Elisa Masters Espoo reaches playoffs

After a busy two-day group stage, six teams remain alive in Finland.

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.

blameF is the highest-rated player of the group stage with a 1.40 rating

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 A

TEAM

M

P

Sprout

5

12

ENCE

5

12

BIG

5

9

HEET

5

6

GamerLegion

5

6

HAVU

5

0

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.

Group B

TEAM

M

P

fnatic

5

12

500

5

12

Astralis

5

9

Complexity

5

6

Bad News Eagles

5

3

SAW

5

3

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

Date	Matches
Elisa Masters Espoo 2022
18/11/2022	BIG 15:40 500	Match
18/11/2022	ENCE 19:15 Astralis	Match
19/11/2022	Sprout 15:50 BIG	Match
19/11/2022	fnatic 20:25 Astralis	Match
20/11/2022	BIG 18:00 fnatic	Match