Vitality, Liquid notch playoff spots at ESL Pro League Season 20

Team Vitality and Team Liquid reached the Group D upper-bracket final at the ESL Pro League Season 20 by sweeping their respective matches on Thursday in Saint Julian's, Malta.

Vitality defeated FURIA Esports 2-0 in convincing fashion and Liquid did the same to Virtus.pro, knocking those teams into the group's mid-bracket. Vitality and Liquid will face off for first place in Group D on Sunday, but both are now guaranteed spots in the playoff bracket.

In the opening round of that Group D mid-bracket, Team Falcons defeated ATOX Esports 2-0 and RED Canids topped ENCE in the only 2-1 match of the day.

In Group C, meanwhile, BIG swept Fnatic and Complexity swept MOUZ 2-0, knocking those teams into the group's lower bracket.

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.

On Thursday, Team Vitality toppled FURIA 13-7 on Vertigo and 13-3 on Dust II. France's Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut starred as usual for Vitality, scoring 31 kills on a plus-14 kills-to-deaths differential.

Liquid took care of Virtus.pro 13-7 on Ancient and 13-6 on Dust II. Australian Justin "jks" Savage led Liquid with 37 kills on a plus-17 K-D.

Team Falcons blew past ATOX 13-5 on Ancient and 13-4 on Anubis. Denmark's Emil "Magisk" Reif put up 33 kills on a plus-16 to lead Falcons.

RED Canids demolished ENCE 13-3 on Ancient before ENCE answered with a 13-6 win on Vertigo. The final map was Anubis, where RED Canids pulled away 13-8. Brazil's Henrique "HEN1'" Teles posted 51 kills on a plus-19 for the winning side.

BIG soundly beat Fnatic 13-4 on Anubis and 13-6 on Mirage. Florian "syrsoN" Rische of Germany dominated the match for BIG, with 45 kills on a plus-32.

Complexity beat MOUZ 13-8 on Vertigo and 13-6 on Nuke, led by Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski of the U.S. (37 kills, plus-15) and Hakon "hallzerk" Fjaerli of Norway (33 kills, plus-16).

The tournament continues Friday with six matches:

--BIG vs. Complexity Gaming (Group C mid-bracket semifinal)

--Rooster vs. Astralis (Group C lower-bracket quarterfinals)

--Virtus.pro vs. Team Falcons (Group D mid-bracket quarterfinals)

--FURIA Esports vs. RED Canids (Group D mid-bracket quarterfinals)

--Virtus.pro/Falcons winner vs. FURIA/Canids winner (Group D mid-bracket semifinal)

--ATOX Esports vs. ENCE (Group D lower-bracket quarterfinals)

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