XANTARES: "We've made playoffs at other events, but this feels amazing"

It was all glee for Türkiye national squad Aurora at IEM Cologne today with the boys overcoming their stage nerves to send fairytales BetBoom packing in the quarterfinals.

It wasn't the cleanest win Aurora's managed but a confident Nuke T-half and a multi-round run at the death on home map Anubis was more than enough for the Turks to get over the line.

Starting strong individually was Aurora IGL MAJ3R who decimated BetBoom early on Nuke, giving stars like XANTARES the necessary time to warm into the series. XANTARES spoke to N3bu1a about the feelings in the camp after landing the all-important win that now sends Aurora through to the semis on Saturday.

Congratulations on the win, your first time making it past the quarterfinals of a Counter-Strike Major. What's going through your mind post-game?

"It feels amazing. We've made it to 2-2 before, we've made it to major quarterfinals before, we've made playoffs at other tier one events, but this feels amazing and I hope we can be even better from here."

Much has been said about the team picking up a sports psychologist. Has anything changed in how you prepare your mental game due to this, especially for these big events and big moments? Because today you were on fire!

"For me, to be honest, it's always [about] feeling comfortable myself and not feeling the pressure.

"Personally, before the tournaments, before the games actually, I changed my mousepad. Maybe that's why I feel amazing in the game, I don't know why, that's it maybe!"

Coming into your 'home' map in Anubis, with BetBoom not having really played it so far, how do you prepare for a map that you have very little research for opponent-wise, especially when BetBoom put the pressure on in the first half?

"We had a little bit of a read in the game. When I throw some smokes, we know where and when they pop, then we always read them there. One round, it was 3v1, we lost this round, then they make it 6-6 or something — it started to feel a little bit rough.

"We lost like five or so clutches, but we made it very hard for them to win rounds, [but] the main thing is we didn't get any feelings like we were gonna lose or something. We didn't feel like this — I'm very happy we won this."

Stay tuned to dfrag.gg and our revamped YouTube channel for more coverage of the IEM Cologne Major, live from the Cathedral of Counter-Strike itself.

• Read more: IEM Cologne Major 2026: Your complete coverage hub

Interview conducted by N3bu1a. Edited and published by Nicholas "Taffy" Taifalos