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ESEA

ESEA Season 44 Recap

by Tom Coles 26 July 2023

written by Tom Coles

We promised to keep you up to date with what UKCS teams are doing across the scene. In this two part series, we will bring you what happened over the past two seasons of the ESEA leagues, starting with ESEA Season 44 and then releasing ESEA Season 45 next week.

The season featured a wide range of UK teams in all its divisions, from the full-time salaried outfits in Advanced to the tiniest mix in the bottom division of Open. But how did they all get on? UKCSGO has the insight.

The ups

Advanced

Starting with Advanced, the play-offs featured 2 UK teams – Viperio and Coalesce. The two teams actually played each other in the second round of the upper bracket, and though Viperio won the day on that occasion, it was Coalesce who had the more successful lower bracket run, taking a 7th-8th place finish. Viperio, using Javier “Ping” Griffiths as a stand-in, suffered a bruising defeat to Hungarian side DomiNation and then lost to BIG Academy in the lower bracket.

Both teams made it to ECL Relegation regardless, but Viperio exited without a win, losing to 500 and Iron Branch. Coalesce, on the other hand squandered two opportunities to qualify, losing to HEET and to their former in-game leader Luka “emi” Vukovic’s Partizan Esports side, meaning both would compete in Advanced again for season 45.

Main

In Main, 4 UK teams lined up in the play-offs, and it was the top seed who got to Advanced. Kyle “swaggy” Wilson’s ROYALS went 12-2 in the regular season and made full use of their 7th seed, beating farfaraway and CYBER.MD to secure promotion. eMasters (remember them?) came closest to joining them, but a brutal 2-0 defeat by Illuminar Gaming consigns them to another season in Main, while Clique were always on the back foot after a defeat in their opening game, ultimately falling to Aurora Young Blood in the lower bracket. 7th Core sneaked into play-offs in 48th place, but successive defeats by DeftFox and the famous names on the Entropiq roster were a step too far.

Intermediate

Intermediate featured 3 UK teams in the play-offs, and surprisingly the highest seed fell first, with Jake “KiCa” Harter’s Aspyre losing both their play-off games. TRAXXMANIA, headed by Canadian caster and former pro David “DAVEY” Stafford, went one better, but were consigned to Intermediate for another season. Only Joseph “godku” Fawkes’ Lizards managed to secure the necessary two wins to make Main.

Open

Down in Open, a number of UK teams made play-offs of the bottom division, but unfortunately none were successful. A shout out to team “Shit Stats No Strats”, for living up to their name, and to “10PIN”, headlined by casters Ryan “Retr00” Barnard and Brandon “BDog” Rawlings, though. If nothing else, UKCS continues the tradition of having the best names on the platform.

The downs

ESL Challenger

There was only one UK participant relegated from ESL Challenger League and it’s a bit of a stretch. The “Believe” mix, headed by Mikkel “Maze” Sparvath and featuring Sebastian “volt” Malos, were relegated following defeats to SAW and 1WIN in the regular season, and Relegation was no kinder as they lost to Iron Branch and UK boys Coalesce. UKCSGO understands here were talks of volt‘s team Into the Breach taking over the spot mid-season and again for season 45, but those talks were unsuccessful.

Advanced

In Advanced two teams were relegated; Arctic Raptors and 7AM. The Raptors were unable to push on from the previous season’s promotion, and despite a win over fellow UK side Viperio, a series of close defeats against the likes of Boston Crab, Pepsilon and sYnck proved costly. They made immediate changes, picking up UK-based Bulgarian AWPer Slaven “AwaykeN” Rubenov and hotly-tipped talent Reegan “ReegaN” Ward as they looked to return to Main at the first time of asking.

For Team 7AM, their struggles since going to Fragadelphia 17 last year continued, as they picked up only four wins (one a FFW) all season, which left them two shy of staying in the division. Oscar “LVN” Levin’s team went bootcamping in Poland ahead of season 45, needing to improve if they wanted to return to Advanced.

Main

In Main only one UK team was relegated – Zen Pharmacy Baker St, headlined by Zachary “seiren” Bland. They did it in style, though, going winless with 5 FFLs to close out the season.

Intermediate

In Intermediate, cooL Gaming and Hustle found themselves relegated on merit, winning only 1 and 3 games respectively. They are joined by EZELO and DIG who disbanded and were marked as “dead”.

