OG reach BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown semifinals

OG came from behind to edge AMKAL ESPORTS 2-1 on Friday and move into the semifinals of the BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown.

With another win -- on Sunday against either FaZe Clan or paiN Gaming -- OG would earn a berth in the BLAST Premier: Fall Final.

Two first-round matches were contested on Friday. paiN Gaming downed Cloud9 2-0, and BIG rallied past GamerLegion 2-1.

The $135,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament began with 16 teams vying for the last two berths in the $425,000 BLAST Premier: Fall Final, scheduled for Sept. 25-29 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Team Spirit, Team Vitality, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere and Astralis already booked their spots in the Fall Final based on their results in the Fall Groups.

The top two teams in the Fall Showdown will each receive $20,000 and 900 BLAST Premier points in addition to the coveted trip to Copenhagen. The Fall Showdown features a single-elimination bracket of best-of-three matches.

On Friday, AMKAL opened with a 19-17 overtime win on Dust II before OG responded with a 13-0 rout on Vertigo and a 13-6 victory on Inferno. Belgium's Bram "Nexius" Campana finished with 54 kills and a plus-12 kill-death differential for OG. Evgenii "topo" Lopatin topped AMKAL's all-Russian roster with 54 kills and a plus-9 K-D differential.

paiN cruised past Cloud9 13-8 on Nuke and 13-9 on Mirage. Brazil's Kaue "kauez" Kaschuk logged 36 kills and a plus-9 K-D differential for paiN. Israel's Nikita "HeavyGod" Martynenko and Russia's Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov each produced 27 kills for Cloud9.

After GamerLegion captured Mirage 13-6, BIG took Nuke 13-7 and Dust II 13-6. Germany's Florian "syrsoN" Rische registered 53 kills and a plus-13 K-D differential for BIG. Hungary's Henrich "sl3nd" Hevesi and Estonia's Andreas "aNdu" Maasing each had 42 kills for GamerLegion.

The remaining tournament schedule:

Saturday quarterfinals

--FaZe Clan vs. paiN Gaming

--Team Falcons vs. Complexity Gaming

--BIG vs. Virtus.pro

Sunday semifinals (qualifying round)

--FaZe Clan/paiN Gaming winner vs. OG

--Team Falcons/Complexity Gaming winner vs. BIG/Virtus.pro winner

BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown prize pool

1-2. $20,000, 900 BLAST Premier points, berth in BLAST Premier: Fall Final

3-4. $12,500, 600 BLAST Premier points

5-8. $7,500, 250 BLAST Premier points -- AMKAL ESPORTS, three teams TBD

9-16. $5,000, no BLAST Premier points -- Rare Atom, Cloud9, HEROIC, Ninjas in Pyjamas, M80, Metizport, GamerLegion, Zero Tenacity

--Field Level Media