paiN Gaming win CS:GO playoff opener in Belgrade

paiN Gaming rallied for a 2-1 win over HEROIC in the upper-bracket quarterfinals of the BetBoom Dacha Belgrade #2 event on Wednesday in Serbia.

The other three upper-bracket quarterfinals all resulted in 2-0 sweeps, with MOUZ defeating Eternal Fire, FURIA Esports downing Virtus.pro and Team Spirit getting past Team Falcons.

MOUZ will oppose paiN in the upper-bracket semifinals on Thursday, while FURIA will square off with Team Spirit.

HEROIC and Eternal Fire will meet in lower-bracket first-round action, as will Virtus.pro and Team Falcons. Both matches will be played on Thursday.

Twelve teams began play in the $500,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament last week. The top eight in group play moved on to the double-elimination playoffs. All playoff matches are best-of-three until the grand final on Sunday, which will be best-of-five.

The winning team will earn $250,000, while the runner-up will receive $125,000.

On Wednesday, HEROIC opened with a 13-5 win on Vertigo before paiN took Dust II 13-11 and Nuke 13-8. Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt led paiN's all-Brazilian roster with 51 kills and a plus-12 kill-death differential. North Macedonia's Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski put up 48 kills and a plus-6 K-D differential for HEROIC.

MOUZ got past Eternal Fire 13-8 on Inferno, 13-3 on Nuke thanks to 41 kills and a plus-18 K-D differential from Finland's Jimi "Jimpphat" Salo. Bugra "Calyx" Arkin paced Eternal Fire's all-Turkish squad with 25 kills and a minus-1 K-D differential.

FURIA topped Virtus.pro 13-6 on Inferno, 13-7 on Mirage. Marcelo "chelo" Cespedes racked up 30 kills and a plus-7 K-D differential for FURIA's all-Brazilian team. Dzhami "Jame" Ali had 25 kills and a plus-3 K-D differential for all-Russian Virtus.pro.

Team Spirit subdued Team Falcons 13-7 on Nuke, 13-11 on Dust II. Russia's Danil "donk" Kryshkovets propelled Team Spirit with 53 kills and a plus-25 K-D differential. Spain's Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia amassed 35 kills and a plus-7 K-D differential for Team Falcons.

BetBoom Dacha Belgrade #2 prize pool:

1. $250,000

2. $125,000

3. $50,000

4. $25,000

5-6. $10,000

7-8. $5,000

9-10. No money -- 9z Team, 9Pandas

11-12. No money -- BetBoom Team, Aurora Gaming

--Field Level Media