Welcome to EGamersWorld.
We continue to follow the action at ESL Challenger Katowice 2024. We're talking about the group stage of the tournament, although not a big one, it's a pretty important one.
We are interested in Group A of The International, where Falcons, Eternal Fire and B8 are fighting for the play-offs. Eternal Fire and Falcons will play in the match for life at the tournament. The format of the match is bo3.
We are trying to find out who will be stronger in this match and will go through to the next stage of the group, and who will have to say goodbye to the prospects of getting out of the group.
Let's go.
Form Eternal Fire
Let's open the match analysis with an analysis of Eternal Fire's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds of 1.4.
The 13-team world ranking team has experienced difficulties throughout the season. Despite a huge number of matches, success has been achieved occasionally.
At the beginning of the year Eternal Fire won ESL Pro League Season 17: European Conference, thus securing their place at EPL S17. The Main Event ended miserably - only top 20 and no group.
Participated in BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR B. There they took TOP-14, which was not enough to reach the only Major of the season.
In the middle of the year, Eternal Fire showed their best form. The Turks finished in the top 4 twice, but did so at TIR-B tournaments. They broke into the top four at CCT North Europe Series #7 and Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1.
- Eternal Fire roster: XANTARES, Calyx, MAJ3R, Wicadia, woxic.
Before the ESL Pro League Season 8 Long Round, MAJ3R's team played on CCT Central Europe and Pinnacle Cup V. Both championships ended for them on top 8.
Eternal Fire played their debut match at ESL Pro League Season 18 against Cloud9. They played as the number two and got a natural result: 0-2, but with 11 and 12 rounds respectively.
In the first match of the lower grid Eternal Fire played against 9INE. The Turks were clearly on form, as they managed to run over a pretty tough competitor without much difficulty. The match ended with a score of 2-0 in favour of Eternal Fire. As a result, the ESL Pro League Season 18 run ended very well: the team barely qualified for the play-offs of the tournament, where they managed to win two series. EF left Astralis and BIG behind, but Ledge and Natus Vincere.
EF later made the Top 16 at Roobet Cup 2023, where they finished Top 16 and Top 2 at PARI, Please. In 2024, Eternal Fire attended PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European Qualifier B, where they finished in the Top 2, advancing to European RMR A.
IEM Katowice 2024 started with the Play-In stage. By the way, they passed it very easily: 13-1 against BB Team and 2-0 against Rebels Gaming allowed them to get into the group stage. In the first match of the group stage they also easily defeated Falcons (13-9; 13-6), and then showed a very cheerful CS in the match against the top-2 team of the world FaZe Clan, but Ledge were defeated on three maps (1-2). At the end of IEM Katowice 2024 Eternal Fire took the top-12 position, after which they started playing at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR A.
At the qualifying tournament, the Turks finished in the top 8, which gave them the opportunity to qualify for PGL CS 2 Major Copenhagen 2024, which is true in the first stage.
At PGL CS 2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Eternal Fire are feeling very good so far. The Turks have 2 wins and 1 loss: they beat Mongolz and Pain, but lost to Heroic 0-2 in the match for the next stage. However, they succeeded in their next attempt: they defeated GL with a score of 2-1.
Eternal Fire debuted in the legends stage with a surprise win against Vitality. However, in the second round they lost to MOUZ, which brought them to 1-1 score. And then there was a real sensation: 13-1 against FaZe Clan and 2-1 score for the Turks.
Eternal Fire got into the play-offs of the tournament after the victory over Vp. The match ended with the score 2-1. However, they failed to move beyond the first round, as NaVi were stronger than the Turks and closed the series with a score of 2-0.
They also attended ESL Pro League Season 19, where they failed, and quite seriously. The Turkish team took TOP-21-28. Then diametrically opposite situation at CCT Season 1: Global Finals and then - not leaving the group at YaLLa Compas 2024.
Eternal Fire got to IEM Cologne 2024 thanks to the ESL world ranking. However, they failed to earn any results: XANTARES and company finished in the top 20.
Eternal Fire performed much better at ESL Pro League Season 20. In the group stage, the team took the top-2 of Group B, and later surprised in the play-offs by beating Vitality in the quarter-finals with a score of 2-1. Then they defeated MIBR and almost defeated NAVI in the grand-final, but Ledgeili with the score 2-3.
But at the Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024, where Eternal Fire played later, they failed to achieve such results: there the team took the TOP-12 position without showing any game.
