Eternal Fire officially announces the signing of the Ukrainian Counter-Strike star Sergiy ‘DemQQ’ Demchenko. With this addition to their lineup, it is clear that Eternal Fire has rebuilt the entire strategic core from their 2023 Monte roster, which shocked the entire global CS scene by breaking into the quarterfinals of BLAST.tv Paris Major.
But the signing of DemQQ has to be seen in light of the turbulent history of Eternal Fire itself. The organization was founded back in August 2021 by Turkey’s greatest-ever tag team combination in Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş and Özgür “woxic” Eker, with the ultimate goal of forming a “super-team” which would go on to proudly represent Turkey at the global stage.
For many years, Eternal Fire has served as a badge of national sports achievement, culminating in them becoming the very first Turkish team to ever break into the top five ranks at the global stage. This era was defined by a specific brand of high-octane Counter-Strike, powered by XANTARES’s world-class rifling and woxic’s explosive AWPing.
However, the “Turkish era” was faced with a calamitous existential challenge in April of 2025. The legislative reforms in Turkey, plus what was labeled as “insufficiency of sponsorship conditions,” established an unworkable economic context. Thus, a “regrettable” decision was made by the organization to sell its entire best-playing lineup to a Serbian organization named Aurora Gaming.
Right now, after signing DemQQ, the Eternal Fire roster looks like:
- Buğra “Calyx” Arkın
- Emrecan “EMSTAR” Çalışkan
- Volodymyr “Woro2k” Veletniuk
- Rigon “rigoN” Gashi
- Sergiy “DemQQ” Demchenko
- Kadir “ElPrincipe” Sivri (Coach)