Tundra Esports, Xtreme Gaming and BetBoom Team stayed alive in the $1 million DreamLeague Season 29 online event with lower-bracket wins on Wednesday.

Tundra Esports bounced back from an upper-bracket quarterfinal loss with a 2-1 win over Virtus.pro. Xtreme Gaming, who finished sixth in Group B and started in the lower bracket, beat Team Liquid 2-1. BetBoom Team also lost Tuesday before overcoming Vici Gaming for a 2-1 win.

The final lower-bracket opener will be contested between Natus Vincere and PlayTime to begin the Thursday action.

Sixteen teams began the Dota 2 tournament on May 13. The top four finishers from Group A and Group B moved into the upper-bracket playoffs, with the fifth- and sixth-place finishers advancing to the lower bracket.

The double-elimination playoffs began Tuesday. All matches are best-of-three until the best-of-five grand final on Sunday. The winning team will take home $250,000 in player prize money, a club bonus of $40,000 and a minimum of 6,000 ESL Pro Tour points.

Tundra Esports dropped the opener of their match in 44 minutes on green but rallied with 35- and 40-minute wins, both on red. Bulgaria’s Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov led Tundra with a 26-9-29 kill-death-assist ratio.

Xtreme Gaming began with a 44-minute triumph on red before Liquid responded with a 36-minute victory on red. Xtreme bounced back and claimed the decisive map in 75 minutes on green. Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang of Malaysia led Xtreme with a 31-12-40 K-D-A ratio.

BetBoom Team won in 56 minutes on red and claimed the decisive battle in 46 minutes on red, sandwiched around a 52-minute victory for Vici Gaming on red. Russian Danil “gpk” Skutin helmed BetBoom’s victory with a 29-14-39 K-D-A ratio.

Thursday schedule

Lower-bracket Round 1

Natus Vincere vs. PlayTime

Upper-bracket semifinals

Team Falcons vs. PARIVISION

Team Spirit vs. Aurora Gaming

DreamLeague Season 29 prize pool (player prize money, club reward and base ESL Pro Tour points)

1. $250,000, $40,000, 6,000 points

2. $100,000, $30,000, 5,000 points

3. $80,000, $25,000, 4,000 points

4. $60,000, $20,000, 3,200 points

5-6. $40,000, $15,000, 2,200 points

7-8. $27,500, $12,500, 1,000 points

9-12. $20,000, $10,000, 375 points — Virtus.pro, Team Liquid, Vici Gaming, one team TBD

13-14. $12,500, $10,000, 140 points — ex-HEROIC, Nigma Galaxy

15-16. $10,000, $10,000, 60 points — GamerLegion, REKONIX

–Field Level Media

Casey Mize made a stellar return from the injured list last weekend. The Detroit Tigers need him to retain that form on Thursday as they try to prevent the visiting Cleveland Guardians from completing a four-game sweep.

Cleveland, which has won five in a row and eight of its past nine games, took the series opener 8-2 on Monday. The Guardians won one-run games the past two nights, 4-3 on Tuesday, then 3-2 on Wednesday when Angel Martinez tripled to bring in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning.

Detroit has lost five straight and 13 of its past 15 games. The offense has been the main culprit, producing just 20 runs over the past nine games.

Mize (2-2, 2.43 ERA) was sharp on Saturday as he came back from a three-week absence caused by a right adductor strain. The right-hander tossed six shutout innings against the Toronto Blue Jays, allowing two hits and no walks while striking out four.

Unfortunately for Mize, he wound up with a no-decision in a game the Tigers lost 2-1 in 10 innings.

“I thought he pitched tremendously, coming off the injured list, getting right back into the competitive game,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “I thought he held his stuff, I thought he had great tempo, I thought his stuff was good, he got some swing and miss, got some soft contact, everything you would want out of a normal start.”

The Tigers are still dealing with injuries to numerous staff members, including ace Tarik Skubal. Mize’s outing gave them a comforting feeling.

“It’s huge to have him back,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “He’s a big presence on this staff and a really good right-handed arm for us. So, yeah, really big.”

Mize produced a modest strikeout total, but he attributed that to the opponent.

“They don’t strike out a lot, they don’t walk a lot, they’re going to put the ball in play,” he said. “So just knowing that, there’s no need for long counts to try to get 10 strikeouts today. And I don’t think you’re going to walk anybody, honestly, just because of their approaches top to bottom. So I think it just kind of played out that way.

