Aurora overcomes jet lag, lower bracket run to make IEM Dallas playoffs

Turkish team Aurora has made a miraculous run to the IEM Dallas playoffs this week. After landing in the U.S. hours before their opening match against HEROIC — a game they unsurprisingly lost — Aurora has knocked off three straight wins including a little revenge over their day one rivals.

The group stage lower bracket win means Aurora, previously Eternal Fire, have qualified for their eighth big event playoffs in 2025 — a perfect record.

Aurora arrived in Dallas shortly before their first group stage match after their run at PGL Astana stretched into the final day. As a result, the squad had zero time to prepare or get accustomed to conditions in Texas.

Many weren't expecting them to take the opener against to HEROIC, with pundits surprised after Aurora took Dust 2 13-9. Unfortunately, it became clear that Aurora was out of gas the longer the series went on. They overcame an 11-1 deficit to keep HEROIC on their toes on Anubis, but ultimately Aurora couldn't keep energy levels high, falling 13-10 then 13-6 on Mirage to drop to the lower bracket.

But fight back Aurora did. The Turkish team dispatched of NA hopefuls NRG and Liquid with ease, setting up a rematch against HEROIC after their win over s1mple's FaZe.

This time, Aurora took their chances on Train in the opener — a decision that backfired heavily with Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich (21-8, 120 ADR, 2.00 rating) dominating for HEROIC.

But again, Aurora dug deep and found a way on their pick of Dust 2 13-8 before putting HEROIC away for good on Mirage 13-9. It's a remarkable road to the playoffs for the squad who looked down and out on day one.

"I'm happy that we made another playoffs and I'm really proud of my teammates," Samet "jottAAA" Köklü said post-game, explaining just how grueling the path to Dallas was for the Turkish team. Between illness, jetlag, and long matchdays, everything was against Aurora from the start.

This win was critical with Aurora now locking in their seventh consecutive playoffs at LAN in 2025. Much has been said of their "stage fright" issues with the team unable to convert any of their finals runs into a trophy.

However, Aurora's third-place finish at PGL Astana, combined with the month-long break after PGL Bucharest, has the Turkish team refreshed heading into Dallas and the Austin Major.

They'll open their IEM Dallas finals run against The MongolZ this weekend, a mirror match of their opening quarterfinal in Astana last week that Aurora claimed 2-1. For more CS2 news stay tuned to esports.gg.