The middle pack

Advanced

In Advanced, Dripmen were able to save their spot for another season despite parting ways with Richard “Zulu” Wood midway through. Helped by a strong Nuke record (4 wins from 7 games), Fraser “frazehh” Sollom’s first priority was rebuilding the team, however. Josh “JAUSTERE” Philpott’s move to eMasters, after the previous exits of Zulu and Matas “Extinct” Strumila, left just Arkadiusz “ifan” Dabkowski alongside the veteran in-game leader, with the orgless side announcing a new roster with Elias “Rack” Kartunen and Lewis “Ziimzey” Coleman of Clique and Isaac “Isaac” Patto from The Sus House for season 45.

Main

In Main, K10, Sus House and Legates can all feel a bit aggrieved, having finished on an 8-6 record only to miss out on play-offs in what was an extremely competitive division. All three will be back for another chance in season 45. Down the negative end of the division, we have the recently disbanded Havik and Vitalize rosters on 6-8, along with NHR on 5-9 who have added Jamie “jamie” Hayes to replace AWPer Michael “ZAL” Chapman. All three teams are expected to return after various roster and organisational changes. And, improbably, back for another season of Main are “MYTHICC”, still clinging on to what was once the Endpoint Academy spot with Joe “Dexie” Drummond, Nathan “Tobin” Tobin and CeX stalwart Harry “Nukeddog” Jenkins.

Also worth a shout-out is UK rep Alex “Byfield” Byfield, formerly of Endpoint and ROYALS, plying his trade in Spain with Kazu’s Store Bois, who managed a 7-7 record over the season.

ESEA Season 44 in Stats:

Advanced: 5 teams: 36 wins, 34 defeats.
For season 45: 5 teams

Main: 10 teams: 75 wins, 65 defeats
For season 45: 12 teams

Intermediate: 12 teams: 77 wins, 91 defeats
For season 45: 14 teams

Open: 28 teams, 198 wins, 180 defeats
(regular season, UK/Ire core, not counting dead teams)

For season 45: Come back next next week for that update, seeing how the teams fared in the various divisions up and down the ESEA ladder.

26 July 2023 0 comment

British team to face Edward and bondik in Open Final

by Tom Coles 21 June 2023

written by Tom Coles

When John “Dutchy” Holland and James “Mad” Debono formed the Made in Kettering roster with Richard “zulu” Wood in April, each had former ESEA Advanced experience. Now, the British/Finnish combine are one game away from returning to the division – but they face some surprisingly star-studded opposition in order to get there.

Dutchy (far left) competing with Royals at EPIC.LAN

Made in Kettering

Dutchy left Royals in the middle of their promotion push because he wanted to start his own project with himself as caller. The first name on his list was his former EKO team-mate Mad, who had himself returned from a spell on the sidelines after his benching by EKO in mid-2022, and they were joined by zulu after he parted ways with dripmen. They were rounded out by former JANO youngster Otto “ottob” Virtanen and initially with ex-Arctic Raptors AWPer Will “wfn” Maskrey, but when wfn stood back from the project, his place was taken by another Finn – Kasper “kappe” Lampinen.

With ottob now wielding the “big green” the team set about proving themselves on the server. They qualified for ESL Premiership from the open qualifiers and went on a run in ESEA Open, winning their opening 7 games including a win over Julia “juliano” Kiran’s G2 OYA. Despite losing to REDraGEN, they would not let that phase them, ultimately finishing 3rd with a 13-1 record. On May 15, Next in Line picked the team up for the remainder of the season. Though the team would exit ESL Premiership in groups – a 14-16 defeat by sakana123, who pipped them to a play-offs spot, proving costly – they would nevertheless continue strongly in ESEA Open play-offs. Despite losing map 1 and being in overtime on the second in their semi-final against yologang420, they powered through and rallied back, taking Overpass in a dominant 16-5 fashion to secure a grand final against the new Team ESC lineup.

Edward at StarLadder

Team ESC

Their opponents are the long-rumoured but now official new lineup of ESC Gaming, an organisation that has fielded lineups of varying nationalities including, for a brief period in 2014, a future Astralis in-game leader Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander. Other famous alumni include Fatih “gob b” Dayik, Phil “whindanski” Nicholas, and even Poland’s “Golden Five” in the latter days of 1.6.

