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SAW have been revealed as a replacement invite for Intel Extreme Masters Melbourne 2025, where the Portuguese Counter-Strike 2 squad will take over the spot previously held by Eternal Fire.
As announced, Eternal Fire withdrew from the tournament; however, no reasons for the decision were given.
A safe speculation would be a packed schedule, as Eternal Fire were confirmed to attend four tournaments in the next five weeks: PGL Bucharest 2025, YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025, IEM Melbourne 2025, and PGL Astana 2025.
#IEM Melbourne 2025 Teams Update
@eternalfiregg has withdrawn from the event. In accordance with the latest global ranking we approached the next eligible teams.@sawggofficial has accepted the invite and will join us down under!
Full details available in our blogpost. pic.twitter.com/8HQEXsmY0R
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) April 3, 2025
Now down to three, the Turkish outfit will have nearly a month to prepare for PGL’s third LAN event, assuming they make it to the YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025 knockout stage.
SAW sit in 17th place on the CS2 global rankings but are only 19th on March’s Valve Regional Standings (VRS), meaning they were fourth in line to replace Eternal Fire for the Australian tournament.
G2 Esports, Astralis, and FURIA, who initially declined the invites in February, have again decided to not travel to Australia — Astralis and FURIA for the same reasons as before, while G2 Esports were unable to obtain visas in time.
By accepting the invitation, SAW are set to attend their fourth LAN Counter-Strike 2 tournament of the season and their first since ESL Pro League Season 21, where they placed 12th-14th.
SAW have attended five events this year, with their best result being a fifth-eighth finish at PGL Cluj-Napoca in February.
Given their middling returns, it is no surprise that SAW are not among the favourites to lift the IEM Melbourne 2025 trophy.
The best Counter-Strike 2 betting sites have them priced at +10000 outsiders to go all the way, ahead of only BIG (+15000) and FlyQuest (+50000).
IEM Melbourne 2025 begins on April 21, 2025, with the first round of the group stage.
