Liquid, Gaimin Gladiators close in on PGL Wallachia final

Team Liquid pulled out a 2-1 win over BetBoom Team on Friday and advanced to the winners-bracket final of PGL Wallachia Season 5 in Bucharest, Romania.

Liquid's next foe will be Gaimin Gladiators, who earned a 2-0 victory over Xtreme Gaming on Friday.

In the day's two lower-bracket matches, Natus Vincere knocked out Tundra Esports 2-0, and Team Spirit eliminated Aurora Gaming 2-0.

The top eight teams from the 16-team group stage advanced to the playoffs. The double-elimination tournament will culminate with the grand final on Sunday, when the winner will take home $300,000 from the $1 million prize pool.

All matches are best-of-three until the final, which will be best-of-five.

On Friday, Team Liquid registered a 40-minute win on green before BetBoom Team equalized with a 50-minute triumph on red. Team Liquid took the decisive third map in 45 minutes on green.

Poland's Michal "Nisha" Jankowski paced Liquid with an average 11.3/5.7/13.0 kill-death-assist ratio. Russia's Danil "gpk" Skutin wound up at 7.0/3.7/11.3 for BetBoom Team.

Gaimin Gladiators got past Xtreme Gaming in 41 minutes on red and 41 minutes on green. Kazakhstan's Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov produced an 8.5/1.0/8.0 K-D-A ratio for Gaimin. China's Wang "Ame" Chunyu led Xtreme at 4.0/2.5/2.0.

Natus Vincere downed Tundra Esports in 33 minutes on green and 42 minutes on red behind a 12.0/1.5/11.0 K-D-A ratio from Ukraine's Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev. The Netherlands' Remco "Crystallis" Arets amassed a 9.5/8.5/7.5 K-D-A ratio for Tundra.

Team Spirit dumped Aurora Gaming twice on green, in 40 minutes and 55 minutes. Russia's Denis "Larl" Sigitov produced a 15.5/4.5/16.5 K-D-A ratio for Spirit. Russia's Gleb "kiyotaka" Zyryanov finished at 10.5/7.5/10.5 for Aurora.

The Saturday schedule:

--Winners-bracket final: Team Liquid vs. Gaimin Gladiators

--Lower-bracket quarterfinal: BetBoom Team vs. Natus Vincere

--Lower-bracket quarterfinal: Xtreme Gaming vs. Team Spirit

PGL Wallachia Season 5 prize pool:

1. $350,000

2. $145,000

3. $100,000

4. $80,000

5-6. $60,000

7-8. $40,000 -- Tundra Esports, Aurora Gaming

9-11. $20,000 -- Team Tidebound, Wildcard, HEROIC

12-14. $15,000 -- Edge, OG, Nigma Galaxy

15-16. $10,000 -- Avulus, Virtus.pro

--Field Level Media