Ioann “Edward” Sukharjev was the first player announced for the roster. The 35-year old Ukrainian is known for his two stints with Natus Vincere: a stint in 1.6 that saw them win numerous tournaments including Intel Extreme Masters IV & V and a 6-year stint in CS:GO where they won ESL One: New York 2016 and ESL One Cologne 2018, along with a runner-up finish at the FACEIT London Major 2018. He was benched in 2019 to make way for Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov, and while he has continued playing since, it has largely been in the lower tiers of the game.

After Edward was announced on May 26, the rest of his compatriots followed. Vladsylav “bondik” Nechyporchuk will be the most familiar to fans, having competed with Hellraisers from 2016 to 2018 including a run to the quarter-finals of the FACEIT London Major. Oleksandr “Smash” Turchyn competed with Esports Club Kyiv on and off for the last 3 years, while Maxim “MUV” Ulyanchenko and Daniil “t3ns1on” Kashura are largely unknowns, with each having only competed in a handful of HLTV games. That said, it did not take a genius to figure out the team – they have been competing in ESEA Open all season. After losing their opening fixture to Coolermaster, the Ukrainians have since gone almost unbeaten – dropping only one further game (a forfeit loss at that) and finishing 12th overall in the regular season, and only a single map in the play-offs.

What’s at stake

Well the winners of the best-of-three will receive the tantalising sum of $1,000 – don’t spend that all at once, lads – but more significantly they will also achieve promotion straight to ESEA Advanced, while the runner-up will go to ESEA Main.

This ‘skipping’ of a division is incredibly helpful when climbing ESEA’s ladder. ESEA Main has 188 teams and 48 play-off spots, and in recent seasons those play-off spots have been decided on round differential due to multiple teams finishing on a 9-5 record – UK side BearClaw Esports one such team to miss out in season 45. The state of the division has been criticised as a ‘bottleneck’ for ESEA as a whole, and it would no doubt be massive for Dutchy’s men to make Advanced at the first time of asking, much like UK squad Heaven and Hell Esports did in Season 40, just to avoid the risk of getting caught in that bottleneck. It’s also important because teams in Advanced are more likely to get invited to external tournaments such as CCT. Heaven and Hell became 1PIN and later Coalesce, and from being in Advanced they not only improved from taking on higher-quality opposition, but also were able to receive invitations to international events where they performed admirably, winning Kayzr League Fall 2022 and reaching the quarter-finals of CCT West Europe Series 3.

One thing is for certain. Dutchy, Mad, zulu and company will not be afraid of the star wattage they are facing – the boys who were made in Kettering will no doubt show their more famous Ukrainian opposition that though they may be lesser names, their frags count exactly the same.

21 June 2023 0 comment

ESEA

ESEA S44 Preview

by arnie 7 January 2023

written by arnie

With the start of a new year comes the start of a new ESEA season, and this time we have more UK teams in the Advanced division than ever before. Ahead of the season starting, we take a look at some of the UKCS hopefuls from the top three divisions and their prospects/expectations for season 44.

Disclaimer: This article is part of UKCSGO.coms ad deal with ESEA, signups for Season 44 are still open which can be found here

ECL

Fnatic Rising

We start our preview off at the highest level of ESEA League, ECL which the UK has been represented in recently by Sebastian “volt” Malos with his Fnatic Rising team. The team had a fairly disappointing run at the backend of 2022, only managing a 7-8th place finish in the WePlay Academy League.

volt‘s boys did manage to keep their ECL spot though and were looking hopeful to fight it out in ESEA’s top division once more.

However, Fnatic announced that they would be releasing their Academy side moving into 2023 and it is unknown where the talented Brit will find himself for the new season.

Into the Bin

The undisputed number one UK team had seen their results take a dip in the back half of 2022 and with the team plateauing their former org, Into the Breach, decided to take the decision to drop the team. The timing of this move was rather awkward as the British-Swedish mix was still participating in multiple events, one of which being the Advanced playoffs.

Among their rough run of results, ITB had managed to put together a strong performance in Advanced finishing the season 10-4. Despite losing their org and the future of the team being up in the air, with multiple players confirming they would be looking for different opportunities, ITB now going as ‘Into the Bin’ were able to lock in an ECL spot beating UNGENTIUM 2-0 in the ECL Season 43 Relegation to get themselves in the top divisions.

It is still unknown what the players will do with the spot now they find themselves promoted, however, just this week Andrew “wolfie” Allan, Robin “robiin” Sjögren and Max “PANIX” Hangebruch joined their ESEA roster ahead of the new season.

