insomnia60: Final Standings

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After a weekend of non stop Counter-Strike action, insomnia60 CS:GO Tournament has come to a close. It’s been a surprising one, especially with lots of debates around scheduling tournaments. Suffice to say, we have seen the best and brightest of the UK CS Scene get together and provide a weekend of quality entertainment, even though it was till the early hours of the morning in Saturday’s case.

Firstly I will apologise for the lack of “coverage” from our team here at UKCSGO, Adam “Blanks” Heath made a decision prior to the event to ask for Press Passes, despite previous events, being declined at every opportunity, the cost of sending 2 or 3 people to cover an event for a grand total of £300 entry (BYOC prices) and then set those people up for accommodation had become an issue, and we had asked Multiplay to seriously accommodate our writers who spend their free time writing for this website and making sure iSeries gets the coverage it does. Whilst we understand that Multiplay want to get as much money as possible, we also believe that our team of volunteers shouldn’t have to bare the brunt of ticket prices to cover such events, and thus should get free entry into an event such as iSeries so that we can give it exposure, and as many organisations, teams and communities the exposure they deserve. Unfortunately Multiplay once again decided to decline the press passes and thus Adam had a big decision to make, so he didn’t send anyone to the event, because it is unreasonable for us to do so when we do not make any money from this venture.

It meant we have to do the work from home and I currently work full time in food retail, which is notoriously difficult to get time off from especially over Easter, which meant my own time spent covering this event has been seriously impaired. We apologise to all teams, organisation owners and anyone at home who has been expecting any kind of coverage for this, but if we are not given the correct tools to do our jobs to the best of ability then we cannot do much in this respect. The current stance is, they are willing to work with us about this going forward, but sometimes you have to take a hard line to get the result which is in the benefits of the UK Scene. No other major website really cares about UK LAN events, and we are the ones who pick up the slack and give the UK CS scene the coverage it truly deserves.

Moving away from the apology, here is the detail of what mostly happened throughout the event. 88 teams participated in the tournament over the weekend, which meant groups were big, five or six teams to each group, top 2 went through to a pre-bracket game which then determined which 15 teams joined fm-eSports in the Elimination Stages at the event. The groups were for the most part relatively straightforward and saw no real shocks at all.

With all the big teams heading through groups, the pre-elimination bracket first introduced at i59 saw a return, and we had a big bo3 series for all teams to navigate. Just for reference here is how it all shaped up:

Team Infused 2:0 WGT (16:6 inferno; 16:14 mirage)
Team CeX 2:0 White Knights (16:6 mirage; 16:3 Overpass)
Team XENEX 2:0 Breach (16:7 cbble; 16:9 Overpass)
Radix eSports 2:0 Honestly Ridiculous (16:3 mirage; 16:9 cbble)

Bmagic’s day care 2:0 Hidden (16:4 Overpass; 16:0 Train)
DOG Gaming 2:0 Cyrix (16:5 Cache; 16:3 Inferno)
The Last Resort 2:0 Aerox (16:6 Cbble; 16:6 Mirage)
Crident 2:1 Fable (13:16 Unknown; 16:6 Unknown; Unknown)

Reason Gaming 2:0 Nucler (16:10 Overpass; 16:3 Mirage)
The Goose House 2:0 Quiche Gods (16:6 Nuke; 16:13 Overpass)
London Lynx 2:0 Osterity (16:12 Cache; 16:5 Mirage)
Barrage eSports 2:0 Proxide (16:7 Inferno; 16:6 Cache)

Impulse Gaming 2:0 Proficiency (16:2 Inferno; 16:12 Nuke)
IGI eSports 2:0 Team Descend (16:9 Train; 16:5 Inferno)
Dragon Esports 2:0 CeX, Pugs & Spray Control (16:11 Cache; 16:5 Train)

Saturday saw all the drama take place, Infused struggled massively to play against IGI eSports, who recorded a map against the boys in red, whilst Impulse Gaming who do have some form of track record managed to secure a huge win against the epic.LAN Finalists Team CeX with a 2:1 win. The upsets didn’t stop there however as DOG Gaming managed to beat Reason Gaming 2:0. All eyes were on Team XENEX though, because the surprise package of UK Masters, and epic.LAN were without their main reason why eyes were on them, NK who they dropped in the middle of an intense season in UK Masters where they recorded so many draws. They ended up struggling to overcome Barrage eSports taking a 2:1 win in the first round. It was a rather easy stroll for fm-eSports who managed to beat Dragon Esports 2:0 in the first round, Radix eSports and London Lynx had an incredible three match thriller though with Radix just edging it.

