MAJ3R on winning with XANTARES having a quiet day: "That means we are a team now"

Eternal Fire are into their third final of the last six months as their Copenhagen run continues.

Eternal Fire's 2024 couldn't have ended much worse. They had to watch the Shanghai Major from home, and ended up removing long-time teammate Buğra "⁠Calyx⁠" Arkın.

"Counter-Strike is an asshole game," Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli told HLTV after his elimination, speaking about how quickly his team's fortunes had changed.

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MAJ3R: "I wish players here to [enjoy] this time because Counter-Strike is an asshole game, everything changes in one month"

But they have begun 2025 with a bang as Counter-Strike's pendulum swung back their way and they qualified for the grand final of BLAST Bounty.

After a godlike Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş performance versus Vitality, EF then managed to beat G2 without their star man even close to the top of the scoreboard. But this is a positive for MAJ3R, a sign of the team's evolution.

Date	Matches
BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1 Finals
26/01/2025	Eternal Fire 16:00 Spirit	Match
24/01/2025	Vitality Finished 0:2 Eternal Fire	Match
25/01/2025	G2 Finished 1:2 Eternal Fire	Match

"Even when XANTARES is not having his best day," MAJ3R said,"[winning] means we are a team and that everyone is doing their job."

New boy Samet "⁠jottAAA⁠" Köklü is also impressing MAJ3R, stepping into Calyx's anchor roles with a different approach and a relentlessly positive attitude.

"It's not a small detail, in Counter-Strike," MAJ3R said about his mentality. " It's mental war every round, having someone who is always positive [...] is helping a lot."

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Listen to the interview here.

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First of all, happy birthday, and congratulations on making the final. How did that feel?

My birthday has been awesome, thank you very much. Making the final is something to be proud of but last year we got two finals and we lost both in BO5. Tomorrow, hopefully it's going to be the one and we're going to give everything. I'm going to give everything for it.

Do you hope it's NAVI after Pro League?

Spirit, we also have revenge for BetBoom Dacha, so both teams we have revenge to take. But good luck to both, it's going be good matches.

On the series today it was 0-7 Anubis, 1-6 Dust2, 0-5 Nuke. How did you manage to pull off the comebacks?

It's just about forgetting about what's happened and focusing on the next rounds. I try my best to do that with my teammates. I'm very proud of them mentally that we were able to. We get stronger and stronger every day because we do come back. I'm happy in the end that everything went really well for us. We finish on T side Nuke, T side Anubis also, and for my birthday it was really special and I'm really happy.

What's it like being the in-game leader when the gameplan is going a bit wrong. Do you like those situations because you get to prove yourself a little bit?

Yeah, like I said, I really like when there is pressure on me. Anubis, T side, I had to finish the game and on Nuke too. A lot of the time, against Falcons it was T side. I like having the pressure on me and control over the team.

On CT sides I try my best to call, XANTARES helps, but CT side is not the same because I play on some positions where I can't have the best information like Mirage B, or Nuke Inside. I'm not aware of what's happening on the map so I can't have the best call on CT side.

But on T side I really like this pressure. It's money time, I really trust myself, and today it was good for us and I'm really happy we won today.

One of the themes of the tournament has been your repeated calls, when you've gone to a bomb-site early in a half and sometimes it doesn't work. Then, at the close, you've had the balls to go for the same call again. Can you tell me a bit about that?

We can say it's my type of leadership. But now that people understand I can change it, it's a lot of mind games. Generally, I try to empathize with my enemy's mind. If I go B twice and they just wrecked us, if I'm CT I will say 'third time they will go A,' but no, we go B again. It's just mind games. I like this, I like these mind games against the other leader, other player. In the end, I like that edge, that stress, it's something I really enjoy. I've been doing this for 24 years now, I started when I was 14, doing Swedish tournaments in DreamHack. I'm used to it and I like that. I enjoy it.

I wanted to ask a bit about the mentality with all these comebacks. You said on stage how much jottAAA is helping, what is he adding?

He's doing some hype, he's also adding some motivation like 'it's okay boys, we lost this round but we can win it.' Because we lack that, I try my best but sometimes my mind is too busy, but it's important to have someone that motivates [the team].

It's not a small detail, in Counter-Strike. It's mental war every round, having someone who is always positive, always cheering for us, or some rounds where there's a mistake going 'no problem guys, I have your backs, it's okay. Let's go brothers.' It's helping a lot, I really like his character, mentally he's a strong boy.

For a lot of Eternal Fire it's been you, Calyx, the four experienced guys. Is it nice now to have two academy graduates, is it a more even balance?

We had a pretty good discussion last year if we needed to change Calyx for jottAAA. We took this decision, first event now we're in the final. Calyx is also a really good player, but they're two different styles of players. I had to obviously switch a little bit of my system on T side, strategically I switched a lot, I'm supporting more than entrying now. A lot of things changed but I'm really happy I've got two young players that are really hungry, they play a lot of FACEIT and want to win. Three experienced guys and two younger players is good.

What did it feel like to win with XANTARES, even if he got some really impactful entries, especially on Nuke, having a bit of an off day?

That means we are a team now. Even when XANTARES is not having his best day, today he was good but not at his best, it means we are a team and that everyone is doing their job. I think he's really happy also, it was a really important win and we were really happy when we won this game. It was the most stressful game we have had this BLAST and let's see what the final would be.

Last question, how much would it mean to finally win a Big Event as a Turkish team?

I will not answer this question. Every time I answered this question we lost [laughs]. Hopefully we show some good Counter-Strike tomorrow.