
Aurora Gaming coach Ashley “ash” Batye spoke about the team’s progress and working with the Turkish players on the roster in an interview at BLAST Open Porto 2026.
It’s still too early to talk about title aspirations. But right now, I think we’re moving in the right direction. As for timing, I think we’ll be more ready toward the end of the year. But I expect that we’ll become competitive fairly soon, especially given the caliber of our players. And we already have some good things going for us right now. So I’m looking forward to the future.
So far, everything is coming together pretty well. We have a lot of people who speak their minds. Of course, there’s a lot of experience on this team. We have players who have competed in Majors many times and reached the finals—players with extensive experience competing in major tournaments. It would be foolish not to build on that and not try to use our experience. So, little by little, a lot of good ideas are coming together. I think we’re increasingly coming to a shared understanding of how everything should work. So far, I’m very happy with this.
They’re really easy to work with. When you read things online, you sometimes get a less-than-objective impression. I’ve heard people say many times that XANTARES doesn’t speak English. Or that he’s very hot-tempered. And you think: “I don’t even notice that at all.” He’s easy to talk to. They’re all great guys. They’re nice, easy to get along with, and all that. They just made it to the Major semifinals, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve let it go to their heads. So they’re also pretty humble. They welcomed us very warmly. Everything went really well. I think, in terms of integration and everything else, it probably went as well as it possibly could.
Right now, Ashley “ash” Batier’s team is facing off against G2 Esports in their debut match at BLAST Open Porto 2026. The winning team will advance to the upper bracket semifinals of Group A, while the losing team will drop to the lower bracket.
Photo by Adela Sznajder, ESL.