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Top Counter-Strike 2 doesn't think about stopping. We are preparing for the Long Run of a major championship from PGL - PGL Astana 2025 with a prize fund of $1,250,000 and a solid list of participants.
The championship will start with a group stage in Swiss format. One of the longest matches will be a match between Aurora - BIG.
We are trying to figure out who of the pair BIG - Aurora will be stronger and earn the first victory out of 3 necessary to get to the next round.
Let's go.
Aurora uniforms
We start our analysis of the Aurora vs BIG match with an analysis of Aurora's form. In this match the Turks play the first number one with odds to win at around 1.4.
Eternal Fire started actively making their way to the title tournaments since the 2023 season. Then the team won the ESL Pro League Season 17: European Conference, thus securing a spot on the EPL S17. The Main Event ended miserably - only top 20 and not out of the 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, jottAAA, 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.
They also attended ESL Pro League Season 19, where they failed, and quite seriously. The Turkish team took TOP-21-28. Then diametrically opposite situation at CCT Season 1: Global Finals and then - not leaving the group at YaLLa Compas 2024.
Eternal Fire got to IEM Cologne 2024 thanks to the ESL world ranking, but there they took the top 20, without having time to show anything. Then there were equally failed tournaments like IEM Rio 2024, with TOP-12 and failure at Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B with TOP-14.
The 2025 Long Season was followed by qualifiers at BLAST Bounty Season 1. There EF beat ENCE and Falcons. At the final stage of BLAST Bounty Season 1 Eternal Fire beat Vitality. They went on to defeat G2 Esports and advance to the grand finals, but lost to Spirit 1-3.
Eternal Fire played at IEM Katowice 2025. The Turkish club managed to get to the play-offs stage, but failed to defeat MongolZ in the first round.
They also played at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, where they finished in the top 8, which is not a good result, but not a nightmare either.
Eternal Fire started ESL Pro League Season 21 with an appearance in the first round of the group stage: there the Turkish club played 3-1. Once in the "real" group stage Eternal Fire beat MIBR, but lost to 3DMax and Liquid. In the match for life they defeated paiN. They managed to get through to the play-offs after beating Falcons in the basket 2-2. In the play-offs Long Sogpeggo was up against Spirit, where they lost 1-2.
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025 Eternal Fire Long Sogpeg with a clean win over Liquid. Later, they beat G2 in a very tense game, although with a score of 2-0. In the next game Eternal Fire defeated NaVi to advance directly to the semi-finals of BLAST Open Lisbon 2025. However, they failed to move on, as MOUZ got in the way and knocked EF out at the Top 4 stage.
At PGL Bucharest 2025 Eternal Fire became Aurora. They managed to reach the play-offs, but there Aurora lost to CoL in their first match, thus finishing PGL Bucharest 2025 at the TOP-8 stage.
Aurora Mappool
The best map is Nuke. There are 4 matches and 4 wins.
Anubis (7 matches, 85% wins), Mirage (4 matches, 75% wins) are very good. Vertigo - 71% wins in 7 matches, Inferno and Overpass - 3 wins in 5 matches.
Form BIG.
We continue our breakdown of the BIG vs Aurora match with an analysis of BIG's playing form. In this match the German club is playing as an outsider with odds to win at around 4.
In the 2023 season BIG participated in a lot of championships, but there were not many decent results. They started top-9 at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023, and continued top-16 at IEM Extreme Masters Katowice 2023.
There was also an appearance at ESL Pro League Season 17 with a top-20 there. The failures partially managed to overlap the top-4 at Elis Invitational Winter 2023, where the team reached the top-4.
In the middle of the year, the Germans failed to qualify for BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, finishing top-11 at RMR Europe and then top-3 at qualification. In the second half of the year they started playing CCT Series championships, where it is worth noting CCT Online Finals #1, with TOP-4, CCT West Europe Series $4 with TOP-2.
Back to the S-Tier tournaments with BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 with Top-9, and then Top-24 at IEM Cologne 2023.
- BIG lineup: tabseN, Krimbo, JDC, kyuubi, hyped.
Prior to the ESL Pro League Season 18 Long Round, the team played at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1 with a top-2 finish. There was also a top-8 at CCT East Europe Series #7 and a win at CCT Europe Series #7.
At ESL Pro League Season 18 they debuted with a match against Monte. The Ukrainian club fought honourably, but in the end they were defeated by Ledgeil with the score 1-2, putting BIG in the semi-finals of Group B at ESL Pro League Season 18.
In the previous match, BIG made perhaps the biggest sensation of the tournament. The Germans defeated Heroic, sending them to the bottom of the group.
Next, BIG played another big European club - ENCE. The Finns failed to win (1-2), but BIG made it to the play-offs, straight into the second round. That's where their ESL Pro League Season 18 journey came to an end.
BIG Ledge and Eternal Fire in the second round of play-offs with the score 0-2. Thus, the Germans took the EPL S18 top-12.
In the match before that, BIG played against 9INE. The Germans defeated their visions quite easily, closing the match with a score of 2-0.
Afterwards, BIG outplayed ENCE and advanced to the finals of BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023. However, BIG were not enough for the final as C9 won 2-0.
Prior to the Roobet Cup 2023, BIG played two CCT tournaments. It was CCT North Europe Series #8 and CCT East Europe Series #3. They finished in the top 16 at the latter, but won the North European tournament, beating Spirit 2-0 in the grand final.
The Roobet Cup 2023 ended quite well for BIG. The team finished in the top 8, and repeated that result at Thunderpick World Championship 2023. They also played at CCT Online FInals #4, where they finished in the top 3.
In the first match at CCT Online Finals #5 BIG played Zero Tenacity. "The Germans proved to be stronger, easily defeating ZT. In the next game BIG met Guild Eagles and were stronger, and very confidently - 2-0. Next, BIG faced 9 Pandas and once again the Germans were no match for them. A confident 2-0 against the Pandas led them to the final of the upper grid. There they slammed Aurora without much difficulty and later repeated it in the grand final of the tournament.
BIG started the tournament with a rather lacklustre loss against Vp, but followed it up with a colourful and hard fought win against Heroic. Even more colourful was the victory over Cloud9 in the lower finals match, where BIG shut out the "titular" Americans 2-0. However, it was not possible to come out of their group victorious and Vp repeated their debut success. Next, BIG fought Astralis in the match for the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2024, but they failed there as well.
They played at IEM Katowice 2024, where they finished only in the top 20. Before playing at ESL Pro League Season 19, the team visited BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown, where they finished top-8, Skyesports Masters 2023, where they reached top-4 and Thunderpick World Championship 2024 with top-4.
At the ESL Pro League Season 19 BIG got into the group D and qualified there by passing the "middle grid". However, they didn't manage to play long at ESL Pro League Season 19: TOP-16. Before the BLAST Premier, the team played a number of "smaller" tournaments, including IEM Dallas 2024 (TOP-8), YaLLa Compass 2024 (TOP-12) and CCT Season 2 European Series #5 (TOP-8). They also attended BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they finished in the Top 9-12.
BIG played at IEM Cologne 2024, where they lost in a blowout. There they took TOP-17-20, which is not an acceptable result if you want it to be. Later they visited BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2024, where they took TOP-8.
ESL Pro League S20 started with a loss to Imperial (1-2). Later they defeated Rooster (2-0) and Fnatic (2-0). However, they failed to advance far, as they lost to The MongolZ and finished in the top 16.
They also played at YaLLa Compass Summer 2024, where they finished top-8, as well as at CCT Season 2 European Series #12 and finished top-16. Partially breaking the losing streak was ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2024, where BIG reached the TOP-2.
At Thunderpick World Championship 2024 BIG became the winners of Group D. However, this didn't help them to achieve good results and at the end of Thunderpick World Championship 2024 the team finished in the top 8. Next up was an appearance at the much more localised YaLLa Compass Fall 2024 and a similar top-8 finish.
PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B, BIG started with a win over Sashi Esports. Next up were wins over Heroic and BIG, allowing the German club to enter the Major at 3-0.
At the Opening Stage of Shanghai Major 2024 Long Sogpeg started with a win over Passion Ua. Then they defeated FlyQuest, defeated Vp, but then defeated FURIA and got to 2-2. We managed to reach the Elimination Stage thanks to the victory over Complexity.
The Elimination Stage itself did not go well for BIG: defeats to Heroic and G2 led them to the basket 0-2. The final of PW Shanghai Major 2024 was also inglorious for BIG: 1-2 against paiN and elimination to the Top 16.
The start of the 2025 season began with a string of disappointing performances. BIG failed at BLAST Bounty Spring 2025: Closed Qualifier, finishing in the top 16, IEM Katowice 2025, finishing in 13-16th place, and Res Showdown Spring 2025, reaching only the top 8. The best performance (at the time of writing betting tira 06.05.25) was MESA Nomadic Masters Spring 2025, where BIG reached the Grand Final but lost to Heroic 1-3.
BIG's Mappool
BIG has 3 of the best maps in their arsenal. They are Overpass, Vertigo and Anubis with 5 matches and 3 wins on each.
The most played map is Ancient. BIG have played 14 matches there and have a 57% win rate.
The most unlucky map is Inferno with 2 wins and 2 losses. The worst map is Mirage (9 matches, 33% wins).
History of head-to-head meetings BIG - Aurora
During the last season the teams played each other once. Then BIG won.
Predicted result of the match Aurora - BIG on PGL Astana 2025.
In this match my bet is on Aurora. I think they will take this match, but a clean win is hard to believe.
Bottom line: +1.5 on BIG.
