Talon, Liquid, Tundra advance to playoffs at Fissure Playground

Talon Esports, Team Liquid and Tundra Esports clinched the final three berths into the playoffs stage with victories Monday at the Dota 2 Fissure Playground event in Belgrade, Serbia.

Talon rallied past AVULUS 2-1, Liquid swept Xtreme Gaming 2-0 and Tundra defeated Gaimin Gladiators 2-0 to wrap up the tournament's group stage. Monday's final round pitted teams that had gone 2-2 through the first four days.

The $1 million Dota tournament began with 16 teams competing in a group stage using a modified Swiss system. Group-play matches were best-of-three for matches that determined advancement or elimination and a single map for all other matches.

The top eight teams in the group phase (BetBoom Team, HEROIC, PARIVISION, Team Falcons, Team Spirit, Talon Esports, Team Liquid, Tundra Esports) moved on to the double-elimination playoffs. All playoff matches will be best-of-three except for the grand final on Feb. 2, which will be best-of-five.

On Monday, AVULUS took the opening map against Talon in 28 minutes on green. Talon responded with victories of 44 minutes and 40 minutes playing on green. Rafli "Mikoto" Fathur Rahman of Indonesia led Talon with an average kills-deaths-assists ratio of 13.7-2.7-9.7.

Liquid defeated Xtreme in 39 minutes on green and 30 minutes on red. Michal "Nisha" Jankowski of Poland paced Liquid with a 7.0-1.0-15.5 average K-D-A.

Tundra prevailed in 26 minutes on green and 32 minutes on red to knock off Gaimin Gladiators. Russia's Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov guided Tundra by averaging a 9.0-2.5-10.5 K-D-A.

The tournament continues Tuesday with the four upper-bracket quarterfinal matches:

--HEROIC vs. Tundra Esports

--Team Spirit vs. PARIVISION

--BetBoom Team vs. Talon Esports

--Team Falcons vs. Team Liquid

Fissure Playground Belgrade prize pool:

1. $400,000

2. $170,000

3. $100,000

4. $75,000

5-6. $50,000

7-8. $35,000

9-11. $15,000 -- AVULUS, Gaimin Gladiators, Xtreme Gaming

12-14. $10,000 -- Wildcard, Yakult Brothers, Aurora Gaming

15-16. $5,000 -- Chimera Esports, Shopify Rebellion

--Field Level Media