After spending years grinding Tier 2, Soulfly finally got the call that changed everything. New challenge, new environment. Legendary teammates who he once watched from the outside. It’s a jump that comes with expectations, comparisons, and pressure. But Soulfly doesn’t see it that way. For him, this is the natural next step, a chance he feels prepared for, both in game and mentally.
CS.MONEY Blog welcomes Aurora’s new player, Caner “Soulfly” Kesici. In this interview, he talks about joining Aurora, new teammates, things he already know and things he need to learn, feeling the pressure and surely, skins!
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How are you feeling right now? How has your year started?
Soulfly: I’m doing good. First of all, I started the year with high confidence and big dreams because I joined Aurora about a month ago. I feel really happy about it and very excited. We lost our last tournament, but I think it’s fine. We learn from it. Now it’s going to be good.
First Impressions and “We Have an Offer From Aurora”
Who was the first person to contact you about joining Aurora?
One day we were practicing, and my coach moved me into a private channel and said, “We have an offer from Aurora. What do you think about it?” I said, “Oh, nice.” I told him I was interested, and he started the process.
It was kind of surprising, but at the same time not really. As everyone knows, Türkiye has a very limited number of players at this level. I knew that if something went wrong, I could be one of their options. We even had discussions earlier, like two years ago. I was about to join them two times, but it didn’t happen for some reasons. I was really happy when I received this offer because I felt like I had to move to Tier 1.
I cooked a little bit in Tier 2 and Tier 3, and it felt really good to get this opportunity.
How did the team greet you? Was it serious or more relaxed?
I was always wondering about the mood inside Tier-1 teams. When I joined practice and officials, I realized the mood is always changing. On official days, you’re more serious, but sometimes also funny. You need all emotions, a little bit serious, a little bit funny.
Some days someone has a rough day and it affects the team communication. Other days everyone wakes up in a good mood and laughs a lot. In general, I really like the mood. It’s funny sometimes, serious sometimes. The communication is good, and I feel like I can improve a lot here.
“Woxic Is My Closest Friend, XANTARES Is My Teacher”
Who are you closest to in the team right now? Who do you send memes to?
I would say woxic. He’s kind of like me, a more silent guy. He was really close to me when I joined. At first, I thought he might have some ego, but there’s none at all. He’s always helping me. For example, today he helped me with some SSD stuff, which was very kind.
All my teammates are close, but woxic is a little bit closer than the others.
It’s interesting, considering you play completely different roles.
It’s not about positions, it’s about personality and environment. Woxic played in many international teams, so he understands different cultures. He created his own culture. While Wicadia for example is full-Turkish. I also played in international rosters, with Germans, Swedes, even Russians. When you play internationally, you take positive things from different cultures and build yourself, your character is growing. I think that’s why we connect well.
What about XANTARES?
XANTARES likes to teach. This guy has insane game sense and aim. I’ve never seen something like this before. It’s a pleasure for me to play with him, and I’m trying to get as much as I can from his gameplay, from his aim.
Whenever I’m confused about something in the game, I ask him why they did this or that. In strats or complicated situations, he explains everything really well. He knows everything, so I’m asking him in the game or out of the game, “What is your perspective? What do you think about this?” And he’s explaining to me, so I’m getting a different perspective. So yeah, woxic is the closest, and Xantares is a teacher.
MAJ3R can teach you something too, right?
Yes. He teaches the game, but also mentality. He’s around 35 years old and still hungry. He still wants to achieve many things with this team. When things go wrong, he stays strong in spirit and keeps being positive. He really helps us keep our mentality good in hard situations.
After playing internationally, is it a relief to play in a full Turkish lineup?
It’s always good to speak your native language. When I was 17 and joined my first international team, my English was really bad. It was chaotic. Hard times understanding others, focusing on the game, listening to multiple people at once. My vocabulary was so limited.
Now my English is much better, but it also doesn’t matter that much for me anymore. But Turkish communication is easier. You find the right words faster. For me, both are fine, but Turkish has many positives.
Read Also: MAJ3R Interview: Aurora’s IGL Talks Leadership, Soulfly, Istanbul and more
New Roles, Self-Confidence, Pressure
How hard was it to adapt to new roles in Aurora?
It’s always hard to adapt to new roles. Every role has different responsibilities. In my previous teams, I played rotation roles, but I realized it’s not ideal for me. I’m not the most talkative player, and rotation needs a lot of communication.
I understood that the anchor role suited me better. My aim is good, and my understanding of the game is solid. It was hard at first, but now I’m getting positive feedback, so I think I’m doing a good job.
You sound very confident. That’s a good thing, right?
Yeah, but I also have to limit it sometimes. Confidence is always good, but it depends on how you use it.
In CS2, for example, if you kill three and become overconfident, you might want to do more and make mistakes. For example, if the fourth kill is not 100%, you don’t have to take it. You already did your job. So yeah, I’m confident, and I think it helps me a lot. I like my confidence.
What’s something you still want to improve?
Sometimes I need to step up more in communication. If someone who plays alongside me on a site has a bad day, I need to take control. I usually don’t talk a lot because too many voices can be chaotic, but I believe I can handle more responsibility. That’s something I want to improve.
Do you feel pressure playing with legendary players?
Before I joined Aurora, I was sometimes feeling a lot pressure, and then I realized: “What can happen the worst?” I don’t know how I am doing, but I think I am doing well. Still, there are so many bad messages, people swearing, threatening and stuff, but it’s all good. I’m not using that much social media
But as I said, there is no secret. My brain works like this. I’m always thinking, “What could be the worst thing? I can get benched and that’s all.” But if I play with a winning mentality, I cannot get benched. Just be yourself all the time, and it will be good.
After joining Aurora, there was a lot of attention towards you. How did you handle it?
People always compare players. Everyone has a mouth, especially on social media. They won’t say the same things in real life. They just type on a keyboard. After my first match, I felt some pressure because my stats weren’t great. But people didn’t know I was playing from Türkiye, in an internet café, with bad PCs and bad lighting, and AC broken. While the guys were in Belgrade. But how can people know that? Anyway, I don’t use social media much. I just focus on proving myself.
Soulfly’s favourite skins!
Let’s talk about skins. Do they matter to you?
Overall skins aren’t that important to me, but knives can affect my game. I remember when I was playing with Butterfly, Karambit, Huntsman, and others knives, it always felt… different. So maybe it’s only in my brain, maybe nothing like this really matters, but I got used to playing with Karambit, so I’m trying to not change it.
Right now I use a Karambit Doppler Phase 2. I also like Ruby. For AK, I like Fire Serpent, Bloodsport, and Vulcan. For M4, I like Printstream — Factory New.
Final Words
Any final message to the fans?
To everyone who supports us — it means a lot. Please keep supporting us! We will do our best.
Soulfly doesn’t try to sell himself as a finished product, and that might be the most telling part. He knows where he’s strong, where he still needs to grow, and what this opportunity with Aurora gives him. Whether it’s adapting to new, anchor positions, staying calm under pressure, or proving himself in front of a demanding audience, Soulfly approaches it all the same way: with confidence, but without panic.
Soulfly feels that for Aurora, this is just the beginning.
