Salih "marqnue" Onaran recently joined organisation Futbolist as part of their Valorant side.
Competing in the New Pro Valorant Invitational, Home Ground by Red Bull, we got to speak to him about his switch to Valorant, the new agent Yoru and how he's finding life with Futbolist.
Interview With Marqnue
Chris Trout: What do you think of Valorant's latest agent?
Salih "marqnue" Onaran: The new agent "Yoru" is too weak to be used in tournament matches for now.
There is no agent you can drop to choose him. Jett and Raze are still stronger than Yoru.
So I don't think he will be played in the upcoming tournaments.
Chris: How have you found the transition to Valorant from CSGO and why did you make the switch?
marqnue: We have been following Riot Games events in our country with envy since 2012.
Counter-Strike is one of the most popular games in Turkey, but includes terms like Terrorist.
People think this has something to do with Islamophobia and because of that companies don't want to invest money for this game.
There are no big tournaments and esports teams don't support it.
When Riot Games announced the Valorant, we switched from CS:GO.
Also, Riot Games Turkish is very active in Turkey and supports the esports ecosystem very well, so it helped us make our decision quickly.
Chris: Are you excited for the future of Valorant esports? What do you think could be done to put it on the same level as CSGO?
marqnue: Valorant has already surpassed CS:GO in some countries; our country is one of them.
For the moment, players in Europe are hesitant to move over because CS:GO is incredibly active.
I think this will change in 1-2 years and it will be the most played FPS game in the world.
Chris: How are you enjoying life under the Futbolist banner?
marqnue: Before joining the Futbolist, we talked to other leading esports teams in our country and received very funny offers.
Since the day we joined this team, they have provided everything we wanted and we enjoy playing in this team.
Our club owners Cesur and Sinan are amazing people and they make their support felt at all times.
We are very happy to be at this club and we want to continue for many years.
Chris: Do you think your team will do well in the Home Ground By Red Bull tournament?
marqnue: We had scrims with all the teams participating in the tournament.
We know their play styles and we think our style goes against them.
Our goal for the first match is to move to the 5-game series. If we manage to beat NiP, I think we will play very comfortably in the next game.
We've been working for a long time and it's time for that hard work to pay off.
Chris: Which team are you most looking forward to playing against and why?
marqnue: We want to win against NiP and then play G2.
Playing/winning matches against these 2 big organizations will take us to another level.
We only have one thought while playing: that we ourselves enjoy the game.
When we do this, we show the audience how nice Valorant is.
Chris: Which team are you least looking forward to playing against and why?
marqnue: All the teams participating in this tournament are very valuable and it's important for us to play with them.
Chris: Have you got anything else you would like to say or any shoutouts you'd like to give?
marqnue: This is our first debut on the European stage as Futbolist.
I hope that we will bring unforgettable moments to the audience and represent our country in the best way possible.
Because of the coronavirus, the Valorant Champions Tour seems to be played in our region.
When these dark times are over, we want to compete and play in offline tournaments.
Thank you to all our fans and Valorantlovers who supported us.
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