Viperio has announced changes to their roster moving forward, with Javier “Ping” Griffiths moving to a substitute role within the team for personal reasons. This has opened the gate for James “bevve” Slinn, who adorns himself in black and red as the team’s exciting new pickup.
Viperio entered CS:GO by picking up the orgless SOS roster almost two months ago after the players decided against renewing their contracts with EKO Esports. The team has seen good success during their time under the support of the British organisation, most recently making it to the top four in the UKIC Beyond Winter Invitational at the end of last year. They also picked up second-place finishes in both Kayzr League’s Fall 2022 tournament, as well as a very narrow second place in ESL Premiership Autumn 2022 after being bested in a war of attrition 3-2 by Endpoint in the grand finals.
bevve has been without a permanent position in a team for over seven months, most recently seen as a substitute for Arctic Raptors during the last ESEA season. Despite this, he has seen success in the latter half of the year alongside some household names of UKCS such as Thomas “Thomas” Utting, and Owen “smooya” Butterfield in the form of the first place prize at EPIC.LAN 37. Within a month’s time, he also took another win at Warwick University’s Chillblast invitational alongside other familiar names, such as William “wfn” Maskrey and Josh “JAUSTERE” Philpott, more of which can be read about here.
UKCSGO reached out to the team’s coach Ciaran “biscu” King for comment on these changes:
Ping needs some time away from the roster due to personal circumstances, he has made himself available as a substitute during this time which we’re grateful for and we hope that he can return to the roster in the future. bevve will be joining the starting roster immediately, and we’re very positive that he will improve the roster and help us achieve our goals in 2023. James is a highly motivated player who has the attributes of a top player and I hope he can fulfil his own ambitions with us on Viperio.
bevve made his debut in the Viperio colours this morning versus Invictus Gaming’s international CS:GO team, where he topped the charts with an impressive 1.17 HLTV rating over the Bo3. biscu also made it clear that while bevve is currently playing place-for-place in Ping’s roles, the team is not opposed to possible changes moving forward in order to accommodate everyone in the roster optimally.
Viperio will compete in ESEA Advanced and other upcoming tournaments as:
Tom “arTisT” Clarke
Callum “Girafffe” Jones
Jack “Gizmy” Von Spreckelsen
Marco “MMS” Salomone
James “bevve” Slinn
Ciaran “biscu” King (Coach)
Javier “Ping” Griffiths (Substitute)
𝗥𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘
British player 🇬🇧 James Slinn (@bevvexyz) joins our CS:GO starting line-up effective immediately.🇬🇧 Javier Griffiths (@ping_men) moves to a substitute position due to personal circumstances.
— Viperio (@viperioesports) January 9, 2023
