MAJ3R on historic win: "I was pretty confident in myself and my leadership"

Eternal Fire's in-game leader was happy with his reads and calls in the victory over Vitality.

Eternal Fire pulled off a giant upset against Vitality in the ESL Pro League Season 20 playoffs to reach the semis in Malta.

In doing so, they became the first Turkish team to beat the No. 1 team in HLTV's world ranking in a best-of-three (they beat FaZe in a best-of-one at the Major in Copenhagen and Space Soldiers, EF's predecessor, beat SK at ESL One Cologne 2017) and also became the first to reach the semi-finals at a Big Event.

Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli, ecstatic from the feat he and his team pulled off, took the time to share his excitement after the grueling match, which ended after 44 rounds on the third map.

"I will give everything I have for my family, for my fans, and for the people who love and believe in me," he told HLTV about being close to realizing his dream of making a Turkish team play well and fight to become a regular top contender. "I will do everything I can."

The veteran in-game leader, who also showed his emotion when speaking of the happiness that came from beating Vitality, isn't getting ahead of himself, however, and says the upcoming semi-final series against MIBR "will maybe be more difficult" than the quarter-final bout.

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How are you feeling after that win?

Very happy, very happy that we won against Vitality in a BO3, they are such a good team. It's also very important for me because I am half-French, I played half my career in France, so beating the best French team and one of the best teams in the world is a very good feeling.

I am very proud, but this is just a match, not a tournament win, so we need to keep working. I'm going to get some rest, and then tomorrow morning start to grind again, working and watching MIBR because I think now the MIBR match will maybe be more difficult. I'm aware of that, and we will do everything to keep believing in our dreams.

I saw you were on the broadcast interview talking a lot about your dreams. This must be the kind of win you dream about at points in your career when it's not going so well?

Yes, obviously. My dream, like I always say, is to make a Turkish team play great Counter-Strike. To play in this tournament, to always play these kinds of teams, sometimes win and sometimes lose, but to make some impact in our esports scene for Turkish teams.

I spent so many years for that, I feel like I'm very close to that, to my dreams, and I will give everything I have for my family, for my fans, and for the people who love and believe in me. I will do everything I can.

It was a really tight game on Inferno. What do you think allowed you to get it over the line? Because even though it was close, you felt like the frontrunners in overtime, getting the 2-1 halves and they were having to claw back.

I don't think we stole this victory to be honest, I think we played really well. I was fresh in my mind, I got some good reads and I did some good fakes in overtime, some B hits were very good, the B executes.

I tried to find a lot of solutions, new solutions, new plays that we did not used to do, because it's overtime and to beat Vitality you need to do new things on the fly, read the game.

They brought ZywOo to B a lot in overtime when they were T and we were CT. I think I got some good reads and I was pretty confident in myself and my leadership.

It was a discussion point a little while ago about whether Eternal Fire were a tier-one team…

[laughs]

Yeah…

Is that it, are you a tier-one team now, do you think you can firmly say that? You beat MOUZ at BetBoom Dacha, you beat Vitality here, you can't get much more tier-one than that.

I just let people decide for themselves what they want. My only goal is to show good Counter-Strike, as a leader I want my teams to play good Counter-Strike. Even when we lose I want to play good Counter-Strike, good tactics, extra everything, my only goal is that.

If we're tier-one, it's good, if we're tier-two, it's good, nevermind. I let people decide, but in my heart, I know I can win against every team in the world, and today we showed that. I'm very proud, and I want to thank all my fans and family.