Interestingly the team are still listed in the Advanced league for season 44 at the time of writing, despite winning ESL Challenger League Season 43 Relegation. The exact makeup of their new roster is yet to be announced/confirmed.

Advanced

Arctic Raptors

Where better to start for the Advanced division than with the recently promoted squad. The team formerly known as XRAVEL are arguably the biggest surprise of the year as they took the scene by storm with their performances in season 42, placing second in the regular season of ESEA Main but missing out on Advanced after running out of gas in the playoffs.

However, in season 43 they would come back with a vengeance, dropping just 2 maps in the regular season to once again place second and this time they made no mistake in getting themselves promoted to Advanced. The team also made the Quarter-Finals of ESL Premiership Autumn, drawing the short straw and having to play the dominant force of Endpoint in the first round of the playoffs.

Whilst they might have had the luxury of being an underdog and making runs with a lack of pressure on their shoulders, now the team has shown they have the talent to be one of the best in the UK. So all eyes will be on them in their first season of Advanced to see how the team fares against serious European opposition.

– Rasmus “zodi” Frølich
– Mohamad “Ducky” Nourelden
– Euan “synergii” Wilson
– William “wfn” Maskrey
– Seán “Atrox” Greene
– Daniel “papp” Hart (Coach)

Dripmen

Speaking of first seasons in Advanced, Arctic Raptors will be looking to take some tips from Dripmen as the team comfortably kept their spot in the Division on the first try. Led by Veteran Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom the team has some serious firepower on paper but it hasn’t quite clicked for the team outside of the ESEA Leagues yet.

The team struggled in ESL Premiership Autumn, winning just the one map against ‘If I speak’ and leaving their org BLVKHVND mid-way through the tournament. Many in the scene had written the team off after their bumpy patch, however, the team would prove they have the talent to beat the best the UK has to offer at the UKIC Beyond Winter Invitational.

Dripmen would beat ROYALS and most impressively 1PIN, in the Grand Final, the team that for the majority of the year has been regarded as the number two team behind ITB. This triumph paired with the teams’ assured performance in their first season of Advanced suggests there is a lot more to come from this roster, and the scene will be keen to see if they can go one step further and make Advanced playoffs this season.

– Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom
– Richard “zulu” Wood
– Kirk “Tadpole” Stephens
– Matas “Extinct” Strumila
– Josh “JAUSTERE” Philpott

7AM

7AM is one of the most intriguing teams going into season 44. The team is led by Oscar “LVN” Levin and has a lower average age than some Academy teams.

7AM were one of two UK teams to have the opportunity to play at Fragadelphia 17 and the young squad posted some impressive results beating NA Advanced team Limitless and taking a map off of EG White. However, upon returning the side struggled in season 42 just keeping their Advanced spot with a 5-9 record.

The team managed to improve on this record in season 43 and were rewarded with new contracts going into 2023. For a team so young it is understandable that their has been some inconsistency in their performances. However if they continue their steady improvement, there’s no doubt that this young team can develop together and fight at the top of the scene in the future.

– Oscar “LVN” Levin
– Herman “1Knas” Hattevig
– Mason “Vacancy” Haines
– Zy “yz0” Esponilla
– Leo “Silence” Ingvarsson
– Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram (Coach)

viperio

Possibly the buzziest team towards the end of last year, Viperio re-entered CS:GO by picking up the former EKO core spearheaded by Irish AWPer Tom “arTisT” Clarke. The EKO team decided to make changes after their disappointing upset loss against Temperate (now eMasters) in the Grand Final of Insomnia 69.

These changes have proved extremely fruitful as the addition of former Temperate player Marco “MMS” Salomone and the re-addition of the experienced Javier “Ping” Griffiths saw their results take a turn for the better. The team put together an extremely impressive run at ESL Premiership Autumn to make the Grand Final and took a 2-1 advantage, only inches away from taking away Endpoints crown.

In ESEA Advanced s43 the team put together a solid run and were one win away from making playoffs, however, due to their opposition refusing a reschedule they were forced to forfeit their last match of the season costing them the chance to challenge for promotion. Despite this, it was positive signs from the new roster and no doubt they will be expected to make playoffs in season 44.

