This follows after Eternal Fire, which were originally set to compete, requested to be withdrawn from the competition.
In the post, ESL said: “Eternal Fire has withdrawn from the event. In accordance with the latest global ranking, we approached the next eligible teams. SAW has accepted the invite and will join us down under!”
SAW was invited to participate based on its placement in the global rankings at the time, but it wasn’t the organisers’ first choice. ESL originally invited three teams, including G2, Astralis and Furia.
The official ESL blog post shared the reasons for the rejections. G2 was interested but was unable to obtain visas in time for the event. Both Furia and Astralis declined several invitations made by ESL.
As a result, SAW was the next eligible team for an invite, which the Portuguese esports organisation accepted. SAW then made a blog post online to share news of its participation.
In a rough translation online, SAW said: “The next stop for our Counter-Strike 2 core team is set. We are going to Melbourne, Australia, to compete in IEM Melbourne 2025.
“Given the withdrawal of Eternal Fire and our position in VRS, we were invited to fill the vacancy.”
The main question is whether it’s possible to see a SAW IEM Melbourne 2025 win. So far this year, SAW lost to Faze Clan in PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025. With Faze Clan set to appear in IEM Melbourne, SAW may have been afforded a chance for payback, but history could also repeat itself.
IEM Melbourne is an offline Australian Counter-Strike 2 tournament running from April 21st to 27th, 2025. It will feature a group stage with a best-of-three double elimination and a single-elimination playoffs with a best-of-five grand finals, all with a $300,000 total prize pool on the line.
What Happened to Eternal Fire?
It’s not entirely clear why Eternal Fire has decided to withdraw from IEM Melbourne 2025. Its departure from the event follows after several months of professional play from the organisation.
The team first played in Blast Bounty Spring closed qualifiers back in January. Afterward, it attended IEM Katowice 2025, facing some of the best Counter-Strike players in teams such as Faze Clan and Virtus.pro.
In February, Eternal Fire competed in PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025. Throughout March, it attended ESL Pro League Season 21 stages one and two, and just recently played in BLAST Open Spring 2025.
It’s fair to say that Eternal Fire has been on a non-stop grind since the beginning of 2025. Some fans on X have responded to ESL Counter-Strike’s post by saying that the esports team ‘deserves a break.’
