(Photo credit: Nick Oza/The Republic via Imagn Content Services, LLC)

FaZe Clan was among the six teams who kicked off the ESL Pro League Season 19 group stage with a win on Tuesday in Saint Julian's, Malta.

FaZe Clan, who took home first place at the IEM Chengdu event earlier this month, posted a 2-0 win over Imperial Esports in the first round of Group A.

Astralis, Fnatic and 3DMAX also prevailed in their opening matches in Group A, while Team Vitality and BetBoom Team earned wins in Group B.

The $750,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event features 32 teams broken up into four groups of eight. Group-stage winners will advance to the quarterfinals; runners-up advance to the Round of 12 as the high seeds; third-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the high seeds; and fourth-place teams advance to the Round of 16 as the low seeds.

The group stage is triple-elimination with upper, middle and lower brackets. All matches are best-of-three until the grand final, which is best-of-five.

The tournament runs through May 12. The winner earns $170,000 and qualifies for the IEM Cologne 2024 event.

On Tuesday, FaZe took down Imperial Esports 13-10 on Inferno and 13-6 on Nuke. David "frozen" Cernansky of Slovakia led the victors with 39 kills on a plus-18 kills-to-deaths differential.

Astralis defeated Eternal Fire 13-5 on Vertigo and 13-9 on Overpass. Victor "Staehr" Staehr of Denmark guided Astralis with 36 kills on a plus-15.

Fnatic rallied to beat Virtus.pro 2-1 in a close encounter. After Virtus.pro opened with a 13-11 win on Overpass, Fnatic prevailed 13-9 on Vertigo and 13-11 on Ancient. Aurelien "afro" Drapier of France guided Fnatic's comeback with 49 kills on a plus-12.

3DMAX eked out a sweep of SAW by winning 16-13 on Vertigo and 19-17 in overtime on Inferno. The all-French 3DMAX roster got 52 kills on a plus-11 from Lucas "Lucky" Chastang and an additional 51 kills from Thomas "Djoko" Pavoni.

In Group B, Vitality beat Sharks Esports 13-11 on Vertigo before thumping them 13-3 on Mirage. Israel's Lotan "Spinx" Giladi led Vitality with 39 kills on a plus-19.

BetBoom Team outlasted M80 2-1, sandwiching a 13-5 win on Anubis and a 13-11 result on Mirage around a 13-1 beatdown on Ancient. No one on the winning side finished with a positive K-D, but Russians Kirill "Magnojez" Rodnov and Aleksandr "KaiR0N-" Anashkin finished with 38 kills apiece. M80 wasted a 50-kill, plus-10 effort from Guatemala's Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa.

The group stage continues Wednesday with five matches:

--Fnatic vs. 3DMAX (Group A upper-bracket semifinals)

--Imperial Esports vs. Eternal Fire (Group A mid bracket Round 1)

--Virtus.pro vs. SAW (Group A mid bracket Round 1)

--Team Falcons vs. The MongolZ (Group B upper-bracket quarterfinals)

--TYLOO vs. G2 Esports (Group B upper-bracket quarterfinals)

ESL Pro League Season 19 prize pool

1. $170,000, 2,000 BLAST Premier points -- TBD

2. $80,000, 1,400 points -- TBD

3-4. $45,000, 750 points -- TBD

5-8. $32,000, 275 points -- TBD

9-12. $23,500 -- TBD

13-16. $17,500 -- TBD

17-20. $12,000 -- TBD

21-28. $7,000 -- TBD

29-32. $3,500 -- TBD

--Field Level Media