XANTARES shines for Eternal Fire to beat Flacons in humiliating fashion with a 2-0 scoreline securing their spot in the Blast Bounty LAN. This loss makes an unexpected outcome for NiKo’s debut tournament in Falcon colors as they await their first CS2 LAN of 2025.
VETO
- Eternal Fire removed Ancient
- Falcons removed Anubis
- Eternal Fire picked Inferno
- Falcons picked Nuke
- Eternal Fire removed Train
- Falcons removed Mirage
- Dust2 was left over
Map 1: Inferno; Picked: EF; Winner: EF
Upon losing the pistol round, Eternal Fire bounced back with a force buy conversion. After the win, they put together a string of 8 rounds to get an insurmountable lead despite the Falcons winning a few rounds by the end of the first half. Falcons opened up the second half with a pistol round win but a similar script from the second half saw them lose to another force buy which Eternal Fire took full advantage of to get ahead of and reach map point quickly. Falcons managed to win one of the rounds before the end of the map as Eternal Fire won the map 13-6.
Map 2: Nuke; Picked: Falcons; Winner: EF
Despite losing the pistol round, the Falcons got back on the board and had a well-planned T side to take Eternal Fire apart in the first half. Falcons managed to get a read on most occasions and it took individual brilliance from Wicadia and XANTARES to post 5 rounds on the CT side. Falcons managed to get an insurmountable lead but to their surprise, a series of fumbles saw Eternal Fire level the scoreline to push the game to overtime. Overtime saw a prolonged fight as both teams traded rounds and finally, EF managed to outlast Falcons to win the game 19:17.
A disappointing exit for the Falcons following two unconvincing matches while a solid opening for Eternal Fire will put them in the LAN main event to open up 2025 for the Turkish side.
, securing their spot in the LAN finals! Read the full match breakdown, including map picks, key plays, and analysis.){kind=link}