Astralis eliminate Eternal Fire from EU RMR

The Danish team came back from a map down to survive another elimination series.

Astralis live to fight another day in the EU RMR B tournament after taking down Eternal Fire in the 1-2 pool. The Danish giants overcame a horrible showing on their pick and a disastrous start to the second map to complete a reverse sweep and keep their Major hopes alive in Shanghai.

After surviving two close elimination series, Astralis will now set their sights on a clash with tournament darlings Passion UA, with a seventh-place decider on the horizon in case of a win.

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Europe RMR B
24/11/2024	Astralis 06:10 Passion UA	Match

The elimination comes as a heavy blow for Eternal Fire, who just eight months ago had made history as the first Turkish team to reach the playoffs of a Major.

"Dreams fall, it was not meant to be," Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli wrote on X after the loss. "Worst tournament, performance-wise.

"Sorry to all the believers. Trust me, I gave everything, but sometimes it's not working. Thank you, all, and let's see what the future holds."

Astralis went for a Vertigo pick, a map that had brought the team a couple of upsets at the BLAST World Final, but Eternal Fire quickly showed they were up to the task as they stormed to a 7-1 lead.

The Danes picked themselves up and made it a competitive 7-5 half, only to collapse in the ensuing pistol round after wasting a 4v2 advantage. One round was all that Astralis could muster in the half as Eternal Fire easily put the game to rest.

Things went from bad to worse for Astralis, who lost the first round on Dust2 to a Buğra "⁠Calyx⁠" Arkın clutch after Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller missed a knife attempt. Eternal Fire rode that momentum to a 5-1 lead before Astralis rallied back thanks to some stellar plays from Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard.

Astralis carried that momentum into the second half and put together a flawless run of rounds to hit map point. It was only then that Eternal Fire began to show some bite on their T side, but by then it was already too late to make a difference.

Inferno became a battle of nerves as both teams started to make uncharacteristic mistakes, turning the game into a scrappy affair. After a back-and-forth first half, Eternal Fire raced to an 11-8 lead following a spell of dominance, but then Astralis tightened up and took the upper hand, eventually locking down the map in the final round of regulation with a strong A hold.