Eternal Fire, MIBR rally for ESL Pro League Season 20 playoff wins

Eternal Fire and MIBR came from behind to earn wins on Wednesday and advance to the quarterfinals of the ESL Pro League Season 20 in Saint Julian's, Malta.

In Round of 12 playoff action, Eternal Fire rallied past The MongolZ 2-1, and MIBR overtook HEROIC 2-1.

The day's other matches resulted in a pair of 2-0 sweeps, with Team Liquid ousting Complexity Gaming and Team Spirit eliminating Imperial Esports.

The group stage of the $750,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event divided 32 teams into four groups that competed in triple-elimination brackets, with each match best-of-three. The top four teams from each group moved into the playoff bracket.

Group winners advanced straight into the playoff quarterfinals. Runners-up advanced to the Round of 12, third-place teams moved to the Round of 16 as high seeds and fourth-place teams started in the Round of 16 as low seeds.

The single-elimination playoff bracket features best-of-three matches until the best-of-five grand final Sunday.

The winner will receive $170,000 and will qualify for the first ESL Pro Tour Championship of 2025.

On Wednesday, The MongolZ opened with a 16-13 overtime victory on Mirage, but Eternal Fire responded by capturing Anubis 13-9 and Inferno 13-11. Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dortkardes paced Eternal Fire's all-Turkish roster with 65 kills and a plus-21 kill-death differential. Munkhbold "Senzu" Azbayar The MongolZ's all-Mongolian squad with 60 kills and a plus-13 K-D differential.

After HEROIC claimed Mirage 13-9, MIBR won 13-10 on Anubis and 13-5 on Nuke. Felipe "insani" Yuji led all-Brazilian MIBR with 51 kills and a plus-7 K-D differential. Denmark's Rasmus "sjuush" Beck wound up with 53 kills and a plus-7 K-D differential for HEROIC.

Liquid got past Complexity 13-2 on Nuke, 13-7 on Anubis behind 40 kills and a plus-21 K-D differential from Poland's Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak. The United States' Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski finished with 24 kills and a minus-4 K-D differential for Complexity.

Team Spirit toppled Imperial Esports 16-13 in overtime on Nuke, then 13-3 on Dust II. Two Russians, Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov and Danil "donk" Kryshkovets, each had 32 kills for Spirit. Brazil's Lucas "decenty" Bacelar registered 30 kills for Imperial.

The quarterfinal schedule:

Thursday

Team Vitality vs. Eternal Fire

M80 vs. MIBR

Friday

G2 Esports vs. Team Liquid

Natus Vincere vs. Team Spirit

ESL Pro League Season 20 prize pool (money, BLAST Premier points):

1. $170,000, 2,000 points

2. $80,000, 1,400

3-4. $45,000, 750

5-8. $32,000, 275

9-12. $23,500, no points -- The MongolZ, HEROIC, Complexity Gaming, Imperial Esports

13-16. $17,500, no points -- BIG, Virtus.pro, FaZe Clan, FURIA Esports

17-20. $12,000, no points -- Sangal Esports, 3DMAX, MOUZ, RED Canids

21-28. $7,000, no points -- Ninjas in Pyjamas, FlyQuest, 9z Team, Wildcard, Fnatic, Astralis, Team Falcons, ATOX Esports

29-32. $3,500, no points -- Lynn Vision Gaming, KOI, Rooster, ENCE

--Field Level Media