Reason Gaming announces “A Fresh Start” as they sign a new roster for UKIC Divison 1 Season 5 and ESEA Main for 2025.
Reason Gaming ended up having a very messy end to 2024. After dropping their long-term roster headlined by Alex “Byfield” Byfield in July they picked up a new team within 24 hours. Reason’s new lineup saw only Charlie “cJe” Everitt carry on from the previous roster joined by William “WFN” Maskrey, Michael “Prime” Fury, Allan “Speedy” Sørensen, and James “bevve” Slinn. Competing in ESEA Advanced and UKIC Divison 1 season 4 it looked good… for nine days. Misfortunate first struck as Speedy left due to personal issues, and 18 days later Reason announced cJe‘s retirement and subsequently the team’s departure.
However, the household name now returns with a vengeance in 2025.
Reason re-enter UK CS by picking up duo cJe and Fred “FincHY” Finch from ‘No Pauses’ a team comprised of ex-Reason players who qualified for UKIC Divison 1 Season 5 after placing second in Divison 2. Since their qualification, the team (who were previously a mix) has parted ways with Dragos “N0R1” Negrea, Ben “RezzeD” Bignall, and Adrian “Cha0s” Zielinski.
cJe and FincHY are familiar faces to the organisation after previously playing on the inaugural UK CS roster Reason picked up in 2024. Even though the last Reason Gaming roster didn’t quite meet the organisation’s expectations they still achieved a second-place finish at Insomnia72, losing to Verdant in the finals. cJe who IGLed the previous roster will be maintaining captaincy within the new Reason team.
FincHY and cJe return to Reason Gaming
Next up is AWPer James “Flicky” Errington who returns to competitive CS after a hiatus following his benching on The Last Resort in August 2024. During his time at TLR, he made back-to-back UKIC Division 1 playoffs in 2024 as well as making top four at EPIC.LAN 42.
The roster is rounded out by Ukrainian duo Mykhailo “m1she4ka” Sakach and Vitaliy “v1ze” Filatov. Both come with experience playing in the European tier two circuit on Lazer Cats. m1she4ka played on the roster for a significant amount of time playing numerous HLTV events, most notably winning ROG Summer Cup 2023, a Ukrainian online event. Alongside that, v1ze is a known name to UK CS as he played in two UK qualifiers in 2022 under the name ‘tokyoxd‘, finding limited success in both attempts.
The British core takes over an ESEA Main spot from m1she4ka and v1ze‘s previous team ‘Chroma”. They had to play with Dmytro “t0kk” Petrenchuk instead of Flicky for the first three games in ESEA main to retain the spot but still held a strong 4-1 record including a dominant win over UK side Glitchtech.
Reason Gaming spoke about their return in a press release:
We believe that this lineup will perform well in the forthcoming UKIcircuit season 5 and offline competitions in the coming months, leading the helm is CJE who will resume role as IGL. The CS2 meta that Reason Gaming formerly controlled is very different from the one that exists today. With businesses investing large sums of money on analytics, coaching, and infrastructure, the competitive landscape is more crowded. Reason Gaming must overcome these obstacles and adjust to the current esport environment if it is to regain its place among the top.
Moreover, re-establishing a fan base in an era dominated by social media and content creation will be crucial. Engaging with fans through live streams, behind-the-scenes content, and community events will be instrumental in rebuilding the brand’s presence.
Captain cJe also spoke about rejoining Reason Gaming and the ambition for the team:
Returning to Reason is massive. Before I left, it felt like home—the perfect environment for playing CS at the highest level. Honestly, I never thought I’d come back, but Counter-Strike has a way of pulling me back in. Now, I’m more driven and focused than ever, ready to push myself beyond what I’ve achieved before. We have big ambitions to reach the top and become the best Reason roster to date, proving all the doubters wrong.
Reason Gaming will have to play the first four games in UKIC Divison 1 with RezzeD instead of Flicky as they have to maintain their core from last season.
Reason Gaming entering 2025 will be:
Charlie “cJe” Everitt
Fred “FincHY” Finch
James “Flicky” Errington
Mykhailo “m1she4ka” Sakach
Vitaliy “v1ze” Filatov
New year, new season, new team… Introducing our CS2 team to compete in @UKICircuit Season 5 and beyond!
🇬🇧 Charlie ‘CJE‘ Everitt
🇺🇦 Vitaliy ‘v1ze‘ Filatov
🇺🇦 Mykhailo ‘m1she4ka‘ Sakach
🇬🇧 James ‘Flicky‘ Errington
🇬🇧 Fred ‘FINCHY‘ FinchRead more about it here 👉… pic.twitter.com/LR8otmBQPK
— Reason Gaming (@ReasonGaming) January 27, 2025
