Team Spirit, FURIA notch another win at BLAST Open Fall

A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home. Jordan Woodruff Team Spirit and FURIA advanced to the upper-bracket final of Group A at the BLAST Open Fall event with shutout victories Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark. Spirit defeated G2 Esports 2-0, and FURIA did the same to M80. The losing sides dropped into the Group A lower-bracket semifinals. Group A also saw its lower bracket begin Friday with a pair of quarterfinal matches. Aurora Gaming eliminated DENDELE CS with a 2-0 result, and Natus Vincere also prevailed 2-0 to knock out paiN Gaming. The $1.1 million Counter-Strike 2 event features 16 teams divided into two groups for the double-elimination opening stage. The group winners advance to the playoff semifinals. The group runners-up move on to the playoff quarterfinals as high seeds, while the two third-place teams head to the playoff quarterfinals as low seeds. The remaining teams will be eliminated. All group-stage matches are best-of-three. The single-elimination playoffs, which begin Sept. 4 in Porto, Portugal, will feature best-of-three matches in the quarterfinals and semifinals. The grand final on Sept. 6 will be best-of-five. The championship team will receive $250,000 ($150,000 for the players, $100,000 for the club) plus three BLAST Frequent Flyer Tokens. On Friday, Team Spirit defeated G2 13-6 on Dust II and 13-9 on Cache. Danil "donk" Kryshkovets of Russia -- who guided Spirit to the CS2 title at the Esports World Cup earlier this month and earned tournament MVP honors there -- had 31 kills Friday while teammate while Belarus' Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich posted a match-high 32. FURIA edged M80 16-13 in overtime on Cache before finishing the job with a 13-5 result on Dust II. Brazil's Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato had a terrific match with 50 kills on a plus-27 kills-to-deaths differential for FURIA. In the lower bracket, Aurora defeated DENDELE 13-7 on Cache and 16-12 in overtime on Mirage. Turkey's Ali "Wicadia" Haydar Yalcin posted a match-high 46 kills on a plus-18 K-D to lead Aurora. NaVi beat paiN in a pair of close maps, 13-9 on Nuke and 13-11 on Mirage. Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy of Ukraine was tops for NaVi with 35 kills, while Joao "snow" Vinicius of Brazil had a match-high 39 in a losing effort for paiN. The upcoming schedule: SATURDAY Group B upper-bracket semifinal -- Team Falcons vs. Legacy Group B upper-bracket semifinal -- MOUZ vs. IC Esports Group B lower-bracket quarterfinal -- Lynn Vision Gaming vs. FUT Esports Group B lower-bracket quarterfinal -- 9z Team vs. Team Vitality BLAST Open Fall prize pool, with money winnings (player prize, team share) and BLAST Frequent Flyer Tokens 1. $250,000 ($150,000, $100,000), 3 BFFT 2. $160,000 ($60,000, $100,000), 1 BFFT 3-4. $115,000 ($40,000, $75,000), 1 BFFT 5-6. $75,000 ($20,000, $55,000), 1 BFFT 7-8. $50,000 ($10,000, $40,000) 9-12. $32,500 ($7,500, $25,000) 13-16. $20,000 ($5,000, $15,000) -- DENDELE CS, paiN Gaming, two teams TBD --Field Level Media