EPIC.LAN 45 Preview: Europe crashes Kettering.

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EPIC.LAN is a staple of the UK scene. Happening three times a year, it is by far the most prestigious grassroots UK event in the competitive calendar. This year, however, there’s a twist – a Simon “twist” Eliasson to be precise. EPIC.LAN 45 will be going international.

As covered by us over the last few weeks, EPIC.LAN 45 is set to have an influx of European teams vying for those all-important VRS points. Teams like Alliance, AaB, The Last Resort, Iberian Soul, and FUT are all appearing in the Kettering conference centre. This exciting mix of teams, mixed with the LAN vibe that we all know and love, sets EPIC.LAN 45, apart from the last few iterations of the event.

Whilst the EU competition will be there for the VRS points, like usual, EPIC.LAN will also host a bunch of familiar faces for the UK Scene, from Tom “arTisT” Clarke and co’s NXT lineup to John “Dutchy” Holland with 8Sins, there will be plenty of competitive match-ups to go around.

Shaking things up.

In the early hours of the 16th of July, Valve released an update to the competitive map pool, removing Anubis and bringing in Overpass. With official confirmation from EPIC, Anubis will stick around in the map pool for EPIC.LAN 45, and the event will not be played on the new patch.

Another change this time to EPIC.LAN is the inclusion of a prize for the inters tournament. Unlike previous events where teams would be competing in inters exclusively for pride, this iteration of EPIC will see the victors of the inters bracket net £50 worth of food delivery vouchers courtesy of UKCSHUB.

In addition, “Index” Bayliss’ StratBase will be giving out 3-month subscriptions to the victors of the event as well as to the first and second place teams in the inters tournament.

Endpoint in spirit.

Max “MiGHTYMAX” Heath will be heading to LAN this time round with a mix roster containing some names familiar to fans of the UK’s most well-known past CS roster. Thomas “Thomas” Utting will also be participating with MiGHTYMAX under the banner of Bezos Bois. These ex-Endpoint legends will be joined by The Dominion’s Alex “Byfield” Byfield, who also played for Endpoint in 2017.

MiGHTYMAX is yet to post a match on HLTV since Endpoint left Counter-Strike back in February this year. Interestingly enough, MiGHTYMAX‘s last HLTV appearance was a 2-1 loss to Gen One, the core of which will be attending EPIC.LAN 45, playing under FUT.

Thomas, on the other hand, whilst having been teamless for quite a while now, has played a few games here and there on HLTV. Most recently, competing in the latest iteration of UKIC, losing to the eventual finalists Synical, who were then competing under 28AvgAge. Thomas has been teamless since May 2024 when he left Into the Breach. He had a brief stint with the 5W roster and stood in with OG at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024, but nothing otherwise.

A Swedish Alliance.

Alliance are set to make their way to Kettering with an entirely Swedish roster on the hunt for VRS points.

Recently making roster changes, Alliance signed Alex “Poiii” Nyholm Sundgren on a free to replace Niclas “PLesseN” Plessen.

Alliance have then seen a decent uptick in form in the last 13 days Poiii has been on the roster. Debuting against CPH Wolves in European Pro League season 26, Alliance would go on to win the whole event, beating Daniel ‘papp‘ Hart’s side in the finals.

Alliance also bring with them longstanding member, Twist. Twist has been on the roster for a year and nine months and is by far the most experienced player on the team. With stints on big orgs like fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, Twist will be looking to leverage that experience to help the youngsters on his team thrive in the gruelling LAN environment.

The home-grown defending champions

NXT’s domestic dominance had not waned over the 10 months prior to the UKIC season 6 finals in London, despite the hardships the team faced. They were orgless for the first half of the year, but that didn’t stop them from winning the EPIC.LAN in February, as well as both UKICs this year.

NXT as a core are a staple of EPIC.LAN. Winning the last 3 EPIC.LANs in a row, this might be the hardest EPIC.LAN yet for them. The influx of European competition will prove to be NXT’s hardest Challenge yet as they seek to defend their EPIC.LAN 44 title.

The core of NXT remains the same between this LAN and the last; however, Callum “Girafffe” Jones has departed the roster and made way for Dutchman Jacob “Rezst” Hemming, who won UKIC season 6 with the team.

Unless something changes after LAN, this will also be this roster’s last competition under NXT. The team was only signed on a short-term deal that included the UKIC finals and EPIC.LAN 45, potentially leaving the UK scene’s best and brightest without an organisation again.

The FUTure is French.

FUT are a Turkish organisation; despite this, they have signed a fully French roster to compete in Counter-Strike. FUT contains many familiar faces to the international tier one scene, like Audric “JACKZ” Jug, Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier, as well as Adil “ScreaM” Benriltom’s cousin, Nabil “Nivera” Benriltom.

