EPL S20 playoffs quarter-finals as they happened

Eternal Fire 9-8 Vitality

And just like that, it's a tied game! Eternal Fire are showing they have some bite left in them as they are on a 5-0 win streak on the defense.

Vitality need to pick themselves up quickly if they want to win this. Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut has the AWP - desperate times call for desperate measures?

Eternal Fire found a lifeline with a solid streak of rounds towards the end of their CT side, but they couldn't get anything going on the offense.

It will be Inferno to decide which team goes through in the tournament.

Eternal Fire 3-6 Vitality

A solid start from Vitality on their map pick, with Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi and Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan both on nine kills. Eternal Fire still haven't managed to string rounds together on this map.

Eternal Fire take the lead in the series with a hard-fought 16-14 win on Anubis. Vitality were a bit shaken after letting two map points go to waste and weren't able to close it out in overtime.

Next up is Nuke.

Eternal Fire 6-6 Vitality

It was looking a bit dicey for Eternal Fire, but the Turkish team tightened up their defense to tie things up at the half. They will be feeling happy with the scoreline as they're about to play on the T side.

Eternal Fire 3-5 Vitality

It's four rounds in a row for Vitality, who are dictating the pace and have the economic control. Everyone on Eternal Fire has gone quiet in the fragging department, even Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş, who has picked up just one frag since that hot start.

Eternal Fire 3-1 Vitality

Four rounds in, Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş already has nine frags to his name (seven headshots) and a 180 ADR, with Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker right behind him, with six kills.

Without surprise, Eternal Fire went for Anubis, and Vitality responded with a Nuke pick. The decider will be Inferno, a solid map for both teams.

Speaking to Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers in an exit interview after the match, Fritz "⁠slaxz-⁠" Dietrich said the following:

On if anything felt different today vs. the group stage: "No, we felt good, we had good energy, we didn't tilt or anything. If we just won a pistol or not lose the force, like... every single half we started horrible, it's hard to win. If you don't win pistol you have a 20% winrate, and we also always lost the first gun on CT, so it's like playing on 'super-hard' mode."

On why MIBR had momentum and if they were doing anything to catch M80 off-guard: "Not really. I think we were well prepared, we knew everything that was coming. I think we needed a little bit too long to adapt on Anubis T side. We had some man advantage rounds we lost because we didn't have a plan fast enough and just got caught off by their pushes.

"But otherwise, if we adapt a little bit faster there and win one pistol... if you look at the gun rounds we played, we won a lot, so if we just a a little bit better pistols it looks different."

André "⁠drop⁠" Abreu and Felipe "⁠insani⁠" Yuji took a moment to talk to the broadcast talent on the couch after MIBR's victory over M80, touching on the victory and explaining the approach the Brazilian side took coming into the series.

"It was a different game because we knew they are the weakest team in the playoffs, so they were playing without any pressure," drop said of MIBR's conversation and game plan coming into the match.

"When you are playing with no fear it's hard to play against. We were watching their games and they were just pushing everywhere and never playing static, so it was hard to try to counter them. So it was more let's just play our game, let be comfortable, make them our play our game, and if we can do it we can just beat them at it'll be an easy fight for us."

insani added: "It's different to play against them, they're different from all the other teams in the quarter-finals. They're playing every moment at the same time, every single map, and it's different from the other teams. We just had to point that out in the conversation we had before the game."

MIBR 12-8 M80

MIBR 11-6 M80

Ouch, this nade pull will be one Ethan "⁠reck⁠" Serrano will have nightmares about tonight.

His pistol round heroics are entirely wasted and MIBR are cruising toward a quick victory after denying M80's own force buy and recovering a 2v4 in the first full gun round.

MIBR 7-6 M80

MIBR 6-6 M80

M80 have been loud, yelling across to their opponents throughout Pro League, but didn't have much to celebrate on Anubis.

Mason "⁠Lake⁠" Sanderson and Michael "⁠Swisher⁠" Schmid wasted no time in vocalizing mid-way through the first half on Ancient as M80 punished poorly-timed re-aggression to recover from 0-3 to 5-4, but André "⁠drop⁠" Abreu dealt some words back after MIBR rallied back at the end of the half.

MIBR 3-1 M80

MIBR 3-0 M80

MIBR 12-10 M80

Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa was 28-2, remember, but now he's 29-7. After a quiet start, Ethan "⁠reck⁠" Serrano and Mason "⁠Lake⁠" Sanderson have calmed their nerves and M80's CT side is looking really good.

MIBR 9-6 M80

ESL gift us some M80 comms, where Mason "⁠Lake⁠" Sanderson is just laughing at Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa's K-D. It's good they're laughing, because they'd be crying if they weren't.

M80 6-7 MIBR

Someone picked Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa in fantasy for $195,000 and they are having the best day of their lives.

MIBR 5-6 M80

MIBR 5-5 M80

Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa started well, going 11-0 early, but as M80 have clawed their way back into the game he's been forced to save multiple rounds in a row.

We asked how Mason "⁠Lake⁠" Sanderson would do under the exceptionally bright ESL studio lights, and he's 1-8 — but that doesn't stop him from yelling across at MIBR anyway.

MIBR 5-1 M80

M80 have had plenty of reps on Anubis after that marathon affair against fnatic, but that has given MIBR enough homework for weeks on end.

Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson has called his first timeout.

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M80 vs. fnatic breaks CS2 round record

"This is the first time I have qualified for the playoffs of Pro League and we have gone to the quarter-finals, so I am really happy," he told HLTV. "I am relieved that I have crossed this limit that I have never crossed before, so I am happy, and confident that we will keep going."

But he's not done yet. MIBR are favorites to make it to the top four.

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insani: "With exit going to the role he has now, he is way better than I have ever seen him"

Speaking to Freya pre-game on stream, on getting loud: "We're a really big LAN team, the energy just goes up. I've played sports my whole life, so this is where I thrive, seeing them face-to-face, getting into their minds a little bit. It's a lot better for me and the team."

On his own game: "Being here is just a big learning experience, it's like having loads of big brothers. It means a lot for them to trust me."

Mason "⁠Lake⁠" Sanderson ended the group stage on a 1.20 rating, with Ethan "⁠reck⁠" Serrano just behind on a 1.19.

It's the first time since COVID-19 that a NA team not named Complexity or Liquid has made playoffs of a Big Event, but M80 have regional rivals MIBR in their way if they want to make it any further.

ZywOo in EPL's group stage

Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut is now on 20 MVPs (13 Big Events), one away from Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev on 21 overall and 14 in Big Events.

On the nicer side of the bracket, it's Vitality and ZywOo's tournament to lose.

See the full leaderboard of MVPs here

Seeded using group stage results and ESL's World Ranking, EPL's bracket has caused a bit of mayhem this season.

On paper, Vitality have a fairly free run to the final — but can the underdogs upset again?