Esports World Cup 2025Aurora move into EWC semi-finals over HEROIC
The Turkish outfit is one win away from the grand final after a two-map affair in Riyadh.
Aurora have punched their ticket to the semi-final stage of the Esports World Cup following a 2-0 win over HEROIC (13-7 on Mirage and 13-11 on Dust2).
It's the first semi-final appearance since PGL Astana for the Turkish side. After the match, Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli had high praise for his team's mentality in this tournament. "I'm very happy overall with the mentality of the team," he said. "The FaZe match was not easy to come back after the loss on Inferno. I'm okay with the mentality of the team right now."
The quarter-final marked Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich's final game with HEROIC as he is on the brink of joining Spirit, with Linus "LNZ" Holtäng admitting that his team approached this match without pressure.
"We don't have our full team here, so we really didn't care if we lost." he said in a post-match interview. "Of course, it would have been nice to win. We're happy we took down Spirit as a mix. We're going to be back to our full five. We also wanted to enjoy our final game with tN1R."
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| Esports World Cup 2025 | ||
| 23/08/2025 |
20:20
|
Match |
The Belarusian star nearly pulled off a highlight-of-the-year contender in the very first round of the series before losing the final duel of a 1v5 situation. That was the start of a dominant run from Aurora, who calmly strolled to an 11-1 lead, with Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş at the heart of the action with 21 kills and 165 ADR to his name.
The Turkish team swiftly reached map point with a clean pistol round, but putting the game to rest wouldn't be easy. With no margin for error, HEROIC put together a string of rounds, but their comeback attempt was derailed in the 20th round, when Aurora finally got over the line with a clean A split.
The first half of Dust2 ended in a 6-6 stalemate as HEROIC bounced back from a 5-1 deficit with a convincing streak of rounds, with Alimzhan "Alkaren" Bitimbai and Özgür "woxic" Eker raising eyebrows with 14 frags to their name and big clutch attempts.
The second half continued in the same vein as the first, as HEROIC wrestled their way back into the game after winning the pistol and losing the conversion. They enjoyed a spell of dominance and picked up an 11-10 lead but ultimately came up short as Aurora's individual talent shone through with back-to-back retakes and a 3v5 in the final round of regulation.
More highlights from Aurora vs HEROIC:
 HEROIC |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 - 31 | +0.52% | 86.9 | 77.3% | 1.26 | |
| 30 - 33 | +1.17% | 65.3 | 68.2% | 1.02 | |
| 31 - 32 | -2.33% | 71.4 | 65.9% | 0.96 | |
| 22 - 30 | -1.92% | 63.4 | 63.6% | 0.82 | |
| 17 - 31 | -4.73% | 58.7 | 54.5% | 0.65 |
 Aurora |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42 - 29 | +3.25% | 94.8 | 81.8% | 1.44 | |
| 37 - 24 | +3.03% | 81.5 | 72.7% | 1.32 | |
| 29 - 29 | +0.81% | 72.3 | 84.1% | 1.15 | |
| 28 - 28 | +1.39% | 67.3 | 68.2% | 1.00 | |
| 21 - 28 | -1.19% | 66.8 | 70.5% | 0.89 |
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Tobias 'TOBIZ' Theo
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Moakikuchi
purplespacesnail
aker122
| 
| 
Spagh3ttti
| 
| 
StriK_the_hltv_baiter
| 
KeyYouSueKey
hater_in_chief
T_Prosecutor
