Match Prediction: Astralis - Eternal Fire | CS2 (CS:GO)
ESL Pro League Season 19Welcome to EGamersWorld.
We're continuing our preparations for the ESL Pro League Season 19. The Maltese championship will bring together 32 teams to compete for a prize pool of $750,000 and a trip to IEM Cologne 2024.
Let's talk about the group stage of the longest championship on the Counter-Strike 2 competitive scene. We'll look at what's going on in Group A, specifically the match between Astralis and Eternal Fire.
We will try to figure out which of the teams will take their first victory and eventually move to the next round, where they will play against the winner of FaZe/Imperial pair.
Here we go.
Astralis uniforms
Let's start the analysis of the match with the analysis of Astralis' form. In this match the Danish club will be the favourites.
The Danish club had a difficult period. They tried their best to "come back" to the TIR-1 stage, but they constantly fell short: Astralis finished top-20 at ESL Pro League Season 17 and top-14 at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR B.
At lesser tournaments, however, Astralis fared well. The world's most titled team finished Top 2 at Brazy Party, won CCT South Europe Series #4 and finished Top 4 at Pinnacle Cup V.
Returning to the S-Tier Championships, Astralis took Top 6 at IEM Masters Dallas 2023 and Top 8 at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups.
Prior to the BB Dacha, Astralis attended a number of other events. Those were ESL Pro League Season 18 and Roobet Cup 2023, where the once stellar Danes finished in the Top 16.
Just before the Long Convergence, BB Dacha Astralis finished in the Top 4 at CS Asia Championship 2023 and Top 8 at BLAST Premier: Fall Finals. The swing in performance is primarily due to roster manipulation.
- Astralis roster: dev1ce, Staehr, stavn, jabbi, br0.
The latest additions to Astralis are stavn and jabbi. A couple came in with Heroic, who they bid farewell to on not-so-pleasant notes. That said, it's a reinforcement however you look at it.
The debut tournament for the roster was Dacha, where the Danes finished in the top 8. Then the new season began, which Astralis opened with a performance at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European Qualifier B. There they took TOP-3, which was enough to pass to RMR.
Before IEM Katowice 2024 they played at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024. According to the results of the championship Danes broke through to the TOP-6 and it was enough to get to the BLAST Premier: Spring Final. The IEM Katowice 2024 Astralis failed in the dust and dust: took the top 32, not passing the Play-In stage.
Then there were two attempts to get to the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, but both were unsuccessful: TOP-11 at European RMR B and TOP-6 at European RMR Decider put an end to Astralis' participation in the home Major.
In the first match of IEM China 2024 Astralis played against steel helmet, as Monte could not make it to China. And if Monte had played there, the score would have been obviously not so crushing as 13-2 in favour of Astralis. Although, judging by the match with FaZe, where Astralis were a head and shoulders above FaZe, shutting down the top 1 team in the world with a score of 2-0, maybe Astralis are very loaded for IEM China 2024. In the play-offs of the championship Astralis, having reached the semi-finals, met FaZe Clan again, but this time they were weaker and lost with the score 1-2 and left the tournament.
Astralis Mapple
Astralis has two 100% mappers. They are Nuke with 9 wins in 14 matches, and Anubis with 5 matches and 4 wins.
They also play Ancient (66% wins in 3 matches). Still playing Mirage (9 matches, 4 wins). Vertigo with 2 wins and 3 losses and Overpass (2 wins in 7 matches).
Do not play Inferno.
Form Eternal Fire
We continue the match analysis with the analysis of Eternal Fire's form. In this match the Turks are playing as number two, but the gap will be minimal.
The 13-team world ranking team had difficulties during 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, and then started to play 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.
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.
History of head-to-head meetings between Astralis and EF
The teams have not played earlier in the updated squads.
Predicted result of Eternal Fire vs Astralis at EPL Season 19
At IEM China 2024 Astralis looked like a team that could finally return to top Counter-Strike 2. At the same time, Eternal Fire is a team that gained a lot of experience at the PGL CS 2 Copenhagen Major 2024 and a club that will definitely be a serious opponent for most teams.
Bottom line: total +2.5.
Bookmakers & Statistics
Astralis are listed as the favorites of the match in the majority of bookmakers and odds on them are equal to 1.641. Eternal Fire, in turn, are the outsiders of the match. Odds on their victory are about 3.163.
What the team performance statistics say
Last Matches | Astralis | Eternal Fire |
5 matches (wins) | 3 | 3 |
10 matches (wins) | 4 | 7 |
Also it makes sense to remember the statistics of the matches between the teams. The teams played 5 matches with each other before. In these matches Astralis won 3 times, Eternal Fire active consisits of 2 wins.