MIBR, Legacy, FURIA and BETBOOM secured places in the playoffs of FISSURE Playground 3 on September 9, the second day of the Counter-Strike 2 event in Suzhou, China, while FaZe, The MongolZ, BIG and GamerLegion were knocked out of the group stage, HLTV reported.
Under the tournament's format, the first teams to reach each group's upper bracket final earn playoff berths, with the remaining places going to the other upper bracket finalist in each group and to the lower bracket winners.
The opening day on September 8 had set the stage, ending past 1 a.m. local time with Astralis beating G2 2-1 in a rematch of their Esports World Cup round-of-16 meeting. That result sent G2 to the lower bracket alongside The MongolZ, beaten by MIBR, and FaZe, upset by Alliance. HLTV noted the loss on Inferno was G2's second in a row on a map they had previously won eight times in a row.
Four teams through
MIBR were the first to qualify from Group A. After beating The MongolZ in the opening round, they defeated 9z in the upper bracket semi-final, taking Mirage 13-6 on the back of six wins in seven rounds on the CT side and then Nuke 13-7 with nine rounds on defense. Lucas "nqz" Soares posted a 1.31 rating against his former team, and Felipe "insani" Yuji added a 1.25.
Legacy did the same in Group B, following an opening win over magic with a 2-0 over Alliance. On Alliance's pick of Inferno, Legacy opened 9-3 on the CT side and closed the map 13-4, then took Dust2 13-6. Santino "try" Rigal, Bruno "latto" Rebelatto and Eduardo "dumau" Wolkmer each rated above 1.40 in the series.
Later in the day, FURIA beat PARIVISION to reach the playoffs, dominating Ancient before closing out Inferno after letting a 9-4 lead slip. Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato finished on a 1.60 series rating and Danil "molodoy" Golubenko on 1.51. In Group A's qualification match, BETBOOM defeated Astralis and sent them to the lower bracket, despite Love "phzy" Smidebrant finishing 0.44 rating points clear of his next-best teammate.
Four teams out
BIG exited without a win after meeting G2 in the lower bracket, a match HLTV said turned on BIG's weak CT halves on Mirage and Ancient. GamerLegion, playing without Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski, were eliminated by TYLOO in two maps after taking FURIA to the brink in their opener.
The MongolZ went out in joint-last place after a 2-0 loss to fellow Mongolian side 5star, following an overtime decider defeat to MIBR. Anarbileg "cobrazera" Uuganbayar, brought in for Sodbayar "Techno" Munkhbold for the event, averaged a 1.34 rating. HLTV noted The MongolZ had won all four of their previous meetings with other Mongolian teams.
FaZe were also eliminated in joint-last place after two overtime map losses to magic in the Group B lower bracket, a day after a narrow defeat to Alliance. The Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken-led roster had climbed to tenth in the Valve Regional Standings before the event, and HLTV reported it has only Stake Ranked Episode 4 scheduled before the invite deadline for November's PGL Singapore Major.