Fabre: "When I came to this team, I promised XANTARES he would make the top 20"

Eternal Fire's coach talks about the team's hot start to 2025, the impact of jottAAA's addition, XANTARES' first top 20 and Fabre's dynamic with MAJ3R.

After bringing in Samet "⁠jottAAA⁠" Köklü in the off-season for Buğra "⁠Calyx⁠" Arkın, Eternal Fire have gotten off to a hot start in 2025 with a run to the grand final at BLAST Bounty and to the playoffs at IEM Katowice.

As the team prepares to make its first appearance in the Spodek Arena in their quarter-final bout against The MongolZ, HLTV spoke to Eternal Fire's coach, Sezgin "⁠Fabre⁠" Kalaycı.

The 34-year-old delved into how learnings from 2024 and the new addition helped reinvigorate the team in the new year and their chances to make a consecutive final run in what appears to be a favorable route.

The coach also spoke about each of his teammates, the personal dynamic between him and Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli, who he personally brought back into the team after joining the organization in late 2022, the immense talent and passion of Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş, the "unstoppable" Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker and a "stable top 20 player" in the making Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın.

This interview was conducted through a translator, Eternal Fire General Manager Cenk Sevinc.

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Heading into the new year you said goodbye to Calyx and brought in jottAAA. How did the team decide this was the change you needed?

jottAAA was a player we already tried before, but he wasn't ready at that time from our perspective. After his loan with Sangal, we saw he's ready and capable of handling this. It was perfect timing and we did that. He's proving right now that he's ready.

It seems to have reinvigorated the team going into the new year.

We have started very well this year, better than expected. This makes us happy.

For me, 50% of this status is that we learned a lot of lessons from 2024. Those lessons we took to the server. We inspected 2024 deeply and we got a lot of lessons from that, and we used those lessons to start this year. The other half of the success is coming from jottAAA, he's become involved very well and he's a very positive player.

You have stepped into the year with excellent results, second place at Bounty and now being in the playoffs at IEM Katowice. A lot of teams have changed around you as well, but you outperformed all of them and even beat a lot of those teams. Why do you think Eternal Fire were able to take advantage so early on when others couldn't?

The roster changes from other teams, if they affected the competition level or not, we don't know. We don't look at that. We focus mostly on ourselves. We made system changes, which includes working with a sports psychologist, a sports performance coach, better bootcamp environments and in-game system changes with jottAAA.

The system changed a lot from our side, in-game and outside of the game. This is more about us more than roster changes from other teams. It looks like it's working well, but for the future, we'll need to see.

You said half of your success is thanks to the jottAAA addition. What has he brought to the team that is so different?

jottAAA mostly brings us a communication level upgrade. In-game he brings a positive energy, a lot. Before, the TeamSpeak was not as loud, but now it is more active and passionate in-game. He brings us very good communication and positive energy.

Given your experience advantage over The MongolZ and considering the track record against Vitality, how do you see your chances of another final run?

We believe we will get to the final. We played MongolZ before five times and two times we won, three times they won, and their playstyle is similar to us, we know that. They are a firepower-based team and, most of the time, we are skilled and we are putting that skill into the game, so it's very similar aspects.

Vitality have always been a strong team, but we always have good vibes versus them. Also our luck was on our side on time versus them. I think our playstyle is giving them trouble. I'm not sure what makes us perform extra versus Vitality, but I believe our players are extra motivated to play versus them.

What do you think you've been missing from finally winning that title? You made it to two big finals, one close and one not so much.

First, the Spirit example, Spirit is a very strong team, so I don't count that (laughs). We played three different finals, but we only played with real character versus NAVI in the grand final of ESL Pro League. The rest of the finals we looked out of our character and other environments affected us more than in-game performance.

What is missing, then? How do you reach that next level?

If we knew, we wouldn't have this meeting and we'd have three trophies (laughs). This is an answer we are looking for. If you know, you can tell us (laughs).

I wanted to go back to when you joined Eternal Fire back in 2022. MAJ3R said that you were the reason why he was brought into the team shortly after. This seemed to be a big turning point for the team, it stabilized the team after a long string of changes. How important was that combination with MAJ3R to you?

I was coming directly from in-game, I was a professional player, and I always believed stability was more important than anything. I knew it. Two weeks after I joined the team, after analyzing the system in the team, I was sure that without a main in-game leader, we could not move forward. I went directly to MAJ3R to bring him back into the team. But, at that moment, I knew MAJ3R as a successful player, but I had never met him in person. But even though I hadn't, I was pretty sure he was the guy we needed.

I can tell honestly that, because of me, he improved his IGL ability, and because of him, I improved my coaching ability. We are staying in the same room, which was a decision I made to be close to with the IGL and to handle stuff together and create more ideas, spend time with each other outside of the server, and work on even sleeping (laughs).

How is it possible that you never came across each other when both of you are veterans of the scene?

