Eternal Fire came into 2024 as vast underdogs but after a Major playoff appearance and a win in the CCT Global Finals 2024, they now find themselves breaching into the dark horse conversations for any event they attend.
“With the right work, we can get to at least the same level as we did for the Major”Özgür "woxic" Eker
A tough opening series for you here in Cologne but you got the win in the end, how are you feeling?
The first game in a tournament is always hard because you need to get used to the PCs and the area, so it was a tough game but we managed to beat them again like we did before.
I'm happy about that, but we need to do more things to prevent the game from getting as close as this one did.
You've beaten Falcons before and had some other very good results this year, but when you go into these kinds of games are you looking at yourselves as favourites or do you still see yourselves as underdogs?
We look at ourselves as favourites because we've beaten these guys six or seven times before, we feel confident against them.
Today, we had a bit of a shaky start, we couldn't find our way in the second map and it's a bit hard when you win the first map and then have to go to the third, but their best map is Nuke and although we've beaten them before, things just didn't work out today in terms of rotations and communication.
We need to be more calm and careful, and then maybe next time it can be a different game.
Do you feel like you're still warming up into the new season?
We already rose up a bit, but after that, we went downhill for the two tournaments we attended and we lost our confidence a little bit.
If you ask the others, they're not going to say they lost their confidence, but I feel like everyone did because of the results of the two tournaments.
However, I think that now that we have won like this and if we win tomorrow, our confidence will come back and we'll show the strong Eternal Fire.
In the first half of the year, you guys took Turkish CS to a level it has never seen before by making the Major playoffs and winning a big event, how do you top that or even match in the second half of the year?
To the Major, we haven't stopped the things we did before that event or before the tournaments prior to that. I think that right now, we are missing some little bits of info or communication, but this happens to everyone. If we're all in the game, we can beat anyone, our firepower is very strong compared to other teams. So, with the right work, we can get to at least the same level as we did for the Major.
You said you feel like you have the firepower, so is there an issue of consistency that prevents you from doing it all the time?
It's 50/50, usually, our playstyle is built around two players at the start of games and then after that, it goes for the team. We take the space, we flash for them, and if they get the kill then we know what to do, if they don't, we have a different plan.
Sometimes these things don't work and when they don't we occasionally have an issue with coming back in the round when we lose one or two people.
It's a bad thing for us, but it's also a good thing for us because usually, we have 70%-80% of the time that our special, firepower rounds are working for us.
You mentioned your dip earlier, so with that in mind, what are the expectations for the event?
Of course, the expectation is to make it to the LANXESS, but before that, we need to win the next games to get there.
The main goal is going to the final. After making the Major playoffs, we won't be satisfied just making playoffs and then losing in the first round. Even if it might be a good result for other teams, it wouldn't be a good result for us. We were going up, then going down, and we need to get back to our level again.
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