Cloud9 crash out of EPL after 0-2 loss to Eternal Fire

23-9-2023 23:59

Eternal Fire avenged an earlier loss to Cloud9 in Group D to send the Russians home from Pro League in 21st-28th place.

XANTARES put up a 1.55 rating to power Eternal Fire to victory

Eternal Fire sent Cloud9 packing from ESL Pro League Season 18 following a 2-0 victory in Group D's Last Chance bracket, striking first on Vertigo (16-6) before hammering the final nail in the Russians' coffin with a hard-fought win on Overpass (16-14).

The two teams had already faced off once in Malta and Cloud9 prevailed, 2-0, in the Group D opening round. This time, however, it was the Turkish ensemble who triumphed, doing so in a fixture with much higher stakes on the line.

The Turks not only send Cloud9 packing from Pro League altogether, rounding out a dismal 1-3 run from the Russian superteam, but they now advance to the fourth-place decider in Group D and sit just one best-of-three away from picking up the tournament's final playoff berth.

Eternal Fire will play the winner of the series between Liquid and Lynn Vision on Sunday at 19:30 to conclude ESL Pro League Season 18's group stage and for a chance to earn that final playoff spot.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
24/09/2023	Eternal Fire 19:55 Liquid	Match

Eternal Fire had a phenomenal start to life on their Vertigo pick, turning to their individuals' raw aim to crack open bombsites and help run up a commanding 10-5 lead by the end of their T-side.

A triple kill from Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş' Dual Berettas kicked off the Turks' time on the defense, and Eternal Fire didn't look back from that point on, conceding just one round en route to a comfortable 16-6 victory on their map choice. Of particular note was Cloud9's toothless performance on the skyscraper-based map, with Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov (21 kills) being the only resistance to the Turks' onslaught.

Cloud9 started Overpass on the right foot, accruing an early 6-1 lead in a desperate bid to make amends after such a disappointing performance on Vertigo. Despite this, Eternal Fire quickly began to answer back with a stalwart CT-side to halt the Russians' attempt at forcing a three-map series. XANTARES and Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın, the Turks' 18-year-old young gun, joined forces with 13-kill performances to help their team win eight rounds on the trot and post a three-round buffer at the switch.

This cushion ended up being Eternal Fire's saving grace, however, as a consistently poor economy and an over-reliance on B-site rushes allowed Cloud9 to bring things back to a dead-even 14-14 stalemate. Alas, this resurgence from the Russians ultimately proved to be all for naught; the Turkish outfit, on the back of a timeout ahead of round 29, pieced together the two rounds they needed to eke out victory, 16-14, and close the series out in two maps, sending Cloud9 home from Malta in the process.

ESL Pro League Season 18Best of 3

Eternal Fire

Matchpage

23rd September 2023

Cloud9

Vertigo

Overpass

Eternal Fire	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş XANTARES	42 - 26	+16	93.9	1.55
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın Wicadia	43 - 33	+10	83.7	1.25
Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın Calyx	33 - 32	+1	65.8	1.01
Özgür 'woxic' Eker woxic	25 - 27	-2	53.0	0.96
Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli MAJ3R	20 - 32	-12	50.6	0.80

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov sh1ro	38 - 30	+8	77.1	1.19
Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Perfecto	35 - 29	+6	78.8	1.11
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov Ax1Le	24 - 34	-10	70.3	0.89
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov HObbit	27 - 34	-7	57.2	0.79
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov electroNic	26 - 37	-11	54.2	0.71

deserved for ruining my fantasy

2023-09-23 23:59

7 replies

2023-09-24 00:19

OVER $2M btw

2023-09-24 00:41

4 replies

Context?

2023-09-24 02:30

2 replies

its what c9 paid for perfecto and elec

2023-09-24 02:36

Apartment in the center of Berlin

2023-09-24 11:16

pocket change for an org like c9, if they get good in cs2 its going to pay off, but for that electronic needs to step away from the igl role

2023-09-24 11:20

Couldn’t agree more

2023-09-24 02:19

Ax1le back to form btw

2023-09-24 00:00

2023-09-24 09:45

Ax1le more like A1exib

2023-09-24 15:02

I can't believe people genuinely thought this was a superteam in the making. And nafany seriously died for this? Instead of having two decoys, Clown9 is now a team of five decoys.

