FUT, FURIA, Vitality, Nemiga, NaVi open PGL Masters with sweeps

YMCA member Austin Manengu works the keyboard as he plays a game of Fortnite during the unveiling of the new gaming lab at the Maplewood Family YMCA in Rochester Thursday, June 20, 2024. YMCA of Greater Rochester in partnership with Metro Sports & Entertainment Group will open two gaming labs for youth and teens this year. FUT Esports, FURIA, Team Vitality, Nemiga Gaming and Natus Vincere each opened the PGL Masters event with Round 1 sweeps on Saturday in Bucharest, Romania. BetBoom Team, Team Liquid and The MongolZ came away with 2-1 victories on Day 1 of action. The $1.25 million Counter Strike: Global Offensive event pits 16 teams in a Swiss-system format which runs through Wednesday. The eight teams that reach three wins before taking three losses will advance to a single-elimination playoff Thursday through Saturday. All matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final Oct. 31. The winning team will take home $400,000, with half going to the team and half to the players. FUT Esports beat TYLOO 2-0 with a 13-9 win on Nuke and a 13-6 victory on Ancient. Aulon "Krabeni" Fazlija of Kosovo led FUT with 38 kills, while Spaniard Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia had a match-high plus-16 kills-deaths differential (34 to 18). FURIA swept DENDELE CS behind a 13-8 triumph on Ancient and a 13-11 clincher on Inferno. Danil "molodoy" Golubenko of Kazakhstan had a strong showing for FURIA with the most kills (42) and least deaths (24) in the match. Vitality finished a 2-0 win of 9z Team with a 13-10 Mirage win and a 13-10 Cache victory. Shahar "flameZ" Shushan of Israel led Vitality with 37 kills. Nemiga swept Legacy behind a marathon 25-23 win on Ancient followed by a 13-8 Dust II triumph. Daniel "syph0" Ageyev of Kazakhstan finished with a 59-48 K-D ratio. Natus Vincere also needed overtime to finish off its sweep, winning 13-11 on Nuke before coming away with a 22-19 Dust II clincher. Ukraine's Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov posted 54 kills and a plus-20 K-D differential to lead NaVi. The MongolZ rallied for a 2-1 win over Aurora Gaming, winning 13-2 on Nuke and 13-9 on Dust II after Aurora opened with a 16-12 overtime triumph on Inferno. BetBoom similarly rallied for a 2-1 win over Team Spirit. After Spirit began with a 13-10 win on Anubis, BetBoom Team evened the match with a 13-3 Ancient beatdown and closed out the victory with a 16-14 Mirage win. Team Liquid also fell behind 1-0, with MOUZ starting their match with a 16-13 overtime win on Ancient. Liquid leveled with a 16-12 Inferno win and then claimed the match with a 13-11 Mirage victory. Sunday's schedule: Round 2 high matches FUT Esports vs. Team Liquid Team Vitality vs. The MongolZ BetBoom Team vs. Nemiga Gaming FURIA vs. Natus Vincere Round 2 low matches Team Spirit vs. TYLOO G2 Esports vs. Aurora Gaming MOUZ vs. 9z Team Legacy vs. DENDELE CS PGL Masters Bucharest prize pool with total prize money, player prize money and team share: 1.$400,000 ($200,000, $200,000) 2. $187,500 ($93,750, $93,750) 3. $150,000 ($75,000, $75,000) 4. $87,500 ($43,750, $43,750) 5-8. $62,500 ($31,250, $31,250) 9-11. $31,250 ($15,625, $15,625) 12-14. $18,750 ($9,375, $9,375) 15-16. $12,500 ($6,250, $6,250) --Field Level Media