Eternal Fire best G2 to reach Lisbon playoffs

The Turkish side bagged a 2-0 win after nearly letting two big leads slip away.

Eternal Fire have locked in their spot in the playoffs of BLAST Open Lisbon after taking down G2 2-0 in the Group B upper-bracket. Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli's men racked up solid leads on both Anubis and Inferno, only coming out on top after quelling comeback efforts from G2 on both maps.

Eternal Fire will now be waiting for the conclusion of Natus Vincere's series against The MongolZ to determine their next opponent, while G2 will be fighting for their tournament lives against M80 in the lower bracket.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
23/03/2025	M80 21:20 G2	Match
24/03/2025	Eternal Fire 16:35 Natus Vincere	Match

Eternal Fire bound for playoffs once again

Eternal Fire's victory over G2 secures the Turkish side a place in playoffs for the fifth event in a row. MAJ3R's troops kicked off their 2025 season with a grand-final finish at BLAST Bounty Season 1, following that up with quarter-final finishes in their next three outings.

Eternal Fire will have the opportunity to buck their streak of quarter-final exits before playoffs even start, as the team will be preparing for Group B's upper-bracket final. A win in this series, against the winner of Natus Vincere's game against The MongolZ, would secure Eternal Fire a direct spot in the semi-finals once the event moves to Lisbon.

Consistent deep runs may serve as a double-edged sword; Eternal Fire have a packed schedule building up to the BLAST.tv Austin Major, and frequent playoff appearances could limit opportunities for practice and cause burnout.

"When we go to a lot of tournaments we cannot prac a lot," Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın shared after the match. "But when we have time, in a day we will work maybe seven or eight hours, something like this.

"[Frequent events] are hard for some, but it's not so hard for me," the young rifled added.

T-side struggles galore for both teams

Ubiquitous for both teams across Anubis and Inferno in this series were difficulties in finding much success on the offense. In particular, Eternal Fire managed to post solid defenses in the first halves of both maps before letting G2 catch up both times following the side swap.

Nikita "⁠HeavyGod⁠" Martynenko served as a consistent thorn in the side of Eternal Fire's T-side, as the Israeli rifler picked up a number of critical multifrags on the defense that helped to spearhead G2's comeback efforts on both maps of the series.