NAVI end Eternal Fire's Cinderella Pro League run

28-9-2023 21:54

Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's side are one of the only favorites to pick up a win after returning for the bracket stage.

s1mple and iM led the server for NAVI

Natus Vincere has brought an end to Eternal Fire's surprise run in ESL Pro League Season 18, brushing aside the Turkish team with controlled victories on Anubis (16-7) and Nuke (16-10).

The European combine were firing on all cylinders from the start of the series, while the excellence and individual prowess that helped Eternal Fire make it this far was rarely seen.

Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın slumped over in his chair and had clear disappointment on his face after the match concluded, but he and the Turkish squad as a whole should still walk away with their heads held high after picking up some impressive scalps in their Pro League journey, defeating 9INE, Cloud9, Liquid, Astralis, and BIG en route to their top-eight finish.

Natus Vincere, meanwhile, have positioned themselves as strong contenders to fight for the Pro League title, especially after Vitality were knocked out by Monte earlier in the day.

That result also means that Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy will face Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev in a bit of a grudge match for their semi-final, with Monte having sent the previous NAVI lineup to the 2-2 elimination pool in the BLAST.tv Paris Major Legends Stage where they were subsequently sent packing by FaZe.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
30/09/2023	Monte 15:30 Natus Vincere	Match

Eternal Fire couldn't get anything going at the start of their Anubis pick, a masterclass T side called by Aleksib and individual plays from his team absolutely blowing the Turkish side out of the server.

NAVI were up 9-1 before Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli and company began to claw back, pushing up to five rounds at halftime, but the European squad didn't concede control at any point and closed things out shortly into their own defensive effort.

Pressure kept piling on for Eternal Fire as Natus Vincere had another stellar start on the T side of their own map pick of Nuke, garnering seven unanswered rounds thanks to multi-fragging from Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan and s1mple. Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker gave his team a fighting chance toward the latter portion of the half, helping to recover five rounds, but s1mple continued to shine after the side swap and ensured that Natus Vincere wouldn't let victory slip away.

ESL Pro League Season 18Best of 3

Natus Vincere

Matchpage

28th September 2023

Eternal Fire

Anubis

Nuke

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev s1mple	43 - 29	+14	88.3	83.7%	1.42
Mihai 'iM' Ivan iM	38 - 26	+12	85.7	79.6%	1.29
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy b1t	36 - 23	+13	67.6	79.6%	1.24
Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius jL	30 - 26	+4	68.7	81.6%	1.12
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen Aleksib	28 - 28	0	68.7	79.6%	1.03

Eternal Fire	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Özgür 'woxic' Eker woxic	30 - 32	-2	67.7	75.5%	0.99
Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli MAJ3R	31 - 38	-7	77.3	65.3%	0.98
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş XANTARES	26 - 28	-2	69.5	71.4%	0.94
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın Wicadia	26 - 40	-14	63.1	57.1%	0.78
Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın Calyx	18 - 37	-19	39.1	51.0%	0.55

Nice try EF, great event from them, wicadia although not having the greatest game, is a huge talent.

2023-09-28 21:56

4 replies

Nt indeed but weird wicadia popped off against other teams and vs navi they played like t2?? Or they were just too afraid tbh…..🤔 Even calyx was worthless this series. U cant have this type of performance vs toptier teams. Period

2023-09-28 22:23

3 replies

nt EF we are proud with you

2023-09-28 23:05

They were too afraid of them especially xantares

2023-09-29 12:30

1 reply

++ Unlucky cuz they had enough firepower imo. Just mental game too weak…

2023-09-29 13:35

nt and wp EF, very impressive run.

2023-09-28 21:55

It was a great run from EF, definitely on the right path

Nt bois, +respect earned by everyone

you mean by turks?

2023-09-28 22:07

2 replies

everyone means everyone aciu and iki brother :)

2023-09-28 23:24

I m not even turk and I m really impressed of what EF did this tournament. WP to them, need more experience to play vs top teams, the mental difference really showed.

2023-09-29 16:39

nt EF okay NoVictory, time to lose to Monte again.

2023-09-28 21:57

Actually its first turkish iteration that can do some damage

2023-09-28 22:13

well, proud journey came to an end in the quarter finals. reaching to quarter finals in epl will be unforgettable one in turkish cs history. maj3r did great job in this tournament as an igl but in this match, we played very defensive. you can't expect to win against t1 teams like this way. you need to do some unexpected flanks and aggressive approachment. maj3r looks like he's going to retire very soon. it is going to be very negative thing for us. i don't know who is going to take next igl role. probably woxic but i don't like him so much. his playstyle is so defensive and passive with an awp. i think he has some confidence problem. he's waiting for "the most clean shot" and avoiding to make any flickshot or aggressive approachment. forcing to same plantzone in nuke b site obsessively is very miserable to watch. he did it two times in crucial rounds and avoided to safe plantzone in b site. we need future players for turkish cs. wicadia is one of the most positive thing about this journey. i hope we can find some players like him in academy. because ef is getting older and this generation is coming to an end at some point. we can't go forward with today's woxic. i hope he can change something about himself in cs2. anyway, they made us so proud and happy for a week. wicadia made us more hopeful about future but i'm still suspicious about ef's future. now cs2 is out and i think some t1 teams will have some adaptation problems and we will have new t1 teams in cs2 era. i hope ef adapt to cs2 easily and reach new achievements in s-tier tournaments.

2023-09-28 22:24

yeah, nice try by EF honestly. it was nice to see some fight in them after they've underperformed for so long. hopefully they can carry this form into CS2

2023-09-29 00:55