In continuing scene developments, Team Endpoint have tonight announced that they have massively overhauled their roster going forward this year. It seems to be that the longest standing core team has fallen apart and certain players have either moved out of the spotlight and got real life commitments or decided enough was enough.
As often is the case with the UK scene, it continues to implode until the right formulas are found for each of the respective teams out there. Team Endpoint had managed to recruit Alex to the fold during the UK Masters season run, and that meant he stepped away from his casting duties despite picking up regular work as a caster in the UK tournament circuit. However news broke the other evening, that Alex had decided to step away from the team citing the fact that he “couldn’t handle certain aspects of the team towards the end”. For whatever that means, we are yet to find out, whether that was a new practice schedule being enforced by In Game Leader, Ian “Immi” Harding or whether there were differences of opinion between the players in the roster, it remains to be elusive.
Will Alex be returning to the casters chair? (Credit: Multiplay Flickr)
Meanwhile, Marco “SparkeR” Forte has been dropped from the team roster, there wasn’t much of a reason on socal media recently, but with the recruitment drive that has happened, it means he has been removed from the roster. The final piece of the puzzle, is Ben “Esioo” Doughty who now drops out of the core five and will be retained as a substitute.
The three new players into the fold, announced tonight on twitter, need no introduction to the UK scene as a whole, James “Kryptix” Affleck has been an avid streamer within the scene, he has incredible skills to boot, and has played in numerous teams over the last few years including CAZ eSports. Another notable recruitment is the highly disputed player within the scene, Owen “Smooya” Butterfield who managed to last just the one week within the Team CeX lineup and then quit them to move into Team Endpoint. One does wonder how long Owen may last in this lineup before he finds someone else to play with.
The final player to field is one that previously featured in a Team Endpoint lineup albeit slightly briefly during last year, where Jesper “Jesp” Johannson joined the lineup for a trial like basis but ended up shortly departing after an iSeries event.
With the organisation being unveiled for Gfinity Elite Series, these changes have come ahead of time and means they can work on sorting their schedule ahead of the new league that was delayed till the Summer.
Adam “Adz” Jessop, CEO Endpoint Esports Ltd had this to say on the website:
We are really proud to announce the latest signings and additions to our Counter Strike team and further underline our commitment to supporting the UK esports scene. Having the lineup committed for the next 6 months will hopefully provide them with the stability and support to push on and compete amongst the strongest teams in Europe. We will be working closely with the team to support their progression and look forward to them representing Endpoint in the Gfinity Elite Series.
Ian “Immi” Harding, Team Leader, had this to add:
Following Copenhagen, we intended to keep the same 5 for the foreseeable future, however it became apparent that some there were breakdowns in communication, mental blocks and general fall outs. With Esio taking a break to go on Holiday to Canada, myself and Max decided to try out a number of different players and lineups for the right fit. After playing with Kryptix, Smooya and Jesp we decided to go ahead and get them on a long term contract, enabling us to focus on our progress for the rest of 2017.
Team Endpoint are now as follows:
Ian “Immi” Harding
Owen “Smooya” Butterfield
Jesper “Jesp” Johannsson
James “Kryptix” Affleck
Max “MightyMax” Heath
Ben “Esioo” Doughty (backup)
We will continue to cover the UK team shuffles as much as possible, so make sure you stay tuned to UKCSGO for all the latest information regarding the scene. Make sure you follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook so you are truly up to date.
