Coming into the event, the new team on the block were treated as somewhat of a wildcard. A good few online results for the VATIC side have led to many suggesting they could be one of the sides to watch out for on the UK CS:GO landscape, however their performances here at Kettering this weekend have unfortunately left a lot to be desired.
It was evident from the start of the tournament that this may well be a shaky event for the VATIC side, and on their first map of the competition they managed to lose in overtime to surprise underdog Impulse Gaming White. They did manage to win the second map to give themselves a tie moving forward, however for a team looking to establish themselves as a contender, this was not a good sign.
The rest of the group went a little more according to plan, with only one additional loss against the seeded team uFrag, who are pegged to finish within the top four of the tournament. Unfortunately for the VATIC side, the tie at the start of the day resulted in them advancing from the groups in the third place, which meant that they would face the second place finisher from one of the other groups. That team turned out to be Perilous.FURY, a team who themselves have recently dropped into the lower bracket. It has to be said for VATIC that the match was by no means a crushing, and despite the eventual 2 – 0 loss, however they still failed to live up to their own expectations.
The VATIC side will head home early from epicEIGHTEEN.
This left the purple parade in the lower bracket, where they encountered perhaps the most unknown quantity of the event – Jack “jacky” Peters and his band of Danish brothers. The Danish side have set themselves a goal of making it far this event, so a clash in the lower bracket with a team that are looking to make waves was likely the last thing they wanted to see. Despite this, it did not seem that a fire had been lit under the VATIC team, and a 2 – 1 loss sees them head out of epicEIGHTEEN in 13th – 16th position. The unfortunate finish perhaps led to the following tweet from long time player Jonny “rixj” Jones:
Well that’s a sign to hang up, 9 weeks till the little ones here, it’s been a blast for the past 13 years of gaming ? gg
— Jonny (@RIXJcsgo) June 18, 2016
Potentially, this means a roster change is in the pipeline for the VATIC side. We wish the best of luck to Jonny with the birth of his child and good wishes for what he chooses to pursue in the future.
