The MongolZ move on in Cologne after overtime decider against Eternal Fire

MAJ3R took responsibility for a lackluster Terrorist side on Nuke as Eternal Fire suffered another early exit.

The MongolZ became the penultimate team to advance to the IEM Cologne group stage following a 2-1 win over Eternal Fire in the lower bracket of the play-in stage.

The Mongolian side barely eked out the deciding victory after coming back from a beatdown on the opening map, Anubis. Their Mirage pick worked out swimmingly as they took advantage of a rusty Eternal Fire, as well as an off performance from Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş, and made a comeback from down 4-9 on the deciding Nuke.

The 29-year-old Turkish star looked determined to set the record straight heading into Nuke and all but single-handedly secured his team a dominant CT half, but his carry performance was not enough in the end.

Clip: XANTARES dominates MongolZ in yard

A couple of wins with just pistols towards the end of the half gave The MongolZ a saving grace, and they followed it up with a superb CT side as Eternal Fire struggled to make their upper hits work. Aggression from Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren in yard in a couple of crucial rounds gave his team an early warning to beat the Turks' executes back.

In a switch of the approach up against match point, XANTARES then went searching in yard to find two openings and followed it up with a triple, sending the game to overtime. Once there, though, Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli decided to return to the upper hits, which once again failed to hit the mark, and The MongolZ went on to close the match on the T side.

After the game, MAJ3R took responsibility for the loss on the analyst desk. "I think it's on me, T side Nuke I didn't find a lot of solutions, they started with double AWPs and I focused my game plan on inner because of that, but it didn't work really well. I apologize to my teammates and all the fans."

With the disappointment, Eternal Fire continue a run of lackluster form following their run to the playoffs at PGL Major Copenhagen. Since then, their best LAN result was a top-four finish at Skyesports Championship, where Eternal Fire were also eliminated by the Mongolian squad.