With Europe being granted eight spots in the IESF Championship 2023 held in Iași, Romania, a qualifier was held to determine the 5 players who would represent Ireland in the next stage of qualifiers. Several teams hoped to land themselves a spot at the event in east Europe, which was subject to UK representation just last year in the 2022 tournament , with Wales sending a team to the play-in tournament in Bali featuring Emyr “eMy” Green and Morgan “m0g” Butler. The main tournament kicks off on the 25th of August, and features a plethora of other countries from across the globe, all fighting for a piece of the $100,000 prize pool.
The open qualifier was held on FACEIT on the 25th of March, where eight teams battled it out in a double-elimination best-of-one bracket. The winning team, who played the qualifier under Viperio (presumably for the ease of using a pre-existing FACEIT team rather than being supported by the organisation) fought through the upper bracket with relative ease. A decisive 16-0 win against “Just Terrible” in the opening round matched them up against another mix-team by the name of “CuckTomProject”, of whom they dispatched 16-10 on Overpass. The grand finals were an even easier walk in the park for the Tom “arTist” Clarke-led squad, who successfully put “CRY IS FREE” to bed with a 16-6 victory on Anubis.
UKCSGO understands that both Seán “Atrox” Greene and Jack “Gizmy” Von Spreckelsen were in consideration for a spot on the team, with Atrox being an Irish citizen, and with Gizmy being able to attain an Irish visa thanks to one of his parent’s Irish heritage. However, Gizmy would be unable to acquire the appropriate visa in time, and Atrox did not participate in the qualifier for reasons unknown.
Adam “AdamJC” Colwell shared his thoughts on the turnout for the open qualifier and their hopes heading into the next qualifier:
It’s good to have competitive representation from Ireland, for such a small scene with little to no investment there are quite a few really good up and coming players. We’re looking forward to competing on the world stage and hopefully representing Ireland well abroad if we’re given the opportunity. Looking forward to putting Irish CS on the map!
Team Ireland will compete in the IESF 2023 European qualifiers as:
Adam “AdamJC” Colwell
Tom “arTisT” Clarke
Matas “Extinct” Strumilla
William “Wiiam” O’Shea
Conor “conoR” McCool
Ciaran “biscu” King (Coach)
*IESF has not confirmed whether Ireland will be attending the main event, or whether they have earned a spot in another qualifier. From the information provided by IESF and on their website, it is assumed that Ireland will be in attendance at the main event in Romania.
Won the @IeSF_Master Irish Qualifier with @arTisTcsgo @ExtinctsCS @conorcs_ @WiiamCS 🇮🇪☘️ pic.twitter.com/Khk9KZ4KOB
— AdamJC 🇮🇪 (@AdamJCcs) March 25, 2023