– Javier “Ping” Griffiths
– Tom “arTisT” Clarke
– Callum “Girafffe” Jones
– Jack “Gizmy” von Spreckelsen
– Marco “MMS” Salomone
– Ciaran “biscu” King (Coach)

1PIN

1PIN burst onto the scene in 2022, making deep runs in Major qualifiers and pushing (ex-)ITB to the limit in terms of challenging for the top spot in the domestic scene. However, their results notably cooled off towards the end of the year and they will be looking to make amends moving into 2023 and season 44.

In ESEA they put together a strong 11-3 record in the regular season to give themselves a good seed heading into playoffs. After breezing through the first round the team came up against Masonic falling 1-2 losing a close third map 13-16. They then had to overcome former Major finalist Aleksi “allu” Jalli’s JANO. The team fell 0-2 largely due to Olli “sLowi” Pitkänen having a life game posting a 1.33 rating, far above his relatively mid-average rating of 1.02.

There is no doubt that 1PIN will be looking to put up serious numbers in the regular season once again and do their best to avoid any in-form Finns in the playoff stage to get themselves promoted to ECL. Possibly the biggest selling point for the team is that they have only made one change this year, and even that was enforced, a unique stability in an often quick-to-change scene.

– Tobias “shyyne” Sæther
– Oliver “leaf” Jackson
– Ryan “dox” Young
– Oscar “AZUWU” Bell
– Kristian “Krs7N” Mladenov
– Sam “Wilksyy” Wilks (Coach)

Main

eMasters

eMasters are another team that has struggled in the closing months of 2022 in comparison to the first months. The team, going by Temperate at the time, finally converted the consistent Top 4 finishes into a win with an impressive Lower Bracket run at Insomnia 69.

Since lifting the trophy in Birmingham the team has had to deal with roster instability stemming from Beau “fluFFs” Newton deciding to hang up the mice and Marco “MMS” Salomone getting the opportunity to make the step up and play for Viperio.

Now having time to bed in their new additions the eMasters side will be looking to significantly improve on their 8-6 record from season 43 and fight for promotion to join their compatriots in Advanced for season 45.

-Emyr “eMy” Green
– Man-Ho “mrhui” Hui
– Jack “DeXter” Hepple
– Harry “moshi” Raines
– Oliver “husky” Gollings

Clique

Clique are one of the UK teams who came agonisingly close to joining Arctic Raptors in making promotion last season. A 10-4 record set them up well to have a good run at the postseason and they would win their first match with ease. However, after losing to Comedyclub and a super tight BO3 against STRANGERS, their promotion hopes were ended.

Despite missing out on qualification the results represented a big step up for the team after two very average seasons in the Main division. The additions of Elias “Rack” Karttunen and Mohammed “Mophoria” Abbas were the catalyst to the teams’ growth and even gave the organisation their first HLTV appearance in the UKIC Beyond Winter Invitational.

After coming so close in their first ESEA season together, there is little doubt that they will once again be fighting for a promotion spot in season 44.

– Elias “Rack” Karttunen
– Mohammed “Mophoria” Abbas
– Lewis “Ziimzey” Coleman
– Christopher “VireZ” Wegmann
– Fizan “Fizzy” Anjum
– Sebastian “Wajk” Wikholm (Coach)

Vitalize

Vitalize went through a number of different iterations during season 43, not settling on their final five until halfway through the season. Despite this, the team showed initial signs of promise as they went on a seven-match win streak to secure a spot in the playoffs.

The team would come even closer to promotion than Clique, as they would win their opening two matches in the postseason to leave them needing to beat Hydra Team to lock in a promotion. Disappointingly, the team would fall at the final hurdle as they lost 0-2 against the CIS side and would go on to be knocked out of playoffs in their next match bringing down the curtain on the Advanced dream.

Considering that it was their first season as a side and they only had half of it, the results should give confidence to the team as they hopefully can finish the job this time around and make Advanced.

– Earl “Earl” Stephenson
– Rhys “Rhys” Stumbles
– Reegan “ReegaN” Ward
– Benjamin “Klay” Hurst
– Seth “Xeth” Jackson

ROYALS

For ROYALS ESEA season 43 capped off a brutal end to a tough year, the team had been plagued with roster problems during their last season in Advanced which caused them to be relegated to Main. However, with a complete rebuild putting some youthful talent around stalwart Kyle “swaggy” Wilson the team were expected to bounce straight back up.

After all, ROYALS had proved their worth in other competitions, beating Dripmen and most impressively Endpoint at ESL Premiership Autumn. This proved that the team are more than capable of fighting at an Advanced level, and a 10-4 regular season record set them up for playoff contention.

