xfl0ud: "It was a very difficult week for us, but I'm very happy to win this tournament"

With a LAN event victory under his belt, Yasin "⁠xfl0ud⁠" Koç sat down for a chat with HLTV.

Eternal Fire were forced to make a run through the lower bracket to make it to the grand final of CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1, where they finally got the better of Bad News Eagles in a nail-biting clash.

The Kosovar lineup got the better of Eternal Fire in the tournament twice before, but the Turks prevailed when it mattered most to take home the trophy alongside the $50.000 grand prize.

After finally taking a trophy after a year and a half in the Turkish super team, xfl0ud took some time with HLTV to talk about the series against Bad News Eagles and his heroic ninja defuse on the third map.

Okay, so first of all, congratulations on your victory. How does it feel to lift the trophy?

To be honest, we are working hard and we are playing too many tournaments. We are winning, we are losing. But we had no success in these two years before we won the tournament. I didn't feel like the best at that moment, but I'm very happy to win, win that tournament, and get revenge on the enemies which we couldn't win against them.

It was a tough road. You went through the lower bracket to win in the end. How did it feel? Does it feel better to win this way?

To be honest, it was all fate, winning in that grand final against Bad News Eagles because we lost against them in the group stage, we lost to them in the first playoff games. But in the end, we won in the most important series.

Okay, and I have to ask you about your ninja defuse. Your team was losing and you saved them. What went through your head? Talk me through the moment.

Yeah, it was very funny for me because it was full eco, it wasn't a force for us. So we had only pistols and I told them 'guys I'm feeling' and they didn't tell me anything. When it's one versus three, one versus four, they told me just take AK and save. But I didn't answer to them and I just went there and I ninja defused and it was very easy for me, because they just planted for closed and not default.

So would you say that's your best memory from this tournament?

Yeah, we can say it was the winning moment probably. Otherwise, we will lose just instantly if we wouldn't win this round.

So at the same time as CCT, you also played the RMR qualifier and you made it to the RMR. Was it a tough week for you, because you played a lot of games?

Yeah, to be honest, it was a very difficult week for us. When we came here, we had to sleep only six hours and played best-of-three at CCT. And we were going to another area to play RMR tournament at another bootcamp area. So we just slept six hours a day. We played one BO3 at CCT, we went to the bootcamp area which is 30 minutes with a car. We set up there as well and we play best-of-three as well. We come to CCT again which is 30 minutes by car and we are playing one more BO3 in CCT. And when we are sleeping, we have a maximum of six hours, no shower, no toilets, A to Z.

And finally, how will you celebrate your victory?

I don't know. As I said, it's not the biggest moment in my life, but I felt very good. So I can just lie to you. It's not the best moment for me, but I'm very happy to win this tournament. Hopefully, we do more success on RMR and other tournaments.