Upsets dominate opening day of PGL Wallachia Season 5 playoffs

After one day of playoffs, the PGL Wallachia Season 5 has been flipped upside down.

Three of the four upper-bracket opening-round matches played in Bucharest, Romania, on Friday, saw the lower seed upset the higher seed, quickly putting some of the best teams in group play one loss away from elimination.

The top eight teams from the 16-team group stage advanced to the playoffs. The double-elimination tournament will culminate with the grand final on Sunday, when the winner will take home $300,000 from the $1 million prize pool.

All matches are best-of-three until the final, which will be best-of-five.

Team Spirit, who went 3-0 in group play and earned the top seed, were swept by BetBoom Team in little more than an hour Thursday, losing in 36 minutes on green and 34 minutes on red. Danil "gpk" Skutin of Russia led the way for BetBoom with 20 kills and 21 assists to go with zero deaths.

Second-seeded Gaimin Gladiators, the only other team to go 3-0 in the group stage, was the one higher seed to avoid an upset, pulling off a reverse sweep to beat Tundra Esports 2-1. Tundra opened with a 36-minute win on green, but Gaimin responded with 38- and 40-minute wins, both on red. After posting a 1-2-4 kill-death-assist ratio in the opener, Quinn "Quinn" Callahan combined for 21 kills and 16 assists with just one death in the final two games.

The day's other two matches also went three games, with Xtreme Gaming beating Natus Vincere and Team Liquid topping Aurora Gaming -- also with reverse sweeps. Natus beat Xtreme in 39 minutes on green before Extreme won in 40 minutes and 53 minutes, both times on green.

Aurora opened with a 35-minute win on red, but Liquid responded with 33- and 37-minute victories on green.

Play continues Friday with four matches:

Upper-bracket semifinals

--Gaimin Gladiators vs. Xtreme Gaming

--Team Liquid vs. BetBoom Team

Lower-bracket opening round

--Tundra Esports vs. Natus Vincere

--Aurora Gaming vs. Team Spirit

PGL Wallachia Season 5 prize pool:

1. $350,000

2. $145,000

3. $100,000

4. $80,000

5-6. $60,000

7-8. $40,000

9-11. $20,000 -- Team Tidebound, Wildcard, HEROIC

12-14. $15,000 -- Edge, OG, Nigma Galaxy

15-16. $10,000 -- Avulus, Virtus.pro

--Field Level Media