Aurora’s Soulfly: Team shook off crowd nerves for Astana

Aurora recovered from early deficits to beat The MongolZ in two maps at PGL Astana, securing the tournament’s final playoff berth and earning a quarterfinal rematch with MOUZ at Barys Arena.

Caner “soulfly” Kesici, Aurora’s rifler, said in a postmatch interview the earlier loss to MOUZ forced the team to re-evaluate. “The MOUZ game kind of gave a slap to everyone, we slapped each other, ‘What the fuck are we doing?'”

Aurora trailed on both maps against The MongolZ before recovering after detailed analysis and a clear pregame plan. Kesici singled out Overpass as a map where team execution improved: “On Overpass everything worked for me, and MAJ3R and the others were really good, and we ended up winning.”

The squad held internal talks after Rio and the MOUZ match to address confidence and roles. Kesici described players agreeing to be more direct with one another, to rebuild trust offstage and to restore daily routines such as shared meals to improve team cohesion. “We all trust each other… we eat dinner, we eat breakfast together, so basically we’re gaining this team atmosphere,” he added.

Aurora has previously struggled in loud arena conditions, with players sometimes reluctant to take risks under crowd pressure. Kesici said playing in front of large audiences can make players more cautious: “When you play in front of maybe 10k [people], sometimes we feel pressure from the crowd or we’re scared to do some moves, and people become a little bit more silent than normal.” He said the team believes it has addressed that hesitation but will test the change in the Barys Arena.

The upcoming rematch with MOUZ gives Aurora an immediate test of those adjustments. Kesici described the earlier MOUZ loss as a diagnostic moment: “We played our ‘D-game,’ so we just said, ‘Okay, if we are playing our D-game, and if we show up with our A-game, we can win the tournament.'”