ESEA Global Challenge S31 reaches playoffs

Following the first day of play in Dallas, four teams have secured themselves a playoffs berth: Vitality, Sprout, FURIA, and Spirit.

The eight-team, $75,000 event kicked off on Saturday, utilizing two GSL-style groups to determine the semifinalists. Vitality and FURIA entered as the top two seeds following their wins in the MDL grand finals the day prior.

Vitality were the first to earn their spot in the top four following 16-7 and 16-8 wins over Party Astronauts and Spirit, respectively, with Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy powering his team to victory with 35 frags in the first matchup and 29 in the second.

The tank rolled over his opposition to secure a semi-finals spot

Sprout were not far behind as they mirrored the Frenchmen's scorelines, defeating the South African side of ATK 16-7 on Mirage before crushing FURIA 16-8 on Inferno in the winners match to secure their own semi-finals berth.

Four BO3s closed out the day, with Chiefs and Singularity sending ATK and Party Astronauts packing with 2-1 victories in the elimination matchups. Neither of the teams managed to progress to day two however, as both FURIA and Spirit repeated their opening matchup victories against their opponents to claim the final two semi-final slots.

With the conclusion of the group stage, the schedule and matchups for the playoffs are as follows:

17:00 Vitality vs. FURIA | BO3
20:30 Sprout vs. Spirit | BO3
00:30 Grand Final | BO3

Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy Age: 29 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 1171 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.69 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone ATK #56 Roberto 'blackpoisoN' Dall'OccoDominic 'Domsterr' SampaioRhys 'Fadey' ArmstrongJohnny 'JT' Theodosiou Spirit #36 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovDmitry 'S0tF1k' ForostyankoPavel 'COLDYY1' VeklenkoViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevArtem 'iDISBALANCE' Egorov FURIA #8 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior Singularity #41 Ryan 'ryann' WelshRicky 'floppy' KemeryCameron 'cam' KernJosh 'oSee' OhmAlan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman Vitality #2 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlex 'ALEX' McMeekinMathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut Chiefs #44 Ryan 'zewsy' PalmerChris 'ofnu' HanleyTyler 'tucks' ReillyMatthew 'Texta' O'RourkePeter 'BL1TZ' Athanasatos Party Astronauts #62 Brenden 'stellar' McGrathIan 'motm' HardyBen 'ben1337' SmithRobert 'robby' BrownJosh 'PwnAlone' Pigue Sprout #19 Florian 'syrsoN' RischeTimo 'Spiidi' RichterSabit 'mirbit' CoktasarNils 'k1to' GruhneJosef 'faveN' Baumann