Another day, another Arctic Raptors roster change. Going into last season we saw a mass reshuffle of the squad when they replaced Ash “Xey” Xey with Ben “C60” Saberton as their AWPer and then Noah “Naoh” Dalton with Ethan “EJR” Ross who as the resident UK standin Merchant helped this team out until both him and Joe “GODKU” Fowkes departed the team. This brings us now to the almost modern day Arctic Raptors. After this UK squad was left with its bare bones core they picked up Tristan “Lake” Jones as their 4th member who took up the IGL reins from GODKU.
Struggling with constant roster changes and the team going through a period of uncertainty they almost lost their main spot in ESEA, only clinching it in the final 3 games when they beat IWNL Sweden 16-14 on Vertigo and Havik in a 5v4 to maintain their spot for next season with an extra win. But now with the dust settling, they have upped their firepower and experience undoubtedly with the new addition of Oliver “Husky” Gollings which as a result rounds out their team going into this season of ESEA, SCL and future UK and international LANs.
After a period of instability in this team, they are trying to create something that will last for as long as possible, having all the right pieces and slotting perfectly into place. This squad has recently gone to EPIC.LAN 37 where they used Kyle “Swaggy” Wilson in which they subsequently placed top 12 falling 2-0 to CLIQUE in a quite disappointing manner. We saw players like Serien have a very impressive group stage effort, posting a *1.32 rating, and then having his brother in arms C60 not too far off with a 1.29 rating. Going into the playoffs C60 was able to continue this momentum but Seiren did drop off a little.
However, this has not phased the roster as they already booked EPIC.LAN 38 and will be in the words of Seiren “we are looking to make a statement there”. They would not be only looking to compete regionally but looking to follow the footsteps of 7AM and BLVKHVND and going to other international LANs but this time to Copenhagen Games next year.
[#CSGO]
Time to finally announce the full line-up for the Raptors Counter-Strike division 😋👇👇
🦖 – @1seiren
🦖 – @c60_cs
🦖 – @lakeee17
🦖 – @trouto_cs
🦖 – @Husky_cs🧠 – @yoncsgo
COME ON YOU RAPTORS 🫡 pic.twitter.com/ASlCPcTmi2
— RAPTORS. 🎃 (@ArcticRaptorsGG) November 1, 2022
We reached out to Seiren to speak about his thoughts on his Pickup of Husky:
Having Husky join has brought a completely new playstyle to use, as we’re aiming to play pretty much exactly how he wants, reactions, setups etc. He’s the most experienced out of all of us and brings a ton to the table, I think it’s absolutely huge of us, and our playstyle, especially around Lake’s calling, has been super super unique, I’m so in love with it.
Arctic Raptors had been playing with Husky for two SCL officials in the masters division already and they haven’t exactly gone very well, losing 16-11 to Next in Line Esports and 16-2 to REDraGEN. THey also had their first ESEA official this week, and equally, it hasn’t gone very well, losing 16-3 on Nuke against D54. With EPIC.LAN 37 ending and them having more time to work on fundamentals as a full five, they will be looking to further their drive in the domestic and international scene after also falling short of ESL Premiership due to their constant flux in rosters.
Seiren also commented to us about his past experience with the players in this squad:
The core of this team, C60, Thomas “Trouto” Troughton and I have basically been together for a year, with like 1-2 month period where we split up before the formation of raptors, with Trouto and I being the two original team members to get that promotion from inters to main and play out last season. Lake and I have been on teams for over two years now, he was originally on that cheeseman roster with Xey, Naoh, Lyall and I when we went 11-5 in inters in season 41.
This roster now consists of:
Zachary “seiren” Bland
Thomas “Trouto” Troughton
Ben “C60” Saberton
Tristan “Lake” Jones
Oliver “Husky” Gollings
*As always, all stats and ratings for Epic.LAN are compiled and put together by @Mischief_CSGO