“We tried to get into the zone early just to play into their game plan, hopefully in our favor, and fortunately it worked out.”

Mize is 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in four career outings against the Guardians.

Left-hander Joey Cantillo (3-1, 3.40 ERA) will be Mize’s mound opponent. Cantillo had his best outing of the season on May 11 when he tossed six scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Angels. In his latest start, against the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday, Cantillo gave up four runs and four hits in five innings. He walked four and struck out four in a no-decision.

Cincinnati scored three runs in the fifth and went on to win 7-4.

“It just felt like Hedgie (catcher Austin Hedges) was reading really well when they were sitting soft and Joey was executing,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “He earned the right to get through that inning and obviously gave us a chance to win.”

Cantillo has permitted one run in six innings during two career appearances (one start) against the Tigers.

The Guardians keep finding ways to win, as evidenced by the Wednesday game. Two hits, a sacrifice bunt and a groundout plated the tying run in the ninth inning, and Martinez and Jose Ramirez came up with RBI extra-base hits in the 10th.

Despite giving up an RBI hit to open the bottom of the 10th, Cam Smith held on for his 16th save.

“No matter how long we’ve been down, no matter how long we haven’t done anything, we can flip a switch at any point and put up some runs,” Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee said, according to MLB.com. “That’s the ‘down but never out’ aspect of it.”

–Field Level Media

After ending a four-game skid on Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Pirates are now looking to take their midweek series against the Cardinals outright in the decisive game on Thursday in St. Louis.

Ivan Herrera’s walk-off three-run shot was the last of four Cardinals home runs in their 9-6, 10-inning win on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Pittsburgh won 7-0 to record its first shutout in St. Louis since a 5-0 win on April 13, 2023.

Konnor Griffin finished 4-for-5 with three runs, serving as the catalyst for the Pirates’ victory.

Griffin entered the season with a massive weight of expectation surrounding after being named MLB.com’s No. 1 prospect in the preseason. He struggled at the start, hitting .182 in his first 19 games.

On his 20th birthday on April 24, Griffin went 3-for-4 with his first career homer in Pittsburgh’s 6-0 win at Milwaukee. He hasn’t looked back, raising his batting average nearly 100 points to .278 in less than a month.

“Training this offseason, getting ready for moments like this and just being able to do it together, winning games, that’s all we want to do,” Griffin said, according to MLB.com.

Teammate Jake Mangum said of Griffin, “I’m proud of Konnor. He keeps playing good ball, and he’s going to be good for a long time for Pittsburgh. Everybody that pulls for the Pirates, pulls for the Pittsburgh community, they should be really happy that this guy’s going to be here for a long time.”

Braxton Ashcraft (2-2, 3.09 ERA) will start for the Pirates on Thursday. The 26-year-old right-hander is approaching the one-year anniversary of his major league debut, when he came out of the bullpen to throw three shutout innings in the Pirates’ 5-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 26, 2025.

Ashcraft threw 6 2/3 innings and allowed four runs in his latest start, Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies. He took a no-decision in a game Pittsburgh eventually lost 11-9 in 10 innings.

In two career starts against St. Louis, Ashcraft is 0-1 with a 6.30 ERA. He faced the Cardinals on April 28 and got a no-decision after yielding six runs on six hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Dustin May (3-4, 4.81 ERA) will take the ball for the Cardinals.

The 28-year-old right-hander didn’t factor in the decision in his latest start, a game St. Louis won 5-4 in 11 innings over the Kansas City Royals on Friday. He allowed three runs on four hits in six frames, walking four and striking out three. The result left him winless in his past four outings.

St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said of May’s work that day, “Overall, I felt like — especially early in that game — the fastball had really good life at the bottom of the zone and he was able to just overpower guys with it.”

May is 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA in his two lifetime starts against the Pirates. He wound up with a no-decision at Pittsburgh on April 27 after throwing six innings of two-run ball.

St. Louis first baseman Alec Burleson and right fielder Jordan Walker were both pulled late in the Wednesday loss after being hit by pitches, but Marmol stressed after the game that those were precautionary moves with the score out of hand.

Marmol said of Walker, “He wanted the at-bat if the game was any closer.”

–Field Level Media