Led by Call of Duty World League Pro League playoffs champion eUnited, eight teams finished CWL Championship pool play undefeated as round-robin action wrapped up Thursday evening in Los Angeles, completing the 16-team playoff field.
The 32-team tournament began with eight pools of four teams each, with round-robin play starting Wednesday and finishing Thursday. The top two teams from each group advanced to the double-elimination knockout stage, which features best-of-five matches from Friday through Sunday's title game.
Teams in Pools A-D each played two matches Wednesday, leaving just one on Thursday.
eUnited, who triumphed in Miami last month, finished 3-0 after beating Elevate 3-1 to secure the top spot in Pool A. Despite the loss, Elevate nabbed the pool's other playoff spot by virtue of a tiebreaker over fellow 1-2 teams RBL Esports and Celtic FC Esports. RBL beat Celtic to knock them out of the competition.
Enigma6 Group nearly escaped pool play without dropping a map, sweeping Gen.G to finish with a 9-1 map differential and capture Pool B. Team WaR nabbed the other Pool B spot -- and the right to face eUnited in the knockout round -- with a sweep of Fuego Gaming. Enigma6 will next face Elevate.
FaZe Clan swept Units 3-0 in a battle of 2-0 teams to clinch Pool C, with Units going through as the second-place team.
Units will face Pool D winner Team Envy, who survived against LGND Status in their third-straight 3-2 result in the knockout stage. Taking on FaZe will be Team Reciprocity, who swept Sage eSports 3-0.
Teams in Pools E-H each played two matches Thursday after just one Wednesday.
Team Singularity swept Vanity 3-0 and then outlasted UYU 3-2 to finish 3-0 and win Pool E. Luminosity Gaming recovered from a sweep at Singularity's hands on Wednesday to beat UYU 3-2 and sweep Vanity 3-0 to grab the pool's second playoff spot. Vanity were the only team in the tournament to lose every map.
Luminosity will next face 100 Thieves, who beat FURY Gaming and Midnight Esports each by a 3-1 margin to take Pool F. Sicario Gaming, who were swept by 100 Thieves on Wednesday, recovered to beat Midnight 3-2 and sweep FURY 3-0 to earn a playoff matchup with Singularity.
OpTic Gaming beat Evil Geniuses -- who won the event in 2018 -- 3-1 in both teams' finale to finish 3-0 and claim the top spot in Pool G. OpTic had beaten Carnage Gaming 3-1 while EG beat TrainHard Esport 3-1 in their first matches Thursday to each secure playoff spots.
As Pool G's second-place team, EG will next face Splyce, who finished 3-0 to win Pool H after a 3-0 sweep of Team Heretics and 3-1 victory over Hybrid Gaming. Heretics swept Aspire 3-0 to secure the second spot in the group, setting up a playoff matchup with OpTic.
The knockout stage begins Friday with eight matchups:
eUnited vs. Team WaR
Splyce vs. Evil Geniuses
Team Singularity vs. Sicario Gaming
Team Envy vs. Units
FaZe Clan vs. Team Reciprocity
100 Thieves vs. Luminosity Gaming
OpTic Gaming vs. Team Heretics
Enigma6 Group vs. Elevate
After those matches, the first round of the losers' bracket will be played later Friday, with upper-bracket action resuming Saturday.
The tournament champion will win $800,000 of the $2 million prize pool, with the runner-up taking home $260,000.
Here are the full results from round-robin play. Teams with an asterisk next to their name won the tiebreakers to advance.
-- Field Level Media