Valiant Eternal Fire falls short of historic title
Turkish squad Eternal Fire were looking to make their Cinderella run stick when they went up against Natus Vincere (NAVI) in the ESL Pro League Season 20 Grand Final, with the underdogs looking to upset the reigning Major champions.
Eternal Fire put NAVI on the backfoot even before the series started with a shrewd veto move, banning out Mirage. Starting the Grand Final on NAVI's pick of Nuke, Eternal Fire dominated to a 13-8 win with Calyx and woxic stepping up to give the Turkish squad the early advantage.
An iM special on Anubis saw NAVI keep themselves alive in the series as the Romanian rifler had to drop a 30-bomb to see NAVI tie up the series with a 13-11 win. Ancient was another back-and-forth affair which eventually came down to jL's impact along with b1t having a strong map that saw NAVI lock in another 13-11 win to take the lead of the series.
With their backs against the wall, Eternal Fire answered back with a eight-round T side on their pick of Inferno and went flawless on their defensive half to lock in a commanding 13-4 win to take the momentum into the series decider on Dust2. While Eternal Fire started the decider with the CT pistol and looked like they would run away with the half before a late resurgence from Aleksib and co. saw them take a two-round lead. Multiple MAJ3R clutches kept Eternal Fire in the game but NAVI's defence held on for a 13-10 win to pick up the series 3-2 and win the ESL Pro League Season 20.
While Eternal Fire will head home with the silver medal, their ESL Pro League Season 20 run has been a historic run for the team, and it was the first-time a Turkish team made the Grand Final of a major event.
Eternal FireNatus Vincere| Eternal Fire |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Özgür 'woxic' Eker |
81 - 60 | +21 | 71.9 | 71.6% | 1.17 |
| Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş |
80 - 72 | +8 | 78.3 | 73.4% | 1.15 |
| Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın |
71 - 75 | -4 | 77.5 | 72.5% | 1.10 |
| Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli |
66 - 65 | +1 | 70.0 | 65.1% | 1.02 |
| Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın |
55 - 69 | -14 | 56.0 | 70.6% | 0.91 |
| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
75 - 72 | +3 | 77.0 | 72.5% | 1.14 |
 Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
75 - 60 | +15 | 67.2 | 73.4% | 1.11 |
 Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius |
64 - 68 | -4 | 65.0 | 69.7% | 1.00 |
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
74 - 84 | -10 | 78.3 | 61.5% | 0.97 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
51 - 71 | -20 | 58.2 | 63.3% | 0.81 |
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