They would draw a tough opening matchup against French side TheDice and losing that forced the side into having to make promotion via the lower bracket. ROYALS would miss out on promotion after losing 1-2, including a 14-16 loss on the opening map, to MCE Gameexpert. The team look to be running it back for season 44, this time with a new coach in Andreas “addi” Wallenberg, and will look to make up for lost time after missing out on the immediate bounce back.

– Kyle “Swaggy” Wilson
– Edgaras “entz” Luksas
– Timothy “tvs” Sjöberg
– John “Dutchy” Holland
– Xavér “xavi” Hebők
– Andreas “addi” Wallenberg (Coach)

Disclaimer: This article is part of UKCSGO.coms ad deal with ESEA, signups for Season 44 are still open which can be found here

7 January 2023 0 comment

All News ESEA

Arctic Raptors lock in promotion

by arnie 14 December 2022

written by arnie

Arctic Raptors, formerly known as XRAVEL, were somewhat of a sleeper team heading into Season 42, with a team made up of talented, but largely untested players at the Main level.

So, it was a surprise when the team only dropped one match in their run to a second-place finish by the end of the season. This resulted in a high seed and a great chance to get promoted to Advanced. The team would fall short in their first attempt at a playoff run and some wondered whether their season was merely a flash in the pan.

The team would prove those doubters wrong, posting impressive results in other competitions, such as making playoffs in ESL Premiership Autumn 2022, and boasting wins over teams such as 7AM and eMasters.

Having been signed up by Arctic Raptors, they came back for Season 43 with a vengeance. Once again putting together an impressive regular season, dropping only two maps and placing second in back-to-back seasons. On this occasion they would make no mistake in their playoff run, going flawless with their victory over Enhanced Esports, subsequently securing promotion.

This is not only a major step for the team, but it is also a sign of movement in the scene, as Arctic Raptors moving up makes it now six UK teams in Advanced joining 1PIN, ex-ITB, Viperio, 7AM and last seasons promoted UK team, Dripmen, in the division.

There are still two UK hopefuls left with a chance of making Advanced alongside Arctic Raptors, as both ROYALS and The Smiley Boys are still in playoff contention at the moment, though they both have to fight through the tougher lower bracket, after notching up a loss each.

The Arctic Raptors squad is;

Mohamad “Ducky“ Nourelden
Rasmus “zodi“ Frølich
William “wfn“ Maskrey
Seán “Atrox” Greene
Euan “synergii” Wilson

Daniel “papp” Hart (Coach)

14 December 2022 0 comment

All News ESEA Scene News

ESEA Post-season Round-up

by arnie 21 September 2022

written by arnie

With the season coming to its crucial playoff stage, UKCSGO takes a look at the winners and losers over the past few weeks. Once again using the UKCS spreadsheet, created by Oscar “LVN” Levin, we will take a look over the promotion chasers and the relegation scares up and down the ESEA divisions.

Winners

Advanced

Unfortunately, despite the spread off positive performances for UK teams over the past month, only one of the UK Advanced teams managed to convert those performances into a playoff berth. Into The Breach have long been considered the heir to the UKCS throne, behind the currently out of reach Endpoint, and once again they lead the way with a 8-4 record in the regular season. They will face tough competition on their fight to promotion with their opening playoff match against, recent RMR qualifiers, Aurora Gaming scheduled to take place 21st September.

Whilst Into The Breach are the only majority UK team to make the Advanced playoffs, Sebastian “Volt” Malos and his Fnatic Academy team finished the regular season with a very impressive 10-2 record. This left them in third place in the division and will give them a good seed in the post-season, with their first match against Russian side ARCRED again on the 21st.

Main

The Main teams got on only slightly better with two UK teams making it to play-offs, although spare a thought for Temperate who missed out by a round difference of one due to the FFL they took to play in the UKIC Beyond qualifier.

In one of the most impressive runs of the season XRAVEL, home to one of the most talented upcoming AWPers in the scene William “wfn” Maskrey, finished 11-1. This record put them second in the division, ahead of a number of professional teams including Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen’s TITANS project. At the time of writing, XRAVEL’s first playoff match-up is unknown and yet to be scheduled, but after the impressive form the team has displayed in the regular season they are certainly ones to watch for the promotion chase.

