Eternal Fire see off strong HEROIC challenge to progress in Katowice

The Turkish side have continued their hot start to 2025, but needed to be on their toes against a potent HEROIC squad.

Eternal Fire have secured a spot in the next stage of IEM Katowice, earning their berth via a 2-0 win despite a valiant performance by HEROIC.

Twice HEROIC put up valiant comeback efforts, from 8-12 down on Nuke and 7-12 down on Anubis, only for Eternal Fire to clinch the map on both occassions, first in regulation then in overtime.

If not for some stellar clutches by Samet "⁠jottAAA⁠" Köklü and high-impact rounds late in maps by Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş and Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker, HEROIC might have found themselves playing a decider.

HEROIC still have another chance to make the next stage of IEM Katowice, with BIG awaiting in the lower bracket.

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2025 Play-in
31/01/2025	BIG 16:00 HEROIC	Match

Eternal Fire march on

Eternal Fire have started the year off with a bang, securing second place at BLAST Bounty with wins over G2 and Vitality before earning a spot in the main event at IEM Katowice.

The Turkish squad showed flashes of elite-level play over the course of 2024, but struggled for consistency. With new signing jottAAA performing, XANTARES in prime form, and woxic and Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın also finding impact, Eternal Fire will be a terrifying prospect for any future opponent.

HEROIC continue to surprise

There wasn't a huge amount of hype surrounding this new iteration of HEROIC, with the hype fizzling out even further when it became apparent hot prospect Linus "⁠nilo⁠" Bergman was not on the starting lineup.

The European combine have thoroughly exceeded expectations thus far, making the LAN portion of BLAST Bounty thanks to a win over Liquid, before beating Liquid once again in Katowice and pushing Eternal Fire all the way.

Linus "⁠LNZ⁠" Holtäng is calling strong T sides, Andrey "⁠tN1R⁠" Tatarinovich is stepping up to tier-one play with aplomb, and Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García is showing glimpses of his peak form. Despite this loss HEROIC will have turned heads with their performance, and will be considered a dangerous opponent moving forwards.