Elisa Masters Espoo reaches playoffs

The Elisa Masters Espoo group stage has drawn to a close, giving way to the playoffs where six teams are set to battle it out for the trophy, the lion’s share of the $200,000 prize pool, and an IEM Katowice 2023 Play-In spot, starting on Friday.

Group A kicked off the tournament on Wednesday and served no surprises regarding the advancing teams, with the three favorites advancing to the playoffs. Group B served up a much more unexpected outcome, with 500 progressing at the expense of two top 25 teams in Bad News Eagles and Complexity.

The results now set up Friday’s quarter-final matchups between BIG and 500 on one side of the bracket, while ENCE and Astralis will meet in the other quarter-final. The first-placed teams of each group in Sprout and fnatic await their opponents in the semi-final stage, set to be played on Saturday.

Results in Group A went according to expectations, with Sprout, ENCE, and BIG passing through the group. Sprout finished on top, meaning they skip the quarter-final and qualify directly for the last four, where they will play the winner between BIG and 500.

ENCE placed second courtesy of an inferior head-to-head record against Sprout, with Ismail “⁠refrezh⁠” Ali and company beating them in a close 19-16 game. The final playoff team from Group A is BIG, who are once again playing with an incomplete roster after their AWPer Florian “⁠syrsoN⁠” Rische tested positive for COVID-19. The German team advanced nonetheless, sporting a 3-2 record in the group.

Group B proved to be much more open, with Astralis and Complexity battling for the last playoff spot in the final round. The Danes prevailed with a 19-17 win on Nuke and joined fnatic and 500 in the playoffs. Major quarter-finalists fnatic lost just one game in the group, taking the number one spot and a place in the semi-final, despite fielding academy player Peppe “⁠Peppzor⁠” Borak in place of Freddy “⁠KRIMZ⁠” Johansson. Surprise of the tournament 500 placed second in the group with the same 4-1 record, due to having a worse head-to-head against fnatic. The Bulgarian side is now set to face BIG in the quarters.

Astralis, who employed Kristoffer “⁠Kristou⁠” Aamand as a substitute for Nicolai “⁠device⁠” Reedtz, needed a massive performance by Benjamin “⁠blameF⁠” Bremer to secure third place in the group. The 25-year-old put up a tournament-high 1.40 rating, his best performance coming in the final round against Complexity when he amassed 40 kills.

The playoffs kick off on November 18, and will have the following matchups: