BIG fell by the wayside as Eternal Fire moved on to face Natus Vincere next in Malta.

Cloud9, Liquid, Astralis, and now BIG have fallen to the Turkish machine

Eternal Fire's dream run at ESL Pro League Season 18 continues as they have advanced to the quarter-finals. In their fourth consecutive 2-0 victory at the tournament, the Turks sent BIG home in 9th-12th place and set their sights on Natus Vincere in the next round.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
28/09/2023	Natus Vincere19:00 Eternal Fire	Match

Eternal Fire relied on their Vertigo pick throughout their recovery from being sent to the Last Chance bracket last week in Group D, having previously beaten Cloud9, Liquid, and Astralis on their home map in the run to the second playoffs round.

Against BIG that was the case again, but this time the Turks had to do it the hard way. With their backs against the wall after a 4-11 defensive half, Eternal Fire put together a superb offense to close the gap. One of the big revelations of the tournament, Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın, stepped up with a key flank in a crucial 28th round, and Buğra "⁠Calyx⁠" Arkın and Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş combined for a 2v5 win in a chaotic round 30 to get it over the line.

Anubis was a much more straightforward affair thanks to another superb Terrorist side performance. BIG dug their heels in off the back of a well-timed Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz flank and 3v5 win as well as a Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski 1v3 clutch, but in the end Eternal Fire had enough time to get their defense going with XANTARES leading the way against his former squad.

"Today the communication was more stressed, I could really feel we wanted to win a lot, also XANTARES. Sometimes it didn't help us, but in the end, it was an important match for him and I think he played pretty good," Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli said after the match on the broadcast.

"NAVI will be a big test, I think we are confident, we are not scared about NAVI at all. We're gonna fight, we're gonna fight," the captain previewed the upcoming quarter-final bout.

ESL Pro League Season 18Best of 3 BIGMatchpage 0 2 27th September 2023 Eternal Fire 14Vertigo 16 10Anubis 16

BIG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
David 'prosus' Hesseprosus	40 - 40	0	72.6	1.06
Mateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewskimantuu	32 - 29	+3	65.8	1.06
Johannes 'tabseN' WodarztabseN	31 - 39	-8	69.5	0.91
Elias 's1n' Steins1n	32 - 35	-3	56.4	0.90
Karim 'Krimbo' MoussaKrimbo	27 - 38	-11	65.0	0.83

Eternal Fire	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşXANTARES	50 - 32	+18	102.1	1.50
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar YalçınWicadia	41 - 40	+1	80.6	1.13
Buğra 'Calyx' ArkınCalyx	31 - 28	+3	64.7	1.06
Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliMAJ3R	32 - 32	0	64.4	1.04
Özgür 'woxic' Ekerwoxic	25 - 31	-6	48.2	0.81

Eternal Fire #25 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınAli 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın Sezgin 'Fabre' Kalaycı Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz Age: 28 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 2198 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.70 Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş Age: 28 Team: Eternal Fire Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 2017 KPR: 0.81 DPR: 0.67 Natus Vincere #7 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenMihai 'iM' IvanValeriy 'b1t' VakhovskiyJustinas 'jL' Lekavicius Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy Liquid #14 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisAleks 'Rainwaker' PetrovRobert 'Patsi' Isyanov Damian 'daps' Steele BIG #20 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzMateusz 'mantuu' WilczewskiDavid 'prosus' HesseKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaElias 's1n' Stein Fatih 'gob b' Dayik Mateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski Age: 26 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 739 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.62 Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli Age: 32 Team: Eternal Fire Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 1270 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.66 Cloud9 #8 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovDenis 'electroNic' SharipovSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın Age: 18 Team: Eternal Fire Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 173 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.71 Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın Age: 25 Team: Eternal Fire Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1288 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.63 Astralis #5 Nicolai 'device' ReedtzJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupBenjamin 'blameF' BremerVictor 'Staehr' StaehrChristian 'Buzz' Andersen Peter 'casle' Ardenskjold