MAJ3R: "We switched positions on Nuke against MOUZ specially"

MAJ3R revealed that the experience Eternal Fire gained in their first BO3 against MOUZ at BetBoom Dacha allowed the team to make some key adjustments.

Eternal Fire have shattered expectations by making the grand final of BetBoom Dacha Belgrade S2, doing so via a hard-fought upset win over world No. 3 MOUZ. The Turkish squad's victory is even more impressive considering MOUZ brushed them aside 2-0 earlier in the tournament.

Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli revealed to HLTV that his team's earlier experience was pivotal in achieving their momentous win, as it resulted in a change of veto and a change in CT positions for the rematch.

With a grand final against Spirit on the horizon, MAJ3R sat down for a talk with HLTV to give his thoughts on their win over MOUZ and what this tournament run means for Eternal Fire.

If you cannot see the SoundCloud embed below, you can listen to the interview here.

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How does it feel to make the grand final?

Obviously it's a very good feeling, I'm very happy about this victory against MOUZ because they are a really great team. I'm happy to play in the final tomorrow, I'm very excited.

That was a really intense series to watch, what was it like to play?

Yeah it was really intense to play (laughs). It was amazing to play, I really enjoyed this BO3 and congrats to MOUZ for their performance, I wish them good luck next time.

Did it help to have played MOUZ earlier in the tournament? You had some footage to work with.

Yeah, we even switched positions on Nuke against them specially. I was playing Ramp in the first match on Nuke, but on the second I was playing Inside, so the first match helped us be better in the second BO3. Also we picked Inferno in the first BO3 while now we picked Dust2, so yeah it helped us a lot. We got some experience.

I wanted to ask about your pick actually, because looking at the win rates Vertigo is one of their worst maps, and you sometimes pick it. Is there a reason you didn't this time?

I think they are more comfortable on Vertigo than on Dust2, and I do the veto against them, not for us. So I watched them and their second ban most of the time is Dust2, so I say to myself let's pick Dust2, because maybe they would not... first of all, be aware that we would pick Dust2. I think they have a lot of analysts and people beyond, so I think they obviously have some analysis, but for us I did good preparation on Dust2, and yeah it worked well for us. In the end I'm very glad on CT side that we were able to finish and win the map.

On that Nuke in particular there were some really heart-breaking rounds that you lost. You lost to a Brollan 4K late in the first half, where you could have had a big half-time score, and then you had the 2v5 you lost on series point. What was the feeling like in the team when you lose those types of rounds?

For the Brollan round, I think Wicadia pushed door really early and gave an M4 and a kill, and I saw he was really sad about himself. I told him 'Big boy, it's okay, we need to keep focusing, it's okay, we all do mistakes.' just say to my team, round by round we can throw some shitty rounds, but they will also throw some shitty rounds.

This game is just about mistakes, who does more mistakes loses the game, for me. So I said to just keep doing and focusing on the next round, forget what's happened, because we can't come back in the past and change something, so we need to forget and focus on what we have in our hands. We kept good mental I think, it helped us after that to do 3-0 on overtime, and winning the last round on T after two set rounds that didn't work. I think in the last one we did well.

Spirit up next, what are your thoughts for that matchup? It's a tough one.

Yeah it's a tough one, I think Spirit are a great team with great individual players. I hope it's going to be a great final and hopefully we can show good Counter-Strike and a good face. Sometimes we can show a very good face, and sometimes we can show a bad face, so we need to find the middle of that. We are going to do everything we can to do good tomorrow and win this tournament, because the objective now is to win. We came to the final, we came so far, so the only objective now is to win.

How much does this tournament performance mean for Eternal Fire? You've had a patch of form that's not been terrible, but it's not matched the high of the top-eight at the Major.

I think after the Major we lost some shape to be honest. We worked hard, me individually but also as a team. Shit, I worked myself really hard to be back on the level I had in the Major, and I'm very glad today that I think it's a great tournament that we did. We are in the final, we beat MOUZ 2-0 which is not easy to do as they are a great team, and it only shows the potential that we have as Eternal Fire. So I'm very glad, for now I'm happy about our performance, but if tomorrow we can win the tournament, it would be awesome.