Turkish CS is back: What we should expect from Eternal Fire at Major?

The Turkish team, Eternal Fire, managed to qualify for PGL Major Antwerp 2022 and made top-8 at EU RMR tournament. The project was founded by two famous Turkish players, XANTARES and woxic, in less the year managed to secure the spot at Major. In this article, we remember about Space Soldiers, the Turkish CS scene, and what we should expect from Eternal Fire in Antwerp?

Inception

A lot of fans of CS:GO competitive scene, when hearing about the Turkish scene, will always remember Space Soldiers. It was a memorable team, that started from the beginning, managed to qualify for two Majors, and played against the best teams in the world. But after a big scandal with players’ contracts, the team broke up, and the history of Space Soldiers ended. Three years later, a new Turkish super-team appeared, which has already hit the top 30 world ranking – Eternal Fire.

But at first, the project was not very promising. XANTARES had a bad last season in BIG, which led to his departure last summer. woxic didn’t play in any teams since the winter of 2021, and his last team, Cloud9, was a failure. ISSAA also was an inactive couple of weeks, not to mention Calyx and imoRR.

The first qualifiers were unsatisfactory. This was followed by the departure of ISSAA, which was unable to overcome the language barrier. The young talent, xfl0ud joined the team. About this guy, I want to say something. I remember him from 2020 when he was a part of Boca Boston. This Turkish team managed to win ESEA Main Season and beat Sangal in the grand-final of ESL Türkiye Şampiyonası Winter 2020. But after a while, the four players from this team went to Valorant, and xfl0ud one remained in CS:GO. He managed to qualify for FPL, had a test in flusha’s project, Gorillaz, and after that found a place in Eternal Fire. With him, the Turkish team won ESL Türkiye Şampiyonası: Summer 2021, took second place at REPUBLEAGUE Season 2, and 20th place in HLTV World Ranking.

But two months before the RMR tournament, the Turks had problems. At first, Calyx was absent for several days, then xfl0ud left for a month due to a hand injury. Fortunately, both returned to the main roster, and within the last Open Qualifier for RMR, Eternal Fire was able to qualify for this event.

PGL Major Antwerp 2022: European RMR A

The start of the event wasn’t satisfactory. Eternal Fire played against FaZe Clan, the best team in the world right now, and lost 4:16. On the same day, they had a tough match against Dignitas, wherein one round, Eternal Fire didn’t have the bomb, due to which there was a huge pause, the round was played again, and the Turks won 22:19. After that, they lost against Vitality, and only elimination matches remained. Firstly, Eternal Fire took victory over Fnatic, then thanks to victories with a score of 16:14 on Vertigo and Dust 2. It’s done, the Turkish team is on Major. For the first time since September 2018, the Turkish team will visit the main tournament in CS:GO. Almost four years without a major, but they did it.

woxic as IGL

In 2019 woxic had a great season. He joined mousesports, won with a team several big tournaments, including ESL Pro League, was ranked the 12th best player of 2019 by HLTV and was one of the best snipers in the world. 2020 was a huge failure for him. The pandemic started, he played from Turkey with high ping, he was benched, transferred to Cloud9, where the deals were not satisfactory. Then an inactive during seven months, and Eternal Fire. In this team, he first took an IGL role. In a HLTV interview, woxic said:

Well, XANTARES started playing as the entry fragger with imoRR and I said: “I could do IGL for you guys, this is not my main role, but when I am just holding with the AWP I can just call.” Also, I am well experiences after playing with guys like karrigan and ANGE1, so I learned stuff about this game like rotations and everything, but the other guys had to help me as well because I was not the main IGL, and I was doing it for the first time in my career.

It’s a rather interesting case. We don’t have a lot IGL-snipers on scene. The most interesting ones are cadiaN and Jame. Now woxic has appeared. How he said, his previous IGL’s, karrigan and ANGE1, taught him a lot, and this experience is helping him now. This tournament was not one of the best in his career, but the result is the result.

As well, he was satisfied about their result at this RMR:

For the boys, we are really proud of what we have done because it was really hard to make it here, way before from Turkey, and now we just came back and shared our experience to help them and level up their game sense. They are listening well and working well, so basically, I am really proud because I am leading this team.

Many criticized him, saying he is toxic; speaks poorly in English; constantly has problems with him; he would never become a top player. But he showed that everything is real, even to creating a top Turkish roster, that can compete against the best teams in the world.

Of course, we can’t forget about XANTARES. He is 26, but this does not prevent him from playing, since he played 4-5 years ago. He underwent a major surgery last summer, but that doesn’t prevent him from playing at a high level. BIG was the first international team for him, he achieved a lot with German roster, and returned to home-country. Many have forgotten about him, thought he no longer needed, but XANTARES has returned, returned loudly, and is ready to represent his home country again in the main tournament in CS:GO.

At Major, Eternal Fire will be as a Dark Horse. In my opinion, the Turkish team can make Legends Stage. The playoffs can be considered a victory for this team.

Right now, it is safe to say that Turkish CS is back.