After three weeks of Counter-Strike, the finish line for ESL Pro League S20 is in sight. Two teams remain: Eternal Fire and NAVI. Eternal Fire have never won EPL, while NAVI last won it in Season 14. We could be crowning a brand-new champion tomorrow – an exciting thought.
Eternal Fire reach back-to-back Grand Finals over MIBR
Credit: ESLCS on X.
Eternal Fire vs. MIBR was the first game of the day, pitting Turkey against Brazil. In a landscape dominated by international teams, it was good to see a throwback match between two national rosters. As for the match itself – it felt like a fairly one-sided affair, with Eternal Fire reaching the ESL Pro League S20 Grand Final in a straightforward 2:0 series win. This makes it back-to-back Final appearances for the Turkish team, after their defeat to Spirit earlier this month at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade Season 2.
Eternal Fire’s win comes down to its star players showing up at exactly the right time. Wicadia, XANTARES, and woxic all went massively positive across the two maps, and that’s a trio that can single-handedly win any match of Counter-Strike if they’re firing on all cylinders. The thought that Eternal Fire could go on to win a true S-Tier event is extremely exciting, and they’ll have no shortage of fans as they vouch for the trophy in Malta.
NAVI end G2 hopes of a second 2024 trophy
Credit: ESLCS on X.
NAVI were able to put a stop to G2‘s hopes of winning a second trophy in 2024, after wiping them out in a 2:1 series. This is the sixth time that NAVI have beaten G2 in 2024, making this a really one-sided rivalry between the two. On map one of Inferno, G2 started out competitive, but once NAVI got going, there was no stopping them as they romped to victory. Nuke’s map two was a bounceback for G2, overcoming a fake NAVI comeback to close it out 13:11. Ancient was another story entirely. NAVI always looked pretty comfortable there, securing their EPL S20 Final spot in a 13:6 win.
The opening map was all about jL, but b1t stepped up on Nuke despite not doing enough to close the series there and then. The Ancient decider rolled right back to jL, who showed why he’s one of the best CS2 players in the world at the moment. Now, NAVI go into the ESL Pro League S20 Grand Finals as big favorites against Eternal Fire. Will they get the job done? We certainly think so.
