Defending champions Aurora sweep Nemiga at PGL Masters Bucharest, set up Liquid clash
Defending champions Aurora Gaming swept Nemiga 2-0 at PGL Masters Bucharest for a second straight win after an opening loss. The result sets up a meeting of 2-1 teams with Team Liquid on Tuesday.
The round 3 meeting of two 1-1 sides in Bucharest left Nemiga at 1-2.
Nemiga’s choice of opening map lasted 66 minutes before going Aurora’s way. Only 35 minutes were needed for the second map.
Over the two maps, Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker finished with 50 kills and 25 deaths, a 1.84 rating and 100.6 average damage per round. On the other side, Kirill ‘Xant3r’ Kononov was the lone Nemiga player above a 1.00 rating, at 1.02. Nikita ‘robo’ Dushin went 21-38 with a 0.59 rating.
Aurora answers opening loss with two straight sweeps
Aurora opened the event with a 1-2 defeat to TheMongolz. It responded with a 2-0 win over G2 before Monday’s result. Across those two wins, Aurora has not dropped a map.
The latest win came against a team rated just above it. Nemiga sits fourth in the Elo power rankings at 1879, with Aurora fifth at 1873. Nemiga arrived in Bucharest after winning the WINLINE MPKBK CIS LAN Season 7 title and finishing second at Stake Ranked Episode 4. After its opening win over Legacy, HLTV projected Nemiga’s chance of qualifying for the PGL Major Singapore at 97%.
That run has since stalled. BetBoom Team, who beat Nemiga 2-0 in round 2, are unbeaten at 3-0 after also beating Team Spirit and Natus Vincere.
Liquid, the field’s lone North American side, come next
Liquid reached the same record by beating MOUZ 2-1 and losing 0-2 to FUT Esports before sweeping Legacy 2-0 in round 3.
Plenty is on the line in Romania’s capital. PGL is staging the event through October 31, with 16 teams playing for $1,250,000. The champion takes $450,000 in total, split evenly between $225,000 in player prize money and a $225,000 team share. The runner-up receives $200,000. The invited field included 12 of the 13 highest-ranked teams in the July 6 Valve Regional Standings.
The PGL Major Singapore follows from November 25 to December 13, with 32 teams. Its last four days, December 10 to 13, are at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Nemiga will try to steady its campaign against DENDELE CS on Tuesday, with both sides at 1-2. DENDELE CS beat G2 2-1 in round 3. That match is scheduled at the same time as Aurora’s series against Liquid.
