Zergsting rejects claims Galatasaray are underdogs at Worlds 2021

Galatasaray support Onur ‘Zergsting’ Ünalan has rejected the idea that Galatasaray are underdogs following the team’s 2-2 performance in the Play-In stage of Worlds 2021.

Turkish team Galatasaray Esports have been one of the surprises of the Worlds Play-in stage. They finished the round-robin with a 2-2 record after convincing day-one wins over Beyond Gaming and Unicorns of Love.

Galatasaray are just the fourth team to make it to Worlds out of Turkey’s TCL, breaking through the longtime dominance of teams such as SuperMassive Esports and 1907 Fenerbahçe Esports.

Drawn into a Play-In group with Cloud9 and Beyond Gaming, pundits were quick to write the Turkish team off. However, they have been able to show their potential in Iceland, booking a spot to the next round of the Play-Ins.

Galatasaray are a threat at Worlds

Speaking to Dexerto after Galatasaray’s final match of the round-robin, a tough loss to Cloud9, support Zergsting was keen to dismiss the narrative many had applied to the Turkish team.

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“People called us underdogs,” Zergsting said, “We are not underdogs. Our supporters know we are not underdogs. We are a good team and we have played well here at Worlds. We have beaten good teams and played well against the teams we lost to.”

Group B of Play-Ins was incredibly competitive, but DFM’s win over Beyond Gaming on day three prevented a three-way tiebreaker. This means that Galatasaray will face the PCS team again in the first round of the Play-Ins’ knockout stage.

Daring to dream big

Just one Turkish team has made it to the group stage in Worlds history, with 1907 Fenerbahçe Esports then going 0-6 at Worlds 2017.

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However, Galatasaray are far from finished at Worlds. Their best-of-five knockout match is against Beyond Gaming, one of the teams they beat on day one of the Play-Ins.

If they can repeat their round-robin heroics against Beyond, they will face Korea’s Hanwha Life Esports with a place in the group stage on the line.

“It’s really hard to get there [the group stage] as a wildcard team,” Zergsting told Dexerto. “But we will do our best. But our supporters know what our best looks like and we hope we can make them proud”.

With possibly the two biggest matches in team history ahead of them, they will prepare to show Worlds that they are not underdogs as they had been labeled.