Eternal Fire have defeated OG in round five of Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR) A and qualified for the PGL Antwerp CS:GO Major.
In today’s match, there was no clear favorite. OG were hoping to claim their spot in the upcoming Major in May, which would be the team’s first since entering the CS:GO scene. On the other hand, no Turkish teams have played in a Major tournament since Space Soldiers at FACEIT Major: London 2018, and Eternal Fire were aiming to rewrite history. And that’s exactly what they did after a close 2-0 win.
The match began on Vertigo, Eternal Fire’s map pick. At the start, OG were behind the driving wheel, developing themselves a confident, 7-0 lead on the CT-side. Later on, however, they allowed their opponents to catch up a little, until they won several rounds, leading to a 12-7 scoreline. Then, however, stellar defense from the Turkish representatives kicked in and they completed a comeback and won the map 16-14.
Dust2, the following map, started in quite the opposite fashion to Vertigo. There, Eternal Fire grabbed the first five rounds, after which OG started to mount a comeback. The first half finished with a fairly even 8-7 for the Turkish squad, who failed to convert the win in the second pistol round to a bigger lead. After a few rounds, though, XANTARES led them to a 15-11 advantage, although OG almost created a second comeback in the series. In the last round, however, valde and niko failed to stop one of many Eternal Fire’s offensives on the B site, which resulted in another 16-14 for the Turkish squad.
With this victory, Eternal Fire have become the sixth team in Europe RMR A to qualify for the upcoming major. Simultaneously, FaZe Clan have earned higher seeding from teams with a 3-1 record, grabbing a direct spot in the Legends Stage. Therefore, later on in the day, Natus Vincere will clash with forZe for the last spot in the stage.
Today, two more teams will make it to PGL’s tournament in Antwerp. The winner of the matches between MOUZ and Team Vitality, and Outsiders versus sAw will make it through.
