Well in the biggest shock of the day, came to the Number 1 seeded team, and strong favourites to scoop the crown this weekend, Team ROCCAT. They squared up against uFrag who were both playing to see who would take top spot in the group after both teams had gone unbeaten throughout the day.
With two games remaining for ROCCAT, and their biggest threat being uFrag, it was vital to come through unscathed and prepare for battle in the Elimination stages. However, that script suddenly got burnt to a crisp by uFrag, and Adam “adamxoxo” Rotherham and the boys. Let’s not downplay either side, uFrag carry former star player of ex-Choke Gaming, Peggyyyy, who recently joined the side after being given notice at fm-eSports in the move. Meanwhile, ROCCAT recently managed to secure a big $5,000 cheque and the first placed win at ASUS ROG Nordic Challenge in their home country of Finland.
Many people consistently doubt the UK Scene, but in an unlikely scenario, we’ve seen not just one potential Top 8 side beat Team ROCCAT, but a side who weren’t even considered worthy of a Top 16 seed in our scene currently. If that is not an omen for other teams to actually step up and take their chance, then I literally don’t know how to reflect on this. I’ll be honest and say that for all of the confidence that ROCCAT would have been on, they may not have been incredibly familiar with the way UK LANs do things, which is hefty delays, long breaks between games, and the sociable banter that takes place, it can screw with these European players (although it never did to VeryGames over the many CS:Source years).
We will award this to Team ROCCAT as a symbol of UK LAN events.
The map of battle was de_cache and for the early rounds it was an exchange of rounds between the two sides. However something just clicked for uFrag as they managed to march impressively closer to the finishing line, before taking the map 16:10.
This wasn’t the final match for Team ROCCAT but after the loss to Adam & co, that script continued to burn brightly as DSK.eSports turned up to play the postponed Round 2 match against them, it was late into the night and off the back of a surprising loss, it was a chance to reclaim some hope and scrape through to the elimination stage in second place, thus potentially meeting more difficult opponents earlier in the bracket than anticipated. Suffice to say, things continued to spiral out of control for the boys of Finland. After losing the pistol round, they couldn’t seem to get a grip in the game and DSK.eSports were on fire. Eventually ROCCAT did put up more of a fight, but the tilt effect had just got to them and they once again crumbled and lost 16:10 on de_mirage. This meant that Team ROCCAT finished third in the group and now have the Intermediate Tournament to enjoy. Whether they participate in it is another matter.
Team ROCCAT apparently went and asked Head Admin Jon “Vicious” Kelly what was next for them. However they decided to pass on the chance to enter the Intermediate Tournament for the chance to win free tickets to insomnia 57, and instead opted to pack up and call an end to their weekend. A long journey awaits the team and I’m sure this will be a day to forget for the Finns as they couldn’t dominate the UK Scene like they had hoped.
These results must of pleased Team Infused, fm-eSports who won’t have to even do battle with the Finns, and now have to contend with the Estonians of onlineBOTS and the Benelux team AT-Gaming.
Shock horror, the Twitter feed has been ongoing with all of the UK players and various casters chipping in with their thoughts, most notably Ben “Hoss” Hosford.
Has anyone made a “Team Roccat blasting out of groups” meme yet? I hope not cos here we go! #UKScenepic.twitter.com/reWj0Eyj0b
— Ben Hosford (@Hosselote) December 12, 2015
We will try to endeavor to get a better picture of what happened in the games over the course of the next few hours, but we can confirm that Team ROCCAT have been sent packing out of insomnia56 and into the Intermediate Tournament. Stay tuned to UKCSGO.com for all your latest news from insomnia56 this weekend.
