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.
