Engin “MAJ3R” Kupeli is one of the veterans of the Counter-Strike scene. A player with a background in French CS, alongside Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dortkardes he helped put Turkey on the map in CS:GO has their Space Soldiers team surged up the rankings.
Years later and now playing for Eternal Fire, the duo recently helped lift Turkish CS to a level it has never achieved before — the playoffs of a Counter-Strike Major.
With Eternal Fire on a hot streak and set to face Liquid in the grand final of CCT Global Final 2024, we spoke to MAJ3R after his quarter-final victory against BetBoom about what CCT means to the team, his evolution as a leader since Space Soldiers, and the star duo of XANTARES and Ali “Wicadia” Haydar Yalcin.
We can win this tournament
You're through to the semi-finals where you will play GamerLegion, how was the quarter-final match?
We played BetBoom and won 2-1, losing the first map very hard on Mirage, which was disappointing. We bounced back as a team really well on Vertigo and Dust II, it was the first time we played Dust in an official so it was important for us to show what we do in practice because we're really confident on the map and I'm very happy that we showed up.
How has your experience of CCT been so far? How are you feeling about the way the team is playing in general?
I think we're playing decent CS, so I'm happy overall, but we definitely have some mistakes to fix.
We like CCT because we won the LAN they did in Malta. We feel confident here and confident that we can win this tournament as well.
You mentioned feeling confident playing Dust II, how do you feel about it being back in the map pool? Are you happy with the change?
Yeah, as a Turkish team and as Turkish players we really like Dust and it's a map we have always played a lot. I would be happier if we had Train and Cache as well though [laughs].
It would be really fun to play nine maps
What about the map pool in general? A lot of people were critical of it when Dust was added.
Every opinion can be different, maybe some people like Vertigo, maybe others don't, and there isn't one truth. We can't decide which map pool is best so we need to let Valve decide that and changing maps can be fun. When you play an older map again year after year the meta sometimes becomes stale, but now we have Dust back maybe a lot of teams can bring new ideas to the map.
Bringing new maps can be good in general, and, in my opinion, I would like to add two more maps to the pool and then we can have nine maps and just change the veto system. Then you won't take maps out but just rotate them, and it would be really fun to play nine maps, there would be more strategy and tactics that way.
If there were to be nine maps in the pool, how many maps would teams like to have as a perma ban?
I feel like you'd still only need to have one, we are doing work in esports that is very special because you get to spend your life playing video games and I think adding more maps and more work can be fun.
It's not hard to only play five or six maps, you ban one and the enemy bans one, so if you add two more you have to play seven or eight maps and by day you could pick on a day that you don't want to play a map.
I think there would be more strategy, more tactics even in the veto because you could out-brain your enemy by simply not knowing who will pick what. It would create more work for the analysts and it would be more fun tactics-wise.
You'd need to have far more analysis about what your enemy will pick and ban and what you should do against them too. Sometimes now it's just too obvious when you get into a veto what maps you are going to play. Today against BetBoom I knew that we would play Vertigo, Mirage, and Dust II just by watching them and so I only did analysis on those three maps. I want to make mistakes sometimes, I want to play an unknown because they out-brain me. It's sometimes just too obvious, it would be more fun if it wasn't.
As a leader, the most important thing is to adapt to what your team needs
Around the Major you had some conversations with Thorin on Twitter, do you think you might be underrated as an IGL across your career considering everything you have achieved throughout?
I don't like to talk about myself, but some people would say that I'm sure, other people might say that I've earned my place. It doesn't matter to me, I'm just doing my work like I have for twenty years - I play this game because I love it and I love the strategy.
I always do my best, I lead this family like I have done since Space Soldiers. Before then I wasn't a leader, I was a star player and I started to lead because my team needed it. I didn't choose to be a leader, I did it because it was needed, this is the same as it is with all the important things in life. You can't choose to be a leader, it's people choosing you to be their leader, and that's what happened here.
It doesn't matter what people say, if people like me then very good, I like them too, if people don't them it doesn't matter because I like them too. I have nothing negative against Thorin, he can say what he wants because it's his opinion and I respect that. I just need to do my job on the server and if I can prove him wrong, then that's on my end, not on his.
How do you think your IGLing has adapted over the years? You used to AWP while IGLing on Space Soldiers.
I tried to AWP in Space Soldiers because we didn't have a sniper. I had to do it because we didn't have any alternative.
As a leader, the most important thing in the team is to adapt to what your team needs. It's like playing Poker, if you play poker and you have four cards you have to do the best things you can do with those cards. Maybe sometimes you need to bluff because your hand isn't strong, whereas sometimes you have a good hand so you have to play that way. I think Counter-Strike is the same, you have four cards as a leader and you have to be the most successful you can with those four cards.
In Space Soldiers I adapted myself because that's what the team needed from me. Now, in Eternal Fire, I don't have to do that because my team has a good AWP player so I try do something instead with him or my other stars. I try my best to make them shine and perform instead of myself.
What do you think is the biggest difference between Space Soldiers back then and Eternal Fire now?
The difference is that people know the game better now and it's become a lot more professional. There are more analysts, and more people on YouTube analysing things for free too, it's easy to learn team CS now.
There isn't too much difference, I think I have just gained a lot of experience as a leader in the years since. Space Soldiers was my first experience leading and I think I tried my best to do my job individually and make good calls, but I think the years have helped that.
Also, in Space Soldiers, I wasn't that good individually. Now, I try my best to be good individually, and today wasn't a good day for that [laughs], but at the Major, I showed what I am capable of and I did well, I need to keep it that way and learn from my mistakes back then.
A Turkish team will win the Major
You mentioned your star players, I'm not sure if you saw the recent article from HLTV about elimination games, but Wicadia was highlighted in that article as experiencing drop-offs in performances during those games; how do you address that?
He's a really young and talented player, elimination matches are really important and stressful matches and he just needs to gain experience playing them. I gained experience when I was first lead1ing and now I can feel that experience.
He will do better when he gains that experience. It's normal that he experiences this given his age, so I think he will do way better in the future.
In terms of his potential to be better in the future, with the idea in mind that Wicadia being better will also make the team better, how much further can the team go? Making the Major playoffs was a big deal, of course, but do you think you're close to a point where you can win tier-one tournaments?
Of course, why not? Believing is free. We have to believe we can. I believe that we can with 100% of my heart.
I said about five months ago to HLTV that a Turkish team will win the Major and we came close. If we had beaten NAVI then we would have only been two BO3s away. I think it's possible, everything is possible in life and the most important thing is that we believe in that. In one years time of course we can win tier-one tournaments, we can do way better than we do today. It's in our hands and our heads and we just have to believe we can do it.
How much does it help having a player like XANTARES when you want to achieve goals like that?
It's really important that we have a player like him. XANTARES is a star not only for us but in the entire world, so it's great to have him... but I think my entire team is talented individually.
I think it's down to just having more belief in ourselves and putting in more work. When we do that then the sky is the limit.
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