Aurora's international lineup picked up another confidence boost after beating Spirit for third place in Katowice.
The team's 1-2 loss to Vitality yesterday stung, and Özgür "woxic" Eker admits that it was "mentally a bit hard" to wake up this morning and have to play another game, but the win does grant Aurora plenty of crucial VRS points.
After the win, Aurora now sit at ninth in the live VRS, with a 98.8% chance of securing a Stage 3 invite to the Major.
At last, the international Aurora are back to the level of the Turkish one. But can they surpass themselves? "Why not?", woxic says. "If we play all the events like we performed here, we can pass it."
Listen to the interview here.
Congratulations on third place. You said before the game that this match does matter a lot for Aurora. Is that why you beat Spirit today?
We just played our game. We didn't say, 'this is going to be third/fourth game, let's not play serious' or something. We just did our own thing, [and acted like] we're going to reach the final, you know? We acted like that. So that's why. And it was an important game for us as well, for the VRS and the third spot with the medal and stuff. I think it's always good to have at least something from the event. It doesn't matter if you win or lose.
And is it a big confidence boost to beat a team like Spirit on stage, even in a game like this?
Yeah, we have been lately already feeling a great confidence against great teams because it's always ending up with a... If we even lose, it's going to be close games. We're just making little mistakes and stuff, and that's why the loss happens. So I'm overall happy about our performance, and of course, every game when you win, you're just gaining some confidence.
Yeah. And if you could choose, would you have third/fourth place deciders in tournaments, or is it quite hard after you lose a semi-final to have to play another game?
I think it's hard. It was tough, when you're waking up and you know you're eliminated from the tournament, but you have to play the third/fourth place game. It's mentally a bit hard, but it's kind of our job, the way it is. I really hate these games actually, the third/fourth place game, because you have to stay one more day like you're going to play final. So it feels a bit bad, but overall, we're doing what we're supposed to do.
Yeah. And on the team overall, I mean, it's another... It's two really good results in a row. Does it feel like the team's getting some good momentum before the Major and the end of the year?
Yeah, sure, if we just keep playing well. We're going to travel for the next tournament in Malta as well, so if you do some good results there, of course. Everything, you're just putting above and above. One tournament you're just getting three things better, and next tournament you're getting five things better, and next tournament you can get only one thing from it as well.
So it's always good to have experience as a team because we have such a fresh team [compared to] the other teams. But since we're just qualifying for the playoffs and gaining confidence like this, I think it's going to help us in the Major.
I saw someone say the other day that they thought maybe the Turkish lineup, the full Turkish lineup, might have a higher ceiling because you all speak the same language and everything. What's your opinion on that? Do you think this international lineup can have a higher ceiling, even speaking in English?
Why not? It's in our hands. If we play all the events like we showed performance here, we can pass it. We can pass the previous lineup and... But maybe we will never be able to, so you never know.
Vitality
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam
Aurora
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Özgür 'woxic' Eker
Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın
Ashley 'ash' Battye
Özgür 'woxic' EkerPast 3 months
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev