M80 wins eight-OT map, advances at ESL Pro League Season 20

M80 emerged with a 2-0 sweep of Fnatic on Wednesday at the ESL Pro League Season 20 in Saint Julian's, Malta, and the Group C upper-bracket semifinal qualified as one of the matches of the year.

M80 won the first map 37-34 on Anubis in a whopping eight overtimes. The second map also went to OT, with M80 prevailing 16-13 on Inferno.

The United States' Ethan "reck" Serrano compiled 75 kills and a plus-16 kill-death differential for M80. Denmark's Benjamin "blameF" Bremer logged 72 kills and a plus-14 K-D differential for Fnatic.

The result sends M80 to the Group C upper-bracket final on Saturday against Imperial Esports, who got past MOUZ 2-0 in another match that featured a pair of overtime maps. Imperial won 16-14 on Dust II, then 16-13 on Inferno.

Brazil's Lucas "decenty" Bacelar paced Imperial with 60 kills and a plus-28 K-D differential. Adam "torzsi" Torzsas produced 44 kills and a plus-4 K-D differential for MOUZ.

The group stage of the $750,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event split 32 teams into four groups that are competing in triple-elimination brackets, with each match best-of-three. The top four teams from each group will move into the playoff bracket.

Group winners will advance straight into the playoff quarterfinals. Runners-up will advance to the Round of 12, third-place teams will move to the Round of 16 as high seeds and fourth-place teams will start in the Round of 16 as low seeds.

The single-elimination playoff bracket will feature best-of-three matches until the best-of-five grand final on Sept. 22.

The winner will receive $170,000 and will qualify for the first ESL Pro Tour Championship of 2025.

The Group C mid-bracket openers were also contested on Wednesday, with BIG and Complexity Gaming both registering 2-0 wins.

BIG beat Rooster 13-2 on Mirage, 13-8 on Nuke behind 39 kills and a plus-23 K-D differential from Germany's Jon "JDC" de Castro.

Complexity handled Astralis 19-17 in double overtime on Vertigo and 16-14 in overtime on Inferno thanks to 56 kills and a plus-16 K-D differential from Norway's Hakon "hallzerk" Fjaerli.

The Group D upper-bracket quarterfinals concluded on Wednesday, with Team Vitality and FURIA Esports advancing.

Vitality swept ATOX Esports 13-11 on Inferno, 13-7 on Nuke. France's Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut put up 44 kills and a plus-16 K-D differential for Vitality

FURIA Esports took down Team Falcons 2-1, sandwiching a 13-10 win on Nuke and a 13-9 victory on Dust II around a 13-10 defeat on Anubis. Marcelo "chelo" Cespedes amassed 52 kills and a plus-7 K-D differential for the all-Brazilian FURIA squad.

The Thursday schedule:

--Group C mid-bracket quarterfinal: Fnatic vs. BIG

--Group C mid-bracket quarterfinal: MOUZ vs. Complexity Gaming

--Group D upper-bracket semifinal: Team Vitality vs. FURIA Esports

--Group D upper-bracket semifinal: Team Liquid vs. Virtus.pro

--Group D mid-bracket Round 1: ATOX Esports vs. Team Falcons

--Group D mid-bracket Round 1: ENCE vs. Red Canids

ESL Pro League Season 20 prize pool (money, BLAST Premier points):

1. $170,000, 2,000 points

2. $80,000, 1,400

3-4. $45,000, 750

5-8. $32,000, 275

9-12. $23,500, no points

13-16. $17,500, no points

17-20. $12,000, no points -- Sangal Esports, 3DMAX, two teams TBD

21-28. $7,000, no points -- Ninjas in Pyjamas, FlyQuest, 9z Team, Wildcard, four teams TBD

29-32. $3,500, no points -- Lynn Vision Gaming, KOI, two teams TBD

--Field Level Media