The other Main team that squeezed into playoffs are BLVKHVND, who after adding Oliver “Husky” Gollings, had the exciting and rare opportunity to go compete at Fragadelphia 17, alongside 7AM. Despite a good showing from both teams, BLVKHVND’s form stumbled on their return to British soil. This run included a triple matchday in which they lost every single game, and a loss in their final regular season match left a nail-biting wait to see if they would sneak into one of the final playoff spots. They did and fans and teams alike should be wary of underestimating the team, a blip in form and a low seed is not ideal, but the team showed in America that they can perform to a high level.

BLVKHVND played their first playoff match last night and after taking the match against pepsilon to a decider map, their Swedish opponents left the server after the first half (9-6 in favour of BLVKHVND) due to a scheduling conflict. Leaving BLVKHVND to secure a first win in their playoff run and will play Russian side R0ses on the 22nd (September) whom they lost to, 22-20, in the regular season.

Intermediate

There was more playoff positivity to be had in the Intermediate division, with more UK representation in the post-season. None of the teams finished in the top seedings however, which will make for harder match-ups in their playoff runs.

Two teams finished the season with a 8-4 record, the first being the former Team Fatal roster, now going as Eternal Tyre. The newest addition to the roster Tristan “Lake” Jones continued his good early form throughout the season. The team will hope Lake can carry that over to the post-season, to help the team reach Main whilst the team look for a new home.

The other team closing out the season on a 8-4 record were Chain Brothers, who I must admit are a almost complete unknown to me, and I think must be the surprise of the season. The mixed nationality team will play their first playoff match on the 22nd September, with a tough test against Stefan “1mpala” Ailazian’s 5balls_.

7th core another mixed nationality line-up, managed to recover from a rocky start to the season to finish 7-5 and grab themselves a playoff spot. One of the stand-out players on the roster so far has been Jai “poseiidon” Taylor whose fragging ability, has helped power the side to within one BO3 of making Main. That match is planned to be played on the 21st September against French 9-3 side Guerrero Gaming.

Tinks CS academy also made their way into the playoffs with a 7-5 record although they had the reverse fortunes to 7th core. The team started the season hot, racing to a 6-1 record and looking good for a high placing which would have led to a easier opening match-up. However, four losses in their last five games leaves them against a 10-2 high seed in the regular season.

Open

The Open division was home to 76 UK teams this season, and a host of them made it to the post-season so I will only be able to delve into a few here, but will list the full teams underneath.

Starting off we have 16 year-old UKPL player Gh0sty_-‘s team, who finished 11-1 in the regular season. The squad’s record has set them up nicely for a favourable post-season seeding with them due to play a 6-6 team. Stronger tests will lie in wait for the team, and with five FFW’s bloating their record, they will be looking to prove doubters wrong in their playoff run.

At 9-3 we find The Milk Men, who have had a much more consistent season than most, with the couple of losses they did suffer spread across the season rather than in a clump. They play Russian 7-5 team d3voted on the 22nd September to kickstart their playoff run.

Also at 9-3 are Yeaahhbuvv who, after starting 3-3, finished out the season with a undefeated run to leave them in good standing in the playoff race. They find themselves in a UK derby in their post-season opener against 7-5 team munchbunch, again scheduled for the 22nd.

A familiar face also springs up in the 9-3 category, with former Endpoint player-turned Caster/Analyst Ben “esio” Doughty playing on Rat Labs Media, three FFW’s might have helped them on there way but its always good to see some old faces taking part, even if it is just for fun.

Speaking of old faces, Stifmeister has returned with ex-pro’s Aaron “frei” frei, Zaki “Danceyz” Dance and Sam “Astroo” Gresham all finding themselves on the roster. The Stifmeister team find themselves on an 8-4 record with a match against Turkish team EXILE as their opening playoff bout.

UKCS stalwart Harry “Pommey” Crawford’s Alienate team looked set for a rough ride after finding themselves 1-3 after their first four matches. However, the team managed to turn their fortunes around losing only one of their remaining games to leave them 8-4 and in the playoffs.

Finally in what has to be the most bizarre playoff qualification I’ve seen Nova Juniors have managed to make it into the playoffs without having to win a single match. The team started off struggling with four losses on the bounce, with a FFW proving a short respite before losing their next two matches. In a bizarre turn of events, the team have managed to rack up 5 FFW’s in a row to close out the season 6-6, losing every match they have played. Default hunt pro’s? Or just super lucky? Either way, there is no doubt the team will find it extremely tough in the post-season with their first match against Dutch 10-2 team, couraggge.

