Eternal Fire end paiN's Pro League campaign

The Brazilians bow out in Sweden after losses to NAVI, G2, and Eternal Fire.

Eternal Fire have knocked paiN out of ESL Pro League Season 21 after securing a 2-0 victory in the 1-2 elimination pool of Stage 2.

The Turks have earned themselves a single chance to qualify for the playoffs after losses to 3DMAX and Liquid put their backs against the wall in Stage 2, with their overall level a far cry from the hot start they had at BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals.

This series marked a bounce back from some of that shaky form as some excellent calling from Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli powered Eternal Fire to a swift victory, with Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş leading the charge on Nuke and Samet "⁠jottAAA⁠" Köklü taking over on Inferno.

Clip: XANTARES waves goodbye to paiN after MAJ3R 1v2

It took a little bit for Eternal Fire to get rolling on Nuke, going down 1-5 after losing the pistol, but they traded rounds back and forth with paiN to salvage five at the break.

Another lost pistol and conversion quickly became a distant memory as Eternal Fire seized firm control on the attack, repeatedly brutalizing João "⁠snow⁠" Vinicius on A Floor to win eight straight and close out the map.

Inferno was even more one-sided as paiN's A site defense crumbled again and again, with jottAAA posting a 14-4 K-D to net his team an 8-4 lead before a MAJ3R clutch in the second half allowed XANTARES to wave goodbye to paiN.

Have paiN hit a glass ceiling?

Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt's side end their campaign in Sweden with a 1-3 record in Stage 2, tallying a win against GamerLegion and losses to Natus Vincere, G2, and Eternal Fire.

They struggled in Stage 1 after going down 1-2 with losses to M80 and FlyQuest, and had to scrape wins against Nemiga and Lynn Vision to advance.

It is a difficult result to swallow for paiN, who reached a Big Event arena playoffs for the first time at PGL Cluj-Napoca in February but couldn't find the consistency and firepower needed to challenge the best teams with how rough of a draw they got in Stage 2.

Clip: biguzera wins the clutch but can't find bomb to lose the map

"We had our chances and every round that we couldn't [afford to] make a mistake, we did, so it's not a good feeling right now," Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares admitted in an interview with HLTV after the match.

"It's a terrible feeling right now, but we have to move on. Experience for us and I think that we'll become better after those tournaments and after losing those matches in this way."

Asked about whether he feels the team has hit a ceiling, nqz admitted consistency and mistakes down the line are holding paiN back right now.

"We have our peaks, we had good matches against excellent teams, but the main point for us is trying to break that bubble and starting to be more consistent and be able to win those matches.

"Because all these matches against better teams we feel like we had chances, we all feel like we could have won, but micro-decisions from one person there or another person here make us lose. So for us it's breaking this bubble and trying to find this consistency as a team."

The Brazilian sniper also said the team's problems in the match were the individuals not playing well enough and not a tactical issue, and admitted that paiN did not play good CS in Sweden overall.