a 13-11 victory on Dust II before Virtus.pro triumphed 13-10 on Mirage. On the decisive map, Ancient, BIG pulled away 13-7. Florian "syrsoN" Rische of Germany finished with 51 kills (plus-15) for the winners.

Group-stage play continues Friday with the four lower-bracket finals:

--HEROIC vs. Complexity Gaming (Group A)

--Astralis vs. Team Falcons (Group B)

--FaZe Clan vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas (Group C)

--Natus Vincere vs. BIG (Group D)

BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 prize pool (money, BLAST Premier points):

1-4. $22,500, 2,400 points, qualifies to Fall Final

5-6. $12,500, 1,800 points, qualifies to Fall Final

7-8. $10,500, 1,300 points, qualifies to Fall Showdown

9-12. $8,500, 800 points, qualifies to Fall Showdown

13-16. $5,000, 300 points, qualifies to Fall Showdown -- OG, Gamer Legion, Cloud9, Virtus.pro

--Field Level Media