We were playing in the same age in 1.6, I was known in Turkey and he was known more globally. Of course we knew each other, but we never had the chance to meet in person. Of course on the server we met at some point, but never in person. He was more focused on the French scene in that moment, he was also playing there for a long time at that point.

You touched on your dynamic with MAJ3R there. You've spoken fondly about each other, what is special about that dynamic that makes it work?

We're both normal people. We don't have a big ego, we both know CS and we both know that we both know CS.

Is it then more important to be on the same page to you? How much do you challenge one another?

We have clashes of ideas, but it's rarely. Most of the time we are on the same page.

How do you delegate responsibilities between you? In an interview we did with MAJ3R a while back, he spoke about Fabre being involved with improving the players individually. Is that more your responsibility versus MAJ3R being more on the tactical side of it?

Bringing new strats is 50/50 most of the time, we share that together, but which tactic will be activated is mostly my decision to make. The final voice is mine, but MAJ3R brings a lot of tactics, and we are good with that [dynamic].

When I refuse a tactic, it's not because of MAJ3R brought a bad tactic, he always brings good tactics, sometimes I just decline because that tactic is not fitting our playstyle. That's the only reason. We are two people, but we are one unit on these things. Even though I have the final say, mostly I'm not using it as a power because, most of the time, if I reject his tactics it's all about not fitting our team.

About 2024, it was a historic year for the team and Turkish Counter-Strike. What was behind Eternal Fire suddenly becoming so competitive after a long period of struggles?

Hard work. When we put this team together, this level was too far away, but we dreamed it and we put in really hard work. And passion. We are doing this because we want to do this.

Touching on the individual players a bit - XANTARES' longevity in the scene is pretty much unmatched. He just made his first top 20 at 29 years of age, and he doesn't seem to be stopping. What is the reason behind this? Is he just a massive natural talent?

When I came to this team, I promised him he would make the top 20. I already told him before that he would make it. I always believed. He's a top-tier player, but even if he is a top-tier player, he's working harder than anyone individually. He's passionate to work and it's even inspiring me, to see that kind of high level passion and hard work in a top player.

About the top 20 case, his talent and individual level was enough for him to be in the top 20 from when he was 20. It's the first time he got it also because of team performance factors affecting that. But if this top 20 perfomance measured individual performance criteria, XANTARES should have been in top 20 for for the past 10 years.

But do you also see a new level of maturity in XANTARES? In past teams, in BIG, for example, he didn't have the same balance to his play as he does now.

He's in a very good mode and good positioning about that. The reason he sometimes looks mad is because he wants to win a lot. He wants to win really hard. In social life, he's a very good person. In-game he's also showing good leadership, having XANTARES is always a strong power in the team.

How much of the game is built around XANTARES?

Seventy percent of the game is put on the game plan around him, the tactics and the things we are bringing to create a comfort zone for him. We believe that if he has opportunity in his comfort zone, he can have impact.

We even try to make a comfortable playstyle for him in strats, but sometimes when things are getting crazy, he's doing sacrifice and doing crazy things for the team.

I also wanted to ask about woxic. In the past he could be quite up and down, a high ceiling but a low floor, especially when playing against the top teams. But in the past year or so, it seems he has stabilized.

When I compare the players mental and the game, how the mental affects the individual game level, woxic is matching with his mental. When he's happy, he's in the mood and everything, he becomes unstoppable. Even though he's a very experienced player, he's still very open-minded to learn.

What has Wicadia's evolution been like?

When he joined Eternal Fire, we gave him a 10-day trial. After the first day, I just said to him, 'okay, you are in.' At first, he was more about killing, now with game experience and in-game ability he managed to balance that.

A point of criticism I have heard towards him was his inconsistency. Have you tried to address this?

The more experience he gains, the more stablity will come. He still needs to learn a lot, but that will come with time. I like his learning curve, it's very good.

What is his ceiling? How much potential is there?

I think he's a player that needs to go to the top 20 every year. I believe he will become a stable top 20 player.

With him being so young and jottAAA as well, in a distant future when potentially XANTARES stops playing, is that your bet on the future?

Yes, they will be the first players for that legacy of Turkish Counter-Strike after XANTARES. But we don't know how the future looks yet.

Well, XANTARES isn't stopping at the moment...

Maybe XANTARES will even retire later than them (laughs).

After such a historic year 2024, what's the goal now?

Last year was the biggest year for Turkish Counter-Strike, we had four big achievements, one online S-tier win, a Major quarter-final, and two big finals at ESL Pro League and BetBoom Dacha. This year I want to bring more finals for Eternal Fire and Turkish Counter-Strike, and winning a trophy, or trophies.

Did you want to add anything?

To all the fans who support us, and all the community that follows our dreams with us, we appreciate it. We are thankful to them. Our club owner, our manager, all the other EF management and everything from the organization, thank you.