2023-09-24 00:01

8 replies

hindsight is real great isnt it

2023-09-24 00:04

The roster is at least as good as before, they weren't getting out of groups with naphony. Only problem imo was what they did to interz... he took the hit for the team and still did ok except for majors where he played like how hobbit is rn

2023-09-24 00:21

3 replies

with nafany they literally made it to the grand finals last EPL tho

2023-09-24 02:10

1 reply

2023-09-24 03:54

nafany was the heart & soul of that team. the only thing they needed was -buster +perfecto. they should have let electronic to go to EG

2023-09-24 10:15

Look at the players man. Every single one is a top player in their role or the world except for hobbit. Imagine -hobbit and get jerry or even nafany back

2023-09-24 04:27

having great players does not mean great synergy. And this team has zero.

2023-09-24 04:37

Or, the igl style. I hope its not synergy, would be such a waste

2023-09-24 04:38

Shameful

Turkish Super Team > Russian Super Team

2023-09-24 00:03

Russian Super Team is VP.

2023-09-24 08:37

6 replies

so called "russian super team" with silent mir and lowtab f0me

2023-09-24 10:55

5 replies

you have problem with mir being silent?

gpk aka "s nulya stayu afk" but in cs

pohyi

2023-09-24 11:35

you don't need to be a top team to beat monte boombl4 owns sdy 2:0 btw

2023-09-24 13:05

Sdy in playoff btw

2023-09-25 18:09

ez :)

2023-09-24 00:05

If the EF Pistol gets a round, no one can hold it. <3 EFWIN gg guys

2023-09-24 00:06

EZZZZZ

2023-09-24 00:07

either get rid of hobbit or make him igl

Hobbit will be the first 0.5 rating IGL in T1. He is horrible individually and probably worse IGL than electronic.

2023-09-24 01:51

justice for nafany

flair

2023-09-25 21:49

I doubt C9 makes a roster change this soon. Even vitality need a long time until things started clicking.

2023-09-24 00:09

But things haven't changed for Vitality with time, they kept replacing players Also they kept an IGL

2023-09-24 01:54

What are you talking about? They literally went from losing everything to being major winners without changing a player. I do think that situation was very different and unique though with mixing french and Danish CS

2023-09-24 02:31

When they just brought Dupreeh and magisk (similar to C9 now) they were quite shit. Only after they brought Spinx they got better, yes, not immediately. And they weren't as dominant as now without flamez

2023-09-24 03:50

Oh shit I forgot spinx only came in later that's true I see what you mean

2023-09-24 04:17

Unexpected

2023-09-24 09:59

-shiro +anarkez

2023-09-24 10:10

Also vitality had to switch to English while c9 didnt ;)

2023-09-24 02:48

And vita had misutaa and out of form magisk and dupreeh

2023-09-24 06:43

ax1le need a break from cs and a good diet , dude is sweating overthinking making worst decisions in the whole tournament for no reason

2023-09-24 00:11

Poor sh1ro , nafany probably enjoys watching them play so bad

2023-09-24 00:14

Blocked

You don't have a pice of info so man, stfu

2023-09-24 15:03

EF look really solid, I think they're gonna beat Liquid tbh but I really hope Astralis don't end up playing them in R1 playoffs. C9 are absolutely terrible, who saw this coming? (me) Elec is not a good IGL, can people stop trying to force this agenda that he is now pls? Idc if his understanding of the game is elite, he clearly isn't a good IGL but you know what he is good at? Being one of the best riflers in the world, so just let him do that and bring in an IGL ffs.

2023-09-24 00:13

9 replies

i mean, Lynn Vision has a pretty high chance against Team Liquid so...

