IEM Dallas 2025Aurora get revenge on HEROIC to make playoffs
The Turks put an end to HEROIC's hopeful campaign in Texas.
Aurora have locked in a playoff berth at IEM Dallas after getting revenge over HEROIC in a three-map series, recovering from a blowout defeat on Train (3-13) with wins on Dust2 (13-8) and Mirage (13-9) to secure an appearance in front of the American crowd.
The teams had faced off in their opening match of IEM Dallas, mere hours after Aurora arrived off the plane from PGL Astana, and fatigue had been evident for Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli's side as numerous mistakes cost them down the line.
An admirable showing from HEROIC in that game was followed by another against Falcons, but several lost advantages on the Ancient opener came back to bite them in a 1-2 defeat.
Eetu "sAw" Saha's men rallied to scrape past FaZe in their first lower bracket match, but couldn't prevail in a rematch against a more rested Aurora, who had strong showings from Samet "jottAAA" Köklü and Ali "Wicadia" Haydar Yalçın to count upon on top of Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş this time out.
The veto played out slightly differently this time around as HEROIC opted for a Train pick rather than going to Dust2, the map they lost to Aurora in their opener, but Aurora moved away from their Anubis staple and picked into Dust2 themselves.
HEROIC did well to convert their pick, running out to a dominant 9-1 T side start thanks to excellent early impact from Linus "LNZ" Holtäng and exceptional multi-fragging from Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich, who helped his team close out the map 13-3.
Aurora came back with a vengeance on Dust2 and shut HEROIC out for much of the first half, taking an 8-4 lead at the break thanks in part to a quad-kill from MAJ3R and a 1v3 from jottAAA.
The latter came up huge again to halt a late recovery effort from HEROIC, providing a critical triple kill hold on B that tanked HEROIC's economy and let Aurora close out their pick.
Mirage, where Aurora had run out of steam in their opener against HEROIC, also could've gone either way if not for pivotal impact rounds from XANTARES and jottAAA, who made up for a deflated 8-15 K-D showing from Özgür "woxic" Eker.
tN1R's best efforts, including a pistol round 1v3 4k, weren't enough to topple Aurora's formidable defense, with XANTARES putting the series to bed with a triple kill to put his team through to playoffs.
More highlights from Aurora vs. HEROIC:
 Aurora |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 - 43 | +0.28% | 91.1 | 72.9% | 1.23 | |
| 51 - 40 | +5.84% | 85.2 | 74.6% | 1.22 | |
| 45 - 44 | +1.24% | 80.2 | 72.9% | 1.11 | |
| 34 - 41 | -6.06% | 69.6 | 67.8% | 0.87 | |
| 30 - 43 | -2.27% | 52.8 | 69.5% | 0.76 |
 HEROIC |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57 - 39 | +5.65% | 98.1 | 71.2% | 1.38 | |
| 44 - 45 | +0.94% | 83.6 | 74.6% | 1.12 | |
| 36 - 40 | -0.34% | 67.4 | 76.3% | 1.02 | |
| 37 - 42 | +0.16% | 69.2 | 74.6% | 0.99 | |
| 36 - 42 | -5.44% | 67.9 | 66.1% | 0.93 |
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
David 'frozen' Čerňanský
Filip 'NEO' Kubski
Eetu 'sAw' Saha
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
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