ESL Challenger Katowice 2024 Long They started with a defeat against B8.
Eternal Fire mappool
The best map is Nuke. There are 4 matches and 4 wins.
Anubis (7 matches, 85% wins), Mirage (4 matches, 75% wins) are doing very well. Vertigo - 71% wins in 7 matches, Inferno and Overpass - 3 wins in 5 matches.
Falcons form
We continue our analysis of the Falcons vs Eternal Fire match with an analysis of the Falcons form. In this match they will play as an outsider with win odds around 3.
For the whole year 2023 Falcons have been, as they call it, in search of themselves. They started the professional season with appearances at B-Tier tournaments: Thunderpick Bitcoin Series #2, OMEN WRG Challenge 2023 and CCT West Europe Series #1. At the first two, they celebrated a top-2 finish, and at the more prestigious CCT, a top-8 finish.
Later tried to make it to the Paris Major . Had two attempts, at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A and BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR B. Both were unsuccessful: top-11 and top-6.
In the middle of the year, Falcons continued to bang their heads against the wall. Top-13 at ESL Challenge League Season 45: Europe, Top-10 at ESL Championnat National Spring 2023 and Top-24 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1.
Tried to qualify for IEM Sydney 2023, but fell off at the top-64 stage in the open qualifiers. As a Saudi Arabian club they got a slot at Gamers8 2023, where they played to the best of their ability, which is Top 16.
- Falcons roster: Snappi, Magisk, maden, s1mple, dupreeh.
At the end of the year Falcons tried to put together a DreamTeam. So far it's not working out so well, because the first tournament with the new squad they failed. That was BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, where the team finished top-12.
At IEM Katowice 2024 they got to the IEM Katowice 2024 by ESL Ranking points. There they were ranked in the top 10 before the tournament's Long Shogpeg, but for what merits - a big mystery.
IEM Katowice 2024 Falcons started with a defeat against the best team of Turkey - Eternal Fire. After losing to the Turks, Falcons were close to crashing out of the tournament in a lower bracket match against Rebels, but managed to stay afloat thanks to a 2-1 win. In fact, a similar situation happened in the match against CoL, where Falcons gave up the first card, but cameback on the second and closed the series with a third. Later they defeated NaVi, and at the end of the championship they took the top 4, Ledgeiv to the future champions from Team Spirit.
Later they played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they completely failed, finishing in the top-28. IEM Dallas 2024 started with a loss to G2, but then confidently ran over Monte with a score of 2-0. However, the Falcons were not enough for much more and at the end of IEM Dallas 2024 they finished in TOP-9-12.
Before the performance at IEM Dallas 2024 they visited Challengers at DreamHack. They got to IEM Dallas 2024 thanks to ESL rankings.
IEM Cologne 2024 Play-In Long We started with a match against Eternal Fire, where Ledge won 1-2. Next was a match against ALTERNATE aTTaX in the lower grid and a clean win for Falcons. They got into the group stage after beating BIG 2-1, and in the first match of the group stage they fought MOUZ, but lost 1-2. They stayed afloat with a 2-1 win over Vp. However, they couldn't go far, because after the meeting with FaZe, Falcons finished their performance at IEM Cologne 2024 on top 9-12.
At ESL Pro League Season 20 they started their performance with a match against FURIA (1-2), and then they beat ATOX (2-0) without any problems. However, they were not able to go far, because in the next match they lost, dropping out at the TOP-28 stage.
Later Falcons played at Thunderpick World Championship 2024, where they again failed miserably: TOP-16 is not a good result.
ESL Challenger Katowice 2024 started with a dismal loss to sAw (11-13).
Falcons Mappool
The best mapped Falcons is Nuke (1 game, 1 win). Next is Ancient (1 win, 1 loss).
Among the unfavourable maps for Falcons are Vertigo and Anubis. They have 3 matches and 1 win on the former, while Anubis has 1 loss.
Head-to-head history
In the 2024 season, Turkish club has already beaten Falcons 4 times.
Predicted result of Eternal Fire vs Falcons at ESL Challenger 2024
In this match I expect a lot of beautiful Counter-Strike 2. Both teams definitely know how to play this game, but I will give the victory to Eternal Fire. Falcons in this formation are not capable of big accomplishments, and the victory over Eternal Fire is one of them.
Bottom line: Eternal Fire wins.
