BIG through to Roobet Cup semi-finals over Eternal Fire

The knockout stage of Roobet Cup 2022 is well and truly underway, as BIG claimed the 2-1 series victory over Eternal Fire in their tightly-contested quarter-final matchup, going 16-10 on Overpass, dropping Dust2 16-19, and finally winning Nuke 16-7.

BIG continue their strong run through the online tournament following a well-deserved win over their Turkish opponents, after previously securing 2-1 victories over Entropiq and the world’s No. 1 team, FaZe. The result now sets up a semi-final match against the winner of Cloud9 and 9z‘s quarter-final series.

Meanwhile, Eternal Fire have been eliminated from the $250,000 competition, finishing 5-8th after their group stage run saw them triumph over higher-ranked competition. Their journey saw them send Imperial home winless, and they bested MOUZ in their decider match for Group C’s last playoff spot.

BIG continue their winning ways despite playing with a stand-in

The series got off to a hot start for both BIG and Eternal Fire as the two teams shared a 4-4 scoreline early on, highlighted by round-winning quad-kills courtesy of Buğra “⁠Calyx⁠” Arkın, Ismailcan “⁠XANTARES⁠” Dörtkardeş, and Johannes “⁠tabseN⁠” Wodarz. As the half was starting to look like Eternal Fire would run away with it, scoring three straight rounds and swinging the game’s momentum in their favor, BIG‘s individual play, most notably Florian “⁠syrsoN⁠” Rische‘s quad on the AWP, allowed the Germans to erase their deficit and enter the switch up by one.

BIG rode their wave of momentum coming out of the break, on the back of a Tizian “⁠tiziaN⁠” Feldbusch pistol round quad-kill and Nils “⁠k1to⁠” Gruhne getting the first ace of the game in the 18th, swiftly gaining an 11-7 lead. Eternal Fire took back the next two rounds to stop the Germans’ streak, however tabseN‘s side were able to close out the map by winning five out of the last six, taking Overpass 16-10 and a 1-0 series advantage.

Dust2’s opening rounds saw BIG take a dominant 8-0 lead, playing fast and aggressively in attempts to push either bomb site, completely overwhelming Eternal Fire‘s defenses in the process. XANTARES and company were finally able to get themselves on the board in the ninth, showing even the smallest bit of fight in an otherwise one-sided first half. BIG would continue their run of dominance, however the Turkish superteam showed a sliver of hope in the final rounds of the first period, taking back two for themselves as they entered halftime down by nine.

syrsoN’s AWPing was a huge factor in BIG’s success

Eternal Fire quickly turned things around after swapping sides, scoring seven out of the first eight rounds as the attackers, running over BIG‘s attempts to stop them and narrowing their once gargantuan deficit to just three as the scoreline read 10-13. Both squads went two-for-two in the next four as tabseN‘s crew reached map and series point. Facing near defeat, the Turks dug deep and converted the last three rounds of regulation to force overtime after coming back from all the way down 3-12. Five rounds of extra time later, Eternal Fire capped off their incredible comeback 19-16, sending the series to a third and final map.

The Turkish side secured back-to-back rounds to kick things off on Nuke, before BIG wasted no time in finding their groove and established a lead of their own, winning seven straight and going up 7-2. Not wanting to go down without a fight, Eternal Fire went three-for-three with BIG in the last six rounds of the first, with Calyx and Özgür “⁠woxic⁠” Eker‘s fragging output keeping their team alive at 5-10. Even after halftime finished, the game pretty much remained a walk in the park for BIG, who did enough to finally close out the series and not allow any signs of a comeback, 2-1 over Eternal Fire.

Germany

Turkey

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