2023-09-24 00:18

I mean I'm not toxic enough to write a team out before the game has even begun but I'd be extremely surprised if Liquid lost.

2023-09-24 00:27

I mean, that basically depends on who's gonna be dumber tomorrow. And Liquid have more to lose compared to Lynn Vision in this situation.

Nah I think you are underrating Liquid, they look pretty good in EPL imo, waaaay away from where they need to be but clear improvement, I think they will beat Lynn Vision but fall to EF.

2023-09-24 00:45

Chinese smarter race than eastern europeas

2023-09-24 06:07

no matter who wins, Liquid or Lynn Vision. Both will be eaten by Eternal Fire anyways you mean.

2023-09-24 09:48

I would be too, but Lynn Vision still isnt a easy opponent

2023-09-24 10:16

İ dont think so

Wow what are the odds

2023-09-25 01:33

Xantares on lan brooooo

C9 is done

2023-09-24 00:28

Rip

2023-09-24 00:37

Imagine leaving NaVi for this

more like being kicked out

They said in a interview they chose to leave.

2023-09-24 06:21

Everyone by now knows it was their own call , how come u missed it?

2023-09-24 08:21

idk tbh. Oh well then... I hope they will come up with something in the end

2023-09-24 18:21

Bye hobbit

2023-09-24 00:44

I think C9 need switch hobbit to IGL and make electronic star riffler with axile, electronic as IGL is such a waste

2023-09-24 00:56

I think C9 need to kick hobbit and bring a real igl.

2023-09-24 02:23

yeah that may also work, but not much good IGL out there

2023-09-24 02:51

there's not many ruski speaker igl. H0bbit should call and let electronic star rifler. I always thought that elec was suppose to be a rilfer in this lineup? Maybe i missed the part, because based on scoreboards, if hobbit wasn't igling and still playing that bad then he should announce retirement soon. He's just not hungry anymore.

2023-09-24 09:51

agreed, preferably change to someone with high energy because every time i see hobbit it feels like even when he is happy about something, his memory resets like a second later and he looks all depressed for some reason

2023-09-24 04:16

He's staying in game mode.

2023-09-24 06:03

2023-09-24 01:16

Döner on my nacken! Xantares>Russia ez as that, i love it!

2023-09-24 01:18

Disband

Big YIKES, c9 hit the new low with this one

2023-09-24 03:14

yikes bro IJBOL

2023-09-24 03:25

"I hope so, I don't know what's happening tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow we'll lose and something will change" - MAJ3R he jokes now, but EF are notoriously inconsistent. would be nice if they finally got a good result though

2023-09-24 03:34

yeah we all know imoor will be back the question is whos leaving lol

2023-09-24 04:13

yep exactly. imorr always somehow gets shuffled back wicadia's doing well, so we probably won't see xfloud back though

2023-09-24 14:44

T1 "Superteam" finished 21st-28th in a tournament with Literal Tier 4 teams. Yikes

2023-09-24 03:43

ez game even toxic couldnt stop EF

2023-09-24 04:12

C9 igl Sh1ro seems to be a suitable candidate Talks: already he gives much input/ideas for what to do in rounds Laidback awper: he can continue his style of awp, which will enable him to manage team as well That too according to him if he needs (Cadian type role, where if needed he can take over) Tbh: i dont see much difference here anyhow in c9 atleast with nafany they had protocols Ct sides were frustrating for opponents New c9 ct is miles below that Axile significant performance dip(so much that might consider alternatives) Hobbit: neutral, he sometimes gets impt rounds/frags other times ..... Perfecto: a weird place, he seems to be in all the place, taking enter dules and dying Going for trade and dying, trying to hold site/angle getting beat on reaction peeks (Role seems not to be clear) Elec: someone pls tell him, just because ur igl doesn't mean u have to push everything and die So many silly deaths with no followup gameplan either by him or his team. He should step down and focus on getting some key positions where his skill can actually provide adv to his team

2023-09-24 04:19

2M downgrade basically

2023-09-24 13:47

-electronic +bot = C9 TOP 1 electronic only +W

2023-09-24 04:36

perfecto and electronic without s1mple, just sad

2023-09-24 04:40

S1mple makes every player better as he is.

