ESL Pro League Season 20NAVI and Eternal Fire lock in EPL S20 playoff spots
The teams will face each other in the upper bracket final of Group A for a direct ticket to the quarter-finals.
Natus Vincere and Eternal Fire have secured playoff berths at ESL Pro League Season 20 after wins over Ninjas in Pyjamas and Sangal, respectively, in the upper bracket semi-finals of Group A.
The No. 1 and No. 11-ranked teams comfortably beat Lynn Vision and FlyQuest in their openers before qualifying for playoffs with their semi-final victories, and will next face each other in a seeding match. The winner will advance directly to the quarter-finals of the 16-team playoff bracket, while the loser will start their run from the second round.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| ESL Pro League Season 20 | ||
| 07/09/2024 |
20:00
|
Match |
Yasin "xfl0ud" Koç and Samet "jottAAA" Köklü, two players who previously played for Eternal Fire and its academy team, have been impressive for Sangal during the team's meteoric rise online ahead of Pro League.
The Turkish players carried that form into Sangal's opening match in Malta, grabbing a statement victory with an upset over FaZe. After the win, xfl0ud touched on his anticipation in facing Eternal Fire next, admitting that it was going to be "a rough game" but also an important one "because it is maybe one of our [xfl0ud and jottAAA's] dreams to win against them."
That is a dream that Sangal will have to fulfill another day as they were simply outmatched by Eternal Fire on the server for much of the series.
Sangal showed promise in the first half on Dust2, edging out a 7-5 lead on the defense, but were obliterated by Eternal Fire's own CT effort and managed just two rounds across the remainder of the series. Özgür "woxic" Eker, Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş, and Ali "Wicadia" Haydar Yalçın averaged above 1.80 ratings on the defense and left Sangal no chance to come back on their Nuke pick, locking in their playoff berth with a dominant 13-1 scoreline.
 Eternal Fire |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 - 15 | +7.16% | 96.8 | 82.9% | 1.69 | |
| 32 - 23 | +3.88% | 107.9 | 82.9% | 1.50 | |
| 35 - 23 | +5.47% | 97.2 | 74.3% | 1.39 | |
| 27 - 21 | +4.14% | 78.6 | 85.7% | 1.21 | |
| 15 - 20 | -3.20% | 53.7 | 74.3% | 0.84 |
 Sangal |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 - 29 | -1.52% | 86.3 | 71.4% | 1.13 | |
| 25 - 27 | -1.51% | 72.7 | 71.4% | 1.02 | |
| 21 - 30 | -3.76% | 74.0 | 62.9% | 0.86 | |
| 19 - 30 | -2.57% | 61.5 | 60.0% | 0.82 | |
| 11 - 30 | -8.48% | 38.6 | 40.0% | 0.43 |
Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas met for the first time in their own advancement match, with Justinas "jL" Lekavicius adding some fuel to the fire ahead of the game on X by quoting an interview from Artem "r1nkle" Moroz in which the Ukrainian sniper stated he was similar to his counterpart on NAVI, Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov, but believed he could beat him.
r1nkle, was, however, humbled by w0nderful in the series, finishing with a dismal 0.79 rating compared to w0nderful's 1.39. Mihai "iM" Ivan was at the forefront of his team's effort, though, averaging a 1.69 rating across Ancient and Dust2 as NAVI romped to victory with relative ease.
 Natus Vincere |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45 - 22 | +4.92% | 116.7 | 80.5% | 1.69 | |
| 32 - 20 | +2.36% | 83.9 | 80.5% | 1.41 | |
| 35 - 21 | +2.53% | 85.8 | 80.5% | 1.39 | |
| 31 - 24 | -0.94% | 79.0 | 80.5% | 1.23 | |
| 19 - 22 | -2.55% | 59.3 | 75.6% | 0.92 |
  Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 - 33 | +0.01% | 83.6 | 63.4% | 0.95 | |
| 26 - 34 | +2.86% | 68.4 | 58.5% | 0.84 | |
| 20 - 29 | -1.98% | 56.9 | 53.7% | 0.79 | |
| 20 - 35 | -4.05% | 64.7 | 58.5% | 0.73 | |
| 14 - 32 | -3.18% | 37.6 | 51.2% | 0.51 |
Meanwhile, FaZe staved off an early trip to the last chance stage by beating FlyQuest 2-0 in the lower bracket, and will face Ninjas in Pyjamas next as they look to claw back from their dismal start in Malta.
HEROIC also narrowly avoided a shock loss to a Sike "z4kr" Zhang-powered Lynn Vision, who recovered from a 2-10 blowout on Dust2 only to lose 10-13, stole HEROIC's Ancient pick 13-6, but then faltered on the Nuke decider to get sent down to the last chance bracket against FlyQuest. HEROIC will next face Sangal in hopes of continuing their lower bracket run.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| ESL Pro League Season 20 | ||
| 05/09/2024 |
19:30
|
Match |
| 05/09/2024 |
20:05
|
Match |
| 06/09/2024 |
16:30
|
Match |
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
David 'frozen' Čerňanský
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Helvijs 'broky' Saukants
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Erdenetsogt 'erkaSt' Gantulga
Guy 'NertZ' Iluz
Abdul 'degster' Gasanov
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
awrora
| 
Set0_iwnl
| 
Karimk03
| 
golosefastgg
icka
| 
ntyz0r
| 
FreePolleChai|Carti
dontbhanmipls
| 