All of those matches in the first round, left the lower bracket being a very tricky path to navigate, with teams all voting for Best-Of-Three all the way through the elimination brackets meant that the schedule was incredibly tight, something that ended up biting a few notable teams in the backside later on in the day, as late finishes usually happen in the lower bracket of the tournament, with Reason, Infused and Team CeX all down there. Team CeX started that lower bracket brightly as they managed to beat underdogs The Goose House 2:0 who were a very huge hot topic in regards to their 10th seed. The Last Resort managed to navigate past Dragon Esports safely with a tightly contested 2:0 victory, whilst London Lynx and Reason both had to work and fight hard in their respective three map victories.

The upper bracket was wide open at this point, and continued to blow wide open when DOG Gaming managed to surprise with a 2:1 victory over Jonathon “Sheekey” Sheekey’s Team Infused. Impulse Gaming managed to set up a match up with DOG Gaming as they saw off potential challengers, bmagic’s day care. Radix eSports looked shaky at best when they won against Team XENEX, in a close 3 map series. Meanwhile, fm-eSports looked comfortable against Crident, and saw them out with a 2:0 victory.

If the upper bracket was surprising, the lower bracket was just incredibly close and saw all kinds of late night drama, it was Infused who continued to show that they simply were in some rough patch, as they struggled to overcome London Lynx with a 2:1 victory there. Whilst that was all happening Team XENEX knocked Reason Gaming out of the tournament over three maps, The Last Resort saw off bmagic’s day care 2:0 and Crident took care of Team CeX.

Matches kept rolling on, and by this stage it was nearly 9pm with the Semi-Finals of the upper bracket taking place, fm-eSports were mere rounds away from being knocked down into the lower bracket with a closely fought 2:1 victory over Radix eSports which must of felt semi satisfying as they had lost in UK Masters to Radix the day before (despite change of lineups). DOG Gaming continued their impressive run of form with a 2:1 victory over equally impressive underdogs Impulse Gaming.

The lower bracket soldiered on, and it was Semi-Final stage 1 time, with Infused taking on The Last Resort and Crident against Team XENEX. Both games were incredibly close, Infused saw off TLR with a 2:1 win, whilst Crident only really needed two maps. It set up some big 3am matches at this stage with Radix eSports having to face Team Infused, and Crident playing against Impulse Gaming. Suffice to say people were not too happy with all of this as admin Jasmine “Veracity” Kanuga denied all of the teams any chance of playing early in the morning, and that meant at best a 5am finish, however Radix were left with a 6am finish after an incredibly tough victory over Team Infused, 2:0. It meant that Team Infused are left wanting as their outing once again to iSeries leaves them short of Top 4 and when other unnoticed teams are finishing above you, then you do have to wonder. Crident played well as they have proved over the last 6 to 8 months that they can do often, when they saw off Impulse Gaming in a 2:0 win.

It set up a rather juicy contest for Sunday morning with Crident having to play against Radix eSports.

Sunday started in dramatic fashion, with the 6am finish by Radix esports the previous night, they were told to get up and be ready for 10am start to which they did, but they certainly were not happy about only around 3 hours sleep in the process, something that will continue to be debated on every UK LAN event until the right format is found that benefits everyone. This meant the impending match between themselves and Crident was a little anti-climatic as Crident ran out 2:0 winners in a bit of a one sided affair, winning the first map 16:2 (mirage) and then in a bit of a closer match up on map 2 16:12 (inferno).

The early morning vibes kicked in for next match though, as it was Crident who started off the stronger on inferno against DOG Gaming, who were left to pay for a mistake of letting inferno slip through their veto process, although some might say they may of noticed a potential weakness in inferno for them to exploit against Crident. It didn’t materialise though, as Crident wrapped up a closely fought first map, 19:16 in overtime. However, map two (overpass) is where an impressive DOG Gaming regrouped and pulled the comeback, as they mounted a huge challenge for Crident to climb, as they took a half time score of 13:2. It was a monumental task for Crident to come and eventually they went on to lose map two 16:5. It set up a big match up on the final map, being de_train. A place in the Grand Finals was at stake, the guaranteed £1,500 also at stake. For players such as Chris “Debaser” Flynn and Tom “Quiver” Griffiths, it was known territory as they had managed back to back finals at epic.FIVE and insomnia41 under the name of BBoMM back then. This meant they had a slight edge in the final map between the two sides, and it showed. DOG Gaming continued to pile on pressure against Crident who looked tired and out of ideas on a map that is incredibly difficult to start T side on. They quickly found themselves 10:1 down before ending the half 12:3. It left them in need of a solid half to keep the dream going into making it in the finals. However it was quickly apparent that DOG Gaming were on form and found themselves on fire, with the match finishing 16:9 in the end.