Losers

Advanced

Both 7AM and 1PIN posted respectable records, with the latter being one win shy of making the post-season, however they will be dissapointed at not reaching the playoff stage. With 1PIN’s Andrew “Wolfie” Allan taking a break from competitive Counter-Strike and 7AM potentially losing their star AWPer William “zyyx” Sjögren both teams will be facing a challenging period, after putting up some notable results in the past few months.

Both Javier “Ping” Griffiths and Kyle “swaggy” Wilson endured a tough season with Inferus (formely JESTE) and ROYALS respectively. Whilst Inferus managed to scrape together four wins which should be enough to see them hold their spot, ROYALS are threatened with the prospect of being demoted to play Main next season after only managing three wins. ROYALS poor season included a run of six losses to finish out the season leaving them near the bottom of the table.

Main

Whilst Only BLVKHVND and XRAVEL made it to the playoffs there were a number of good signs from the Main division this season. With many teams close enough to playoffs to touch them but not quite make it. I have already mentioned Temperate being one round away after being forced into a FFL, but they also had to finish the season with a stand-in for Emyr “eMy” Green which can’t have helped their form.

On top of Temperate, the UK saw signs of life from K10, BLOWN and Katana who all also missed out on the playoffs on round difference. Out of these teams BLOWN has had the most turbulent season, after a string of poor early results the team brought in former Endpoint Academy player Kevin “vKEMPeN” Van Kempen who helped steady the ship as the squad finished the season with four wins on the trot.

Both Clique and Legates finished their seasons 6-6, after both teams endured some early struggles. Clique’s Rhys “Rhys” Stumbles announced that he would be stepping away from the game due to health reasons, and its unknown who will be brought in to replace him. Whilst Legates had a disappointing Main season, they did make a surprise run into the Beyond UKIC Summer Cup, earning them some HLTV match experience.

By Far the most disappointing run of the season, and the only team that i would argue it is fair to coin as ‘losers’ is the Arctic Raptors squad. The team started off the season 0-3 and immediately made changes, bringing in Ben “c60” Saberton and Ethan “EjR” Ross. The teams fortunes took a short upturn with the team picking up the next two wins, but the respite was short lived. With four wins following and putting an end to the teams playoff hopes, from the outside looking in you could tell things were falling apart. EjR parted ways with the squad and they were left to finish out the season with a stand-in, ending on a 4-8 record and they can consider themselves lucky to have avoided relegation. The immediate future for the team is unknown, with their planned appearance at Octobers Epic and the roster instability leaving a lot of questions.

Intermediate

A couple of teams came close to relegation from Inters this season but managed to rescue it at the last minute, including the former Neverlast Esports team who drafted in Neil “mAgic” Elliot and Ben “ghil” Nicholson to help recover their season after a dreadful 1-5 start. The team managed to scrap out two wins which would save the spot and decided to FFL the final match of their season.

Former NeverLast AWPer Reece “RJ” Howell found himself on a another struggling team after he joined Everest Heights who were 3-5 at the time. RJ’s addition done little to quell the teams issues though and it took them until their final match of the season to pick up their first ESEA win with the new AWPer, leaving them on a 4-8 record.

Open

This time around I have decided not to put any teams in the ”Losers” section for the Open division. Partly due to their being no Relegation, but also because a number of the teams that take part in the Open division do so as mixes or for some competitive fun. I think being able to play competitive but for fun is a vital part of the grassroots experience for CS, just like in real sports and therefore, hats off to all the teams and players who gave it a go and got involved this season.

21 September 2022 0 comment

ESEA ESL UK Event News

Endpoint and Wind and Rain gain promotion to next ESL Premiership season

by Archive 15 April 2019

written by Archive

Last night the Spring 2019 Relegation tournament for the ESL Premiership concluded, and saw the final two spots for the next ESL Premiership season filled. If you missed the first day recap, you can find it here.

15 April 2019 0 comment

All News ESEA General News Scene News

Stifmeister signed by Wind and Rain

by Archive 20 February 2018

written by Archive

The UK team flying high at the top of ESEA MDL, Stifmeister, have been signed by Wind and Rain. The organisation, who have been a part of various games and currently compete in the ESL Premiership for League of Legends, announced the signing after the first night of the ESL Premiership, where they had debuted under their colours.

20 February 2018 4 comments