The 16-team field at Stake Pulse Beat II has been cut to eight after a GSL group stage in which Astralis, HEROIC, 100 Thieves and JiJieHao all advanced without dropping a series, HLTV reported.
Sangal, BBL, fnatic and Betclic took the remaining quarter-final places as their groups’ runners-up. Virtus.pro and FOKUS were among the sides that failed to get out of the group stage.
How the groups played out
Astralis dropped their opening map against Sangal in overtime before recovering. HLTV credited a 1.67-rated series from Gytis "ryu" Glusauskas with turning that opener around, and Victor "Staehr" Staehr then took over as the Danes swept FOKUS to reach the playoffs.
Sangal came through the Group A decider the harder way, recovering from a map down and a 4-8 deficit to edge out FOKUS and claim the second quarter-final place in the group.
HEROIC came through Group B without difficulty. The group was a setback for Virtus.pro, who had been climbing the Valve Regional Standings and instead lost 0-13 and 5-13 to BBL. BBL went on to beat Johnny Speeds in the decider to take the group’s second slot.
In Group C, 100 Thieves beat EAC and then Phantom to top the group. Phantom got a second chance in the decider and lost the rematch to fnatic, who advanced in their place.
Group D sent through JiJieHao and Betclic, the latter of whom scraped past Eternal Fire for the last playoff spot in the tournament.
The quarter-final field
The eight teams through to the bracket, and the groups they came out of, are:
- Astralis — Group A winners
- Sangal — Group A runners-up
- HEROIC — Group B winners
- BBL — Group B runners-up
- 100 Thieves — Group C winners
- fnatic — Group C runners-up
- JiJieHao — Group D winners
- Betclic — Group D runners-up
The quarter-finals at the Sweden LAN begin on Friday at 09:00. HLTV published the full schedule and the matchups alongside its group-stage report.
