Eternal Fire tally first-ever win over NAVI for Lisbon semi-final berth

XANTARES and MAJ3R beat the Ukrainian organization on LAN for the first time.

Eternal Fire have skipped straight to the semi-final of BLAST Lisbon after a statement 2-0 victory over Natus Vincere in Group B's upper bracket final.

The Turkish team finally turned a 0-5 record against the Ukrainian organization on its head and did so in dominant fashion, romping to wins on Inferno and Dust2 off the back of excellent performances from Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın and Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş.

Natus Vincere were left frustrated in numerous rounds, particularly on Dust2 where Wicadia got away with murder after corners were left unchecked and they squandered a pivotal 5v2 mid-way through the first half (alongside numerous other lost advantages).

A 0.40 series rating from Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy played a large part in the one-sided loss and added to a worryingly poor event (0.83 rating) from NAVI's usually exceptional anchor. However, the entire team didn't look like they were on the same page for much of the series, making it hard to imagine a NAVI victory even if b1t played marginally better.

Clip: Wicadia and jottAAA combine to recover 2v5

Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli was jovial in a post-match interview on the desk, admitting that getting the win after so long meant a lot to his team.

"It was an important match," he said. "The matchup against NAVI is not something we liked in the past, but today it was really good. But also they threw a lot of rounds on Dust2, like impossible rounds, and I think it didn't help them.

"But I'm very happy with my teammates, I'm very proud, and today we played good Counter-Strike overall on Inferno and Dust2. I'm very proud."

Clip: MAJ3R gets away with murder, jottAAA gets triple kill to recover 3v5

XANTARES was in exceptional form to start the series, his entries (5:0 in opening duels on T side) allowing Eternal Fire to abuse A for much of Inferno's first half.

Natus Vincere won both pistols and briefly led 8-7 after converting the second, but often looked lost for answers against Eternal Fire in the late round and struggled to find a consistent formula to chain wins together.

Wicadia stole the show in the second half, patrolling Apartments for three triple kills and one double to slam the door on Natus Vincere's T side, and he remained a thorn in their side on Dust2.

He repeatedly snuck into positions that Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's troops sloppily left unchecked, and though he squandered two of those opportunities, still dominated the map with eight multi-kills, a 21-7 K-D, 115.6 ADR, and 1.97 rating.

Disaster strikes again for b1t

b1t recorded the worst map of his career against The MongolZ on Saturday, a 0.17 rating in a 1-13 defeat on Inferno before he helped salvage a series victory in overtime on Mirage.

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NAVI exact revenge on The MongolZ after Mirage barnburner to reach Lisbon playoffs

There was no salvation to be had today, however, as the Ukrainian rifler consecutively had the eighth and sixth-worst maps of his career on Inferno (0.42 rating) and Dust2 (0.39).

That brings his overall rating for BLAST Open Lisbon down to 0.83, making it the worst LAN event of his career and fourth-worst overall (with only qualifier knockouts from 2019 with NAVI Junior, where he played one or two maps, above).

It is a worrying trend for Natus Vincere as they look to return to championship-contending form. The 2024 Team of the Year was so reliable in no small part thanks to the consistency and exceptional mechanics of their Anchor of the Year, who at least will have a few days to figure out his issues before Natus Vincere take on Spirit in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
28/03/2025	Spirit 20:30 Natus Vincere	Match

Eternal Fire continue flawless playoff run in 2025

It has been a memorable start to the year for MAJ3R's side, who have shown exceptional consistency since adding Samet "⁠jottAAA⁠" Köklü during the off-season.

They debuted with a runners-up finish at BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals and have reached the quarter-finals at every tier-one event since then, making this their fifth straight bracket stage appearance.

They are suffering from success with the most maps played out of any top 20 team, and that is likely to remain true with their grueling travel schedule after they agreed to play almost every notable event in the first half of the year.

Clip: jL gets ace (AWP 4k) from 2HP after Wicadia fails kill from behind

In February, MAJ3R admitted in a post on X that he is concerned about the potential of burnout and for the physical and mental health of his players due to the schedule, and added that the constant deep runs leave them with limited time to practice.

However, all of that work in officials is paying off as Eternal Fire have developed more tenacity and grit, showing they can easily shake off sloppy round losses of their own. Now, they just need to prove they can do it on stage, too.