The Turkish organisation is yet to log a played match on HLTV. They have a singular appearance in ESEA Advanced season 53 against UNiTY, however, they forfeited the match.

FUT gained a majority of their players from the French mix Mousquetaires, with only Jeremy “Kursy” Gast not joining them on FUT and instead linking up with British coach Ashley “ash” Battye on gamerlegion. FUT then signed misutaaa as his replacement when the whole team joined the org a month ago.

Sitting at 258th in the world, FUT are another team venturing to EPIC.LAN for the VRS points a team of this calibre will be able to rack some placing with ease, but a healthy boost from a LAN win at the KCC would expedite the process massively for the French quintet.

The Wrath of the Sinners

8Sins would have come into this event as a shoo-in for the top four if it weren’t for the fact that European talent has taken a liking to Kettering. Runners-up at the previous EPIC.LAN 8Sins have a lot on their plate ahead of the upcoming iteration of the Kettering event.

In a surprising move, 8Sins actually benched the previous EPIC.LAN MVP: Michael John “Prime” Fury, replacing him with Antal “Cher1on” Lubbers. Cher1on will be known in the UK scene, most notably playing with TLR and ANTARTICA recently.

8Sins have been a consistently strong team and, for a time, the only rivals to NXT. Despite not winning anything, they were the only team that was able to take NXT the distance. It was always known, however, that NXT are a step above, and with Europe coming to Kettering, securing that tournament win might have just become that bit more difficult.

Kettering gets some Iberian Flair

Iberian Soul is heading to Kettering with a little help from a familiar face. Owen “smooya” Butterfield will be making his return to the KCC for the first time since he won EPIC.LAN 41 with The Neighbours. smooya has been bouncing around rosters for a while now since departing from Into the Breach in January this year.

smooya went on to join MoneyF for a brief period before making his way to WildLotus. His stint on WildLotus didn’t last too long, only a month. WildLotus, under The Last Resort, will be making their way to Kettering too, except they’ll be competing under The Last Resort’s banner, having now been signed to them. Since then, smooya has been competing on fish123, playing in tournaments like European Pro League season 26 and United21 Season 34.

Iberian soul came into Kettering needing smooya as a stand-in after Renato “Stadodo” Gonçalves departed the roster. He has previously stood in with them, winning Galaxy Battle Season 3 with a 1.25 HLTV rating.

Synical Old Dogs and some new tricks

Despite allegedly retiring after the last EPIC.LAN Luke “Nem” Mear instead decided to take UKIC Season 6 by storm with 28AvgAge. The veterans made their way all the way finals of the event, where they eventually lost to NXT, not bad for someone who’s retired. 28AvgAge weren’t just doing a last dance at UKIC either, since those finals, they’ve secured an organisation in Synical.

In fact, Nem isn’t the only retired player on Synical; Harry “Nukeddog” Jenkins retired back in 2020 after CEX lost the finals of the ESL Premiership that year. Both are back with a vengeance and with wind in their sails after their deep run together in the sixth iteration of UKIC.

As a core, Nem, Joe “Dexie” Demmon, and Connor “Finuii” Finucane competed under Belfast Storm at the previous two EPIC.LANs, where they made 9th-12th, then 5th-6th. Reaching that height might be harder this time round with such strong competition coming from overseas, but with a bit of financial backing and some new faces, Synical have the potential to make some waves.

It was always Kettering

The KCC is a staple of the UK scene, and as the doors open today for another exciting iteration of EPIC.LAN, British Counter-Strike has a lot to be excited about. This influx of European talent to our beloved event has the potential to raise the floor and the ceiling of UK players and take our scene to higher heights.

People come to Kettering for the love of the game, for the community, for the pub quiz, and to have a pint with friends. And now, with the changes to the VRS, people also come to Kettering as it’s a viable route to regular European Tier-2 competition, and that can only be a good thing for the UK scene.

With players like William “mezii” Merriman showing people it’s possible to go from EPIC.LAN to winning a Major, and the grassroots scene being given some of the best competition it’s had in a really long time, the potential for growth has never been higher.

Talent

Casters One Wing and Sh1n make their return from last EPIC.LAN where they made their LAN debut. They’ve been commentating the UK scene between events, notably covering the UKIC Masters qualifiers.

Waxen returns to EPIC.LAN too having commentated a multitude in the past, including the most recent. Jaffiscool and Arazez are making their EPIC.LAN debut.

CS2 Casters:@jaffacasts | @arazez | @OneWingCS | @sh1nTV | @WaXeNVlad pic.twitter.com/WIfklP9NrP

— EPIC.LAN UK Gaming & Esports Events (@EPICLAN) July 10, 2025