2023-09-24 05:03

electronic left NaVi for this FailFish

2023-09-24 05:14

another confirmation that Blad3 is a genius

2023-09-24 05:20

Flush em.

2023-09-24 05:49

electronic wiwthh worse perfomance than Hooxi hhholyyy fuck

2023-09-24 05:59

C9 needs to either give Hobbit his previous roles and let Electronic handle Hobbits current roles or they need to replace Hobbit/Electronic with an IGL. Blad3 saying that Electronic was already better than Boom was 99% pure blue copium. Electronic needs to throw away his pride and realize that he cannot be a star rifler and an IGL and he is better at rifling than IGLing

2023-09-24 06:34

+1 but i would even try out Perfecto as the new igl. He plays extremely defensive on t side, rotates from site to site to show present on ct and could coordinate his teammates this way. In my opinion Perfecto normally has the worst aim in this team, hobbit needs confidence in his old spots, electronic should be the second star rifler with Ax1le and the team should be fine. Not worth a roster change after one terrible tournament, they should learn from their mistakes and work on them to come out stronger

He has great IQ too as evidenced by his clutches

2023-09-24 16:24

Perfecto to IGL is the dumbest idea. He literally has roles that are the last one's in action. i.e. Anchor and Support. IGLs away from main action, what are they gonna call. Perfecto is the player who is in the team because he is good at Holding positions, not because he is the best at making plays.

2023-09-25 18:54

smh nafany died for this

2023-09-24 08:23

2m splashed and getting rekt by wicadia xddd

2023-09-24 08:44

-nafany was bad decision -hobbit is mandatory -interz was bad decision only fix is shiro axile elec (rifle) perfecto (support) +a random russian IGL but everyone is taken/won't come to c9 :) GG checkmate roster ruined !

2023-09-24 08:47

I think sh1ro could IGL tbh. He looked very vocal for the last year. Either him or let HObbit try so he can ar least have an utility in this LU. If not, kick him and hire a real cis IGL Their clown coach is probably a part of the problem too.

2023-09-24 16:23

+1 bro

2023-09-25 21:05

C9 cursed org

2023-09-24 08:55

unluko

2023-09-24 09:46

I'm still yet to see a single round, including on NaVi, that makes me think electroNic can IGL. I'll believe it when I see it I guess. On the bright side C9 won't have any difficultly finding problems to fix. Great work from EF, it was especially good to see them get back into it after a shakey start on Overpass.

2023-09-24 10:27

2M for that LUL 'most firepower ever on one team' 'era incoming' 'rip vitality' russian fans blindfolded as always

2023-09-24 10:39

sh1ro carrying C9

2023-09-24 11:15

2023-09-24 12:36

Feels bad for C9, but I would still give this roster more time, I think they can be a trophy contender in the future, the roster is great, I think time will fix their issues, or atleast I hope so.

2023-09-24 13:34

Electronic is no IGL, -hobbit +boomich and give it a try

2023-09-24 14:26

I wouldn't change anything just yet.

2023-09-24 20:40

- electronic + donk - perfecto + magixx

2023-09-24 13:52

+1 - electronic + donk

2023-09-24 13:56

And still no IGL Nice change lul

2023-09-24 15:07

Super team? More like clown team. No matter the rosters and which country you are from Clown9 is just Clown9.

2023-09-24 14:25

The curse is strong

2023-09-24 16:20

Unbreakable

2023-09-25 14:26

C9 looked at electronic's underwhelming performance as Navi's IGL and said "ah, yes, that'll be perfect"

2023-09-24 15:04

Just to point out since neither the clownish esl desk nor hltv was able to mentioned it, c9 was the finalist of the last epl with nafany and buster..

2023-09-24 15:08

Despite this embarrassing loss, I do believe C9 can come back from this. They have a lot of data to look back on and fix, but they need like at least a playoff appearance at Sydney.

2023-09-24 17:11