The Grand Final was much closer than everyone in the scene anticipated. Last weekend on PhoenixUK, everyone on the panel and some of the guests believed that fm-eSports would be the solid favourites to pick up both UK Masters and i60 titles and would literally walk to the title. Once again LANs don’t disappoint, and it was Radix who denied fm-eSports the victory in UK Masters with the mix team composition coming back to haunt fm-eSports. In the grand final of insomnia60, it was a tough ask for DOG Gaming to actually go on and deny fm-eSports here, but it was extremely possible as they kept pegging fm-eSports back. Overpass seems to be the current UK Meta right now with a huge set of overtimes always happening between teams and the grand final was no different when DOG Gaming came from 14:9 and then 15:13 down to force the overtime. However, big players always step up and it was Reece “Puls3” Marrs who was the big player in Overtime, as he went on a path of destruction with the AWP and laid waste to DOG Gaming’s resilience.

The usual format of an iSeries Grand Final past when there was a closely fought first map, the second map would always end up being a whitewash. This was incredibly different, everytime fm-eSports thought they had done enough to put the dogs to bed, it was DOG Gaming pegging them back and staying strong. Cobblestone was a fine choice of a second map because the twists and turns that took place were phenomenal and it was the closing stages of the map that saw some huge plays come into play, DOG Gaming clawed it back to 11 all, before taking the lead and then being pegged back again, and then retaking the lead. It was a cracking final, but in the end fm-eSports sent DOG Gaming packing and proved too much with a 16:13 win on Map 2. With the upper bracket advantage, it meant that cobblestone was the final map of the tournament and saw insomnia60 conclude.

Final Standings

Pos	Team Name	Prize Money
1st	fm-eSports (N/A) nEiLZiNHo, weber, Puls3, fre1, stan1ey	£3,750
2nd	DOG Gaming (6) ashhh, quiver, debaser, Yoshi, meZii	£1,500
3rd	Crident (8) skuzx, Luzuh, nukeddog, JT, wafu	£900
4th	Radix eSports (4) Jenko, logzii, dOMM, Dreaming, Danceyz	£450
5th – 6th	Infused Gaming (1) Shaney, Sheekey, Lumji, ozzy, Pickles	£225
5th – 6th	Impulse Gaming (13) Rybak, oli, BluRRy, Nexio, rAY1	£225
7th – 8th	The Last Resort (7) adamxoxo, jakem, ec1s, Kryptix, Boaster	£225
7th – 8th	Team XENEX (3) Jak3y, FiLLeR, DUKK, Hawkins, M4ffin	£225

Pos	Team Name	Prize Money
9th – 12th	London Lynx (11) cybah, majorleemessedup, zeo, TroubleN, L1NK	N/A
9th – 12th	Reason Gaming (9) kARMApangya, Pommey, HoodluM, Kray, dudley	N/A
9th – 12th	Team CeX (2) resu, Astrooo, JDD, LiamS, BrodyC	N/A
9th – 12th	bmagic’s Day Care (5)  bmagic, Ruleh, ShaunSki, Trials, tamsteR	N/A
13th – 16th	Barrage eSports (12) wong, PeTTo, nETTO, velox, Shanked	N/A
13th – 16th	IGI eSports (14) RedgarZ, nK, Taylerdoodle, dox, MrHui	N/A
13th – 16th	The Goose House (10) eddie, LukeJM, AceY, Jack, Tattie, KingC	N/A
13th – 16th	Dragon Esports (15) maarc, Hayden, f00b, jamesta, mitchen	N/A

*Please Note: Seedings shown in Brackets

 

After that brilliant weekend, the next UK LAN of 2017 will be epic21 on the weekend of June 15th – 18th, you can still book tickets here, with only 269 tickets remaining, you won’t want to miss out on another weekend of glorious banter and incredible Counter-Strike.