woxic masterclass kicks off IEM Kraków 2026

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 28/01/2026

Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker produced a vintage performance to kick off Aurora’s campaign in style at IEM Kraków as the Turkish roster swept GamerLegion aside in 2-0 fashion.

The match, in parallel with Parivision’s victory against Heroic, began the proceedings at the landmark IEM Kraków 2026 event, which saw ESL relocate the event from Katowice to Kraków.

The Turkish AWPer recorded a 40/20 K/D performance in a 1.57-rated HLTV performance in Aurora’s opening match against GamerLegion.

Aurora recover from BLAST misfire

Aurora’s second match of 2026 saw the team fall to GamerLegion in an online match at the BLAST Bounty online qualifiers.

Despite the online nature of the match, the loss set off alarm bells regarding Aurora’s haggard and tired-looking form in 2025, which seemed to be carrying on to 2026.

Aurora looked devoid of motivation for much of 2025, suffering both from a brutal tournament schedule, and from their inability to get over the final hurdle over and over again.

Yet, their opening victory at IEM Kraków looked much more dynamic, showcasing an Aurora that had learned from their previous mistakes, outmanoeuvring GamerLegion throughout.

Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker rolled back the years to produce some aggro-AWPing reminiscent of his mousesports days.

The Turkish AWPer produced 10 multikills throughout the series, dropping 20 kills on each map, as Aurora dismantled GamerLegion in Nuke and Dust 2.

woxic stared as Aurora shut down GamerLegion’s T-sides on both maps, with GamerLegion only securing six T-side rounds in the series under new IGL, Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski.

In an interview with HLTV, woxic described his own motivational boost from the signing of Caner ‘soulfly’ Kesici:

“I can tell it’s like… When you are thinking this is the end of the road and we cannot go further, it’s always great to switch up and bring the new blood in the team. It gives everyone more motivation to come back again. ‘We have a new guy, we can try it again,’ kind of a thing.”

Aurora’s frustrations in 2025 came more from the very top of Counter-Strike’s elite, however the style of the win will provide encouragement to Turkish fans that the roster has more in the tank.

The offseason saw virulent speculation regarding the IGL position, with analysists doubtful that Aurora believed in IGL ‘MAJ3R’ Küpeli’s calls.

The emphatic nature of the win will go some way to improving belief in the roster. While IEM Kraków has a long way to go, it is a positive start for the team.

Aurora will now face Parivision, fresh off their BLAST Bounty victory, in the upper-bracket, giving the Turkish roster a tough opponent to progress to Stage 2.

For GamerLegion, their lower-bracket matchup against Heroic will also be an interesting study in where the team truly tactically are under their new IGL and coach, after a languishing set of T-sides against Aurora.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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