"We are excited and very hopeful for Berlin." - Interview with FUT Esports MrFaliN

Just before the Red Bull Home Ground kickoff, we had a little chat with FUT Esports’ Furkan "MrFaliN" Yegen regarding his takes on their 6-man roster and their goals for the upcoming season.

THESPIKEGG: You will be playing on the VCT 2023 EMEA stage with FUT Esports. Are you excited about it?

MrFaliN: I think there is pressure on the team right now, but it's not very compelling pressure. I think everyone is very happy and excited to be on this team right now. As I said before, we are six people on the team right now, actually, the plan is for us to get the best five ready and go to Berlin that way. The tournaments we play at the moment also provide preliminary preparation for it. We are excited and very hopeful for Berlin.

THESPIKEGG: You currently have six players on the roster and we have seen small lineup change in the recent tournaments. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?

MrFaliN: This may be a little misunderstood, but it is an advantage that a player can be replaced when their performance decreases. If someone's performance decreases for a month or two, the sixth player subs in, who is constantly watching from the outside, someone who knows our every practice and tactic, so it's a big advantage for our team. Most of the teams don’t even have a legit sixth player. The disadvantage is that we play as five but rotation from map to map is out of the question. For example, on a map, I'm speaking purely hypothetically, if ATAKAPTAN is not playing while qw1 is on map one and Ata subs in for him for the second map, this will both decrease the morale of the player subbing out and it may also decrease the morale of the player who subs in only for a map. That’s why I think this is a huge disadvantage. I mean, of course, it also relies on the player’s mental in a way. As I said, on the other hand, if a player's performance is low, it is a great advantage to be able to fill his place, because making a transfer is not an easy task, more precisely, it is not an easy thing to find someone who fits the team.

THESPIKEGG: You made a slow start to the off-season, what are the reasons for this?

MrFaliN: We wanted to try Ata in those tournaments. Can he adapt to us, is his communication good? We looked at them a little because we did not have a training period with Ata, in fact, it was very short, like a week. These tournaments, except for Red Bull Home Ground Manchester, I do not count that, frankly, they were not very important tournaments, at least I think so, most likely the team also thinks so. We said, let's see what we can do by constantly changing players on the maps, can we provide something, do the compositions fit? Because the meta changes with every new update. In this meta, the player pool has to change constantly. Let's see if there is a character who can play the smoker in a place where only one smoker is played. We tried them all the time in tournaments. The failure came a bit because of this, but frankly, I don't think we will face such a thing in the future.

THESPIKEGG: You've played in tournaments like the VRL Finals before, but this is the first time you'll be playing regularly in the league system of this level, which area are you working on the most to prepare for this? Do you plan to make any changes to your game individually?

MrFaliN: Personally, I can't say that I added too much to myself. We're mostly trying to do something as a team right now. Because if we want to beat someone on the stage where we stand now, we need to be a bit of a team rather than personal success. At the moment, everyone is trying to go over what they lack. If someone over peeks, he tries not to do it the second time, or in case of a communication error, he tries to fix it the second time. We're going over these now. It's also a big factor for us, as we said when we were VRL Finals champions, losing means nothing to us, it actually means a lot to us. Because when we lose, we learn lessons, we see where we went wrong. The same thing will happen here, if we lose on this stage, I think we will learn a great lesson and I think we can make up for it.

THESPIKEGG: What are your goals for this year as FUT Esports and what do you think about this tournament?

MrFaliN: Being a champion, of course, as a partner team. Playing at least the highest level in every tournament. I think we are in a group that we can make it out in Manchester. I think we might even come out first in this group. It will be a great success for us, even if we are at least in the top two or the top four in this tournament. We think we have an advantage, especially in Brazil and the following tournaments, as we played together more than other teams. That's why the team is trying to play almost at the highest level right now. We are trying to keep up with that.

THESPIKEGG: What are your views on the new franchise system? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of this system compared to the old system?

MrFaliN: I have no idea about the disadvantages in the system, but I can say something like this as an advantage, I guess there is a Promotion League every year, I think it is a big thing for a team from there to be a partner. I think we will see a lot of Turkish teams in this league. It is very good for us to see this because it means that an extra Turkish team is a partner. I think this system is good for us. Especially on this stage, on the big stage of VALORANT, everybody expects that all five Turkish actors can do something, we expect it too, so I'm happy with the current system, but I don't know what will happen in the future.

You can find more information about Red Bull Home Ground on the events page, and don’t forget to have a look at our VCT 2023 Hub!

This interview has been edited for clarity.