The general narrative around EPIC.LAN 45 is one of the European Tier-2 teams that have travelled to Kettering. This culminated in Danish side AaB squaring up to Spanish squad Iberian Soul in the grand finals.
The two teams battled past the likes of NXT, Alliance, The Last Resort, 8Sins and FUT in their pursuit of UK glory. The two finalists had already played each other in the upper bracket final, where the young, fiery squad of AaB shocked the Iberians, beating them 2-1, going to the full 24 rounds on map three.
Even though Iberian Soul got dropped into the lower bracket, they were able to edge past Alliance 2-1 in an intense BO3 that saw them go the distance on maps two and three.
NXT, prior to the EU teams signing up, were undoubtedly the favourites. They have ruled UK CS for over a year, winning the last seven LANs, including three EPIC.LAN titles in succession. They still had a good event, all things considered, despite having a slow start on day one. Finishing fourth, NXT still gained a lot of VRS points that will support their future European campaigns.
This also marked the first time in EPIC.LAN history that a grand finals featured no UK teams.
In the absence of NXT, Owen “smooya” Butterfield plugs the gap and flies the UK flag on Iberian Soul in the EPICLAN 45 grand finals. The now eight-time Kettering champion will be pleased to have picked up another EPIC.LAN title as he is on the lookout for a new team.
For the first time in @EPICLAN history, there is no UK team in the grand finals 😢
🇬🇧 @smooyacs flies the UK flag on 🇪🇸 Iberian Soul as they look for revenge against 🇩🇰 AaB pic.twitter.com/bJTKT39Lp4
— 🇬🇧 UKCSGO (@ukcsgo) July 20, 2025
Iberian soul obliterate AaB on their map pick
Already warmed up from their lengthy game versus Alliance, Iberian Soul came into the Grand Finals swinging.
From start to finish, it was carnage, primarily led by David “dav1g” Granado Bermudo on their map pick of Nuke.
It simply wasn’t a competitive match, as Iberian Soul only lost two rounds on the whole map. Even though the last time these two teams faced each other, AaB lost on Nuke, it was a lot more competitive. It can be tough for an inexperienced team to bounce back in a grand finals after such a poor map one; alas, for AaB, it never got easier.
.@IberianSoul obliterate @AaBesport 13-2 on map 1 to take the lead in the @EPICLAN 45 grand finals 💪
Next up is Ancient, the Danes' map pick 🤞 pic.twitter.com/jHwgmTnuhB
— 🇬🇧 UKCSGO (@ukcsgo) July 20, 2025
Iberian Soul seals the deal without breaking a sweat
There was never a restbite for the Danes as they started slow on Ancient, losing pistol and the first five rounds.
After finally getting on the board, they were able to double down and match their score line from Nuke. This success wasn’t prolonged as they ended up only getting one more round before the half ended, as dav1g continued to terrorise AaB. Ancient’s first half ended 9-3 in favour of the Spaniards.
After a brief tech pause in the second half, the match went live again, but unfortunately, AaB’s luck never turned around. In a largely uncontested grand finals, Iberian Soul outclassed AaB and closed out Ancient 13-9.
As previously mentioned, dav1g was on fire in the grand finals as he finished the series with an astounding 1.67 HLTV rating. His highlight came from when he engineered a half buy win at 10-7, when it looked like AaB could have a late push for a third map.
Alongside that, smooya finished as the highest-rated player on Iberian Soul in the playoffs, and fifth highest at the event with a 1.18 HLTV rating across 12 maps. Impressively enough, even though AaB lost badly in the finals, youngster Sander “qx” Thomas still posted a 1.23 HLTV rating through 9 maps, making him the fourth highest rated player of the playoffs.
smooya‘s strong performance in the finals and across the playoffs as a whole earns him the UKCSGO MVP for the event.
Iberian Soul is your EPIC.LAN 45 champions 🏆🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/Os4LBlzGWG
— 🇬🇧 UKCSGO (@ukcsgo) July 20, 2025
The VRS implications of EPIC.LAN 45
Iberian Soul came into the event far and away the highest ranked team, sitting 27th in Europe on the Valve Ranking System. They came into EPIC.LAN 45 looking to see if they can dip their toes into Tier-1 Counter-Strike for the first time in a while.
After lifting the trophy, the Spaniards gained 55 points, pushing them up three spots in the European Valve Ranking System, and six internationally to sit 24th and 35th respectively.
Others like AaB, for instance, came into EPIC.LAN 45 placed 115th in Europe on the VRS. They had a different goal than Iberian Soul, to get into contention for Tier-2 events. They smashed this goal out of the water as they finished the weekend 57th in Europe, garnering a whopping 323 VRS points from their grand final run. For a very young and fresh squad, this has given them an opening into Tier-2 CS, all facilitated through EPIC.LAN.
Outside of the finalists, the majority of teams that came here for VRS reasons succeeded in their quest.
🇬🇧 smooya from Iberian Soul is the UKCSGO EPIC.LAN 45 MVP, boasting a 1.18 HLTV rating across 12 maps in the playoffs 🎯 pic.twitter.com/mG08lRV6Xj
— 🇬🇧 UKCSGO (@ukcsgo) July 20, 2025
The Last Resort, which only won one game against Adam “AdamJC” Colwell’s AimerLegion, still gained 110 points and went up 11 places to 76th in Europe due to the LAN and prize money won modifiers.
The only team to maybe miss out on their goal would be the French side, FUT. They had a rough start to the event as they needed to fly in Christophe “SIXER” Xia last minute for Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom. Things never got easier for them. FUT had to start in the lower bracket of the playoffs, and they were able to beat Glitchtech and dag loves fatties, but were eliminated when they fell short against Alliance.
This meant they did receive an impressive 204 points from EPIC.LAN 45, but only went from 134th in Europe to 84th, which means they are still outside the threshold for Tier-2 tournament invites.
NXT also received a healthy amount of points for their fourth-place finish, sitting 61st in Europe, 10 places away from their peak in February.
Post EPIC45 VRS Changes:@IberianSoul +6 rank gain (55 points)@theAllianceGG +11 ranks (76 points)@GONXTGG +35 ranks (116 points)@TheLastResort +38 ranks (110 points)@8sinsesports +24 ranks (39 points)@AaBesport +143 ranks (323 points)@FUTesportsgg +116 ranks (204 points) pic.twitter.com/azXH2qGQnJ
— Finn (@MischiefCS2) July 20, 2025
