The ESL One Raleigh 2025 Group Stage concluded on Thursday (9 April), with eight teams advancing to the Playoffs while four others were eliminated.
PARIVISION, Team Falcons, Team Spirit, and Tundra Esports lead the pack of Playoff-qualified teams and have earned upper bracket berths while Team Liquid, BetBoom Team, Nigma Galaxy, and AVULUS will have to start in the lower bracket. Meanwhile, Shopify Rebellion, Team Tidebound, Talon Esports, and HEROIC are off to an early plane ride home.
Shopify Rebellion and Tidebound have been knocked out in 9th-10th place and will take home US$35,000 in consolation while Talon and HEROIC exit the tournament in 11th-12th place and with US$25,000 for their efforts. The remaining eight teams now look ahead to ESL One Raleigh’s double-elimination Playoffs, where the grand prize of US$290,000 out of the US$1 million prize pool will be up for grabs.
Here’s how all the action in Day 3 of ESL One Raleigh 2025 went down:
PARIVISION, Falcons, Spirit, and Tundra secure upper bracket berths
The participating teams only had to play one match apiece in the final day of the ESL One Raleigh Group Stage in order to secure their placements in the Playoffs.
After surging to the top spot of Group A in day two, PARIVISION cemented their hold on the top spot of the group with a 2-0 sweep over Nigma Galaxy. Having lost all six games they played after a perfect 4-0 start in day one, Nigma Galaxy will have to content themselves with a lower bracket start in the Playoffs.
Spirit finished as the second seed of Group A with an 8-2 record, capping off their Group Stage campaign with a 2-0 sweep over a Talon squad that had already been eliminated from Playoff contention in day two. Reigning The International champions Liquid had a shot to steal one of the upper bracket spots, but have been relegated to the lower bracket after only managing to draw 1-1 with Group A’s other homebound team in Shopify Rebellion.
Over in Group B, Falcons kept their grip on the group’s first seed despite drawing 1-1 with Tidebound in their final match to finish with a 7-3 record. Tidebound needed to score a sweep over Falcons to have any hopes of remaining in the tournament, and that 1-1 draw was not enough to stave off elimination.
At the end of day two, three teams were in contention for the second upper bracket spot in Group B: AVULUS, Tundra, and BetBoom. AVULUS held an edge with a 5-3 record while both Tundra and BetBoom had a 5-5 standing. With that said, Tundra had the easier path towards advancing to the Playoffs, as their last match will pit them against bottom team HEROIC. Meanwhile, AVULUS and BetBoom were pit in a high-stakes match, with AVULUS only needing to draw 1-1 in order to secure an upper bracket spot.
BetBoom swept AVULUS to force them to a lower bracket start and finish the Group Stage with a 6-4 record, which is an impressive comeback, considering that they finished day one with a measly 1-3 standing. Tundra also swept HEROIC as expected and also finished with a 6-4 record, forcing them to play in a tiebreaker match against BetBoom for an upper bracket berth.
Despite a valiant effort from Danil “gpk” Skutin, Tundra soundly swept the series to become the final team to make the upper bracket and force BetBoom to a lower bracket start.
