Team Liquid coast into playoffs at CCT Global Finals

Team Liquid blanked AMKAL ESPORTS 2-0 in a winners match on Sunday, polishing off a perfect performance in Group C to secure a playoff berth at the Champion of Champions Tour Season 1 Global Finals.

Paired with Saturday's 2-1 victory over OG in an opening match, Sunday's shutout gave Team Liquid a 2-0 record in group action.

After falling to Liquid, AMKAL ESPORTS bounced back for a 2-0 win against paiN Gaming in a decider match to lock down Group C's other playoff spot. paiN had set up the meeting with AMKAL by way of a 2-1 elimination-match victory over OG, who were knocked out of the event with the setback.

The CCT Season 1 Global Finals split 16 teams into four double-elimination groups of four. The top two teams out of each group will advance to the single-elimination playoff bracket. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final on Thursday, which is best-of-five.

The winner will receive half of the $500,000 prize pool.

On Sunday, Team Liquid beat AMKAL ESPORTS 13-2 on Inferno and 13-11 on Nuke. Brazil's Felipe "skullz" Medeiros led the winners with 35 kills and a plus-17 kill-death differential. No one playing for AMKAL finished with a positive K-D.

But AMKAL recovered, taking Inferno 16-13 and Nuke 13-4 to oust OG. Kaisar "ICY" Faiznurov of Kazakhstan finished with 36 kills and a plus-13 K-D ratio in the victory.

OG squandered an early lead that stemmed from a 16-14 win on Vertigo against paiN, which proceeded to prevail on Mirage (13-10) and Dust II (13-6).

Group D action also began on Sunday, with Astralis topping BIG 2-0 in an opening match.

The tournament continues with four Group D matches on Monday:

--MIBR vs. BetBoom Team (opening match)

--BIG vs. TBD (elimination match)

--Astralis vs. TBD (winners match)

--Winner of elimination match vs. loser of winners match (decider match)

Teams already qualified for playoffs:

Group A

--Eternal Fire

--Aurora Gaming

Group B

--GamerLegion

--ENCE

Group C

--Team Liquid

--AMKAL ESPORTS

CCT Season 1 Global Finals prize pool:

1. $250,000 -- TBD

2. $100,000 -- TBD

3-4. $50,000 -- TBD

5-8. $12,500 -- TBD

9-12. no money -- SAW, Fnatic, paiN Gaming, one team TBD

13-16. no money -- PARIVISION, Gaimin Gladiators, OG, one team TBD

--Field Level Media