Following on from the Season 44 review, we come in with the second of this two-part update bringing you what happened in the most recent season. The headline news for this ESEA Season 45 update, is that there will be no UK teams, players or even coaches in ESL Challenger League next season. Despite Endpoint and Into the Win’s strong performances in ECL S44, neither of them could muster a win in Season 45, and lost in the relegation bracket as well.
Elsewhere, though, there were some good performances from various UK teams – not only in Advanced, but also in Main and one particular stand-out performance in ESEA Open. Let’s go through it piece by piece.
ECL and Advanced
Endpoint fell out of ESL Challenger League after losses in the regular season to BIG Academy and ForZe. Despite victories in the Relegation bracket over Websterz and 9 Pandas, defeats to Aurora and The Prodigies (not helped by being forced to utilise coach Allan “Rejin” Petersen as a stand-in for the latter) mean the UK-based organisation is looking at playing ESEA Advanced for the first time since 2020 – but will have a UK core for the first time since 2021.
Adam “Adam9130” Ahmad’’s Into the Win also crashed out of ECL, losing to HEET and Sangal in the regular season. A 2-1 defeat by Hungarian side DomiNation put them in the Relegation lower bracket where ITW were forced to forfeit due to unspecified “health problems”. It is unclear if the roster will stick together with James “bevve” Slinn and in-game leader Adam9130 both tweeting to confirm they are seeking new opportunities.
Coalesce joined the Relegation bracket from the other direction, after finishing 5th-6th in Advanced play-offs. Their reward was a brutal opening fixture against Aurora, and despite a strong performance from stand-in Jack “Gizmy” Spreckleson, they fell to the lower bracket where they were eliminated by Websterz without a map win to their name. A second failure to make ESL Challenger League seems to have been the final straw for the team, who left Coalesce after their contracts expired before disbanding.
That 5th-6th place finish for Coalesce stood in contrast to domestic rivals Viperio, who made another season of ESEA Advanced play-offs but struggled, finishing in 13th-16th place to miss out on Relegation, capping off a disappointing season for the British/Irish combination. Since qualifying for the BLAST Paris Major RMR, Tom “arTisT” Clarke’s men have made multiple roster moves but have seen no noticeable uptick in results, and it remains to be seen if further changes are in the pipeline.
Elsewhere in Advanced, Fraser “frazehh” Sollom’s Dripmen held onto their spot with 7 wins and 7 defeats. A poor start to the season following their enforced rebuild left them staring down the barrel of relegation back to Main, however they turned it around by winning their remaining games (including an FFW over Geekz Energy) to secure another season in the division. frazehh has wasted no time, announcing that he will be reuniting with his former BLVKHVND and Dripmen team-mates Josh “JAUSTERE” Philpott and Jack “DeXteR” Hepple for the new season, where they will play under the tag of Verdant Gaming.
Meanwhile GEEKZ Energy’s story came to a disappointing end. The team formerly known as ROYALS were finally signed heading into the new season, and with Sean “Atrox” Greene as their new fifth the future looked bright. Results did not come, roster changes were swiftly implemented, and the team stumbled to a 3-11 finish achieving just one victory in the server (two FFWs). A sad end to Kyle “swaggy” Wilson’s long career, and UKCSGO understands the team will not be sticking together for the new season.
Main
Two UK teams were relegated from Advanced last season and both bounced straight back up again. Arctic Raptors dropped just three games in the regular season, backed by strong performances from rifler Reegan “ReegaN” Ward, and beat eughxuls and Falcons Esports to return to Advanced. 7AM took a more circuitous route, scraping into play-offs with a 9-5 record, but Oscar “LVN” Levin’s men went three games unbeaten, including a domestic derby with K10, to regain their spot in Advanced. They’ve celebrated this achievement by adding LVN’s former Feenix and EKO team-mate Olly “Husky” Gollings to the lineup for their new tilt at Advanced.
Three more UK teams made ESEA Main play-offs, but none could secure promotion. The closest were K10, who went 11-3 in the regular season and beat Alex “Byfield” Byfield’s Kazu Store Bois, but lost to The Prodigies France in the critical decider game, another agonising loss for Adam “AdamJC” Colwell and his men. Sakana123 failed to win a game in play-offs, but with DeXteR, JAUSTERE and Harry “moshi” Raines moving to Verdant (formerly Dripmen) for next season, they may not be too dissatisfied with the outcome. The already dead XcOblivion roster lost both of their play-off games, as did Alfie “Rayman” Bench’s The Last Resort, who are looking for a new AWP and rifle for season 46.
No UK teams were relegated from Main, although spare a thought for EPIC.35 champions Dusty. The Icelandic titans were marked as dead and relegated, achieving only a single victory over 7th Core.
Intermediate
Intermediate was something of a bust from a UK perspective. Two teams made play-offs, Vivify Esports and LAGr Esports; neither were promoted, with Vivify losing to “They sent matrix agents” and WISP, while LAGr Esports lost to NanoExit and Verdora. Caster Jack “Zerpherr” Kelly’s SKINCHIES were the highest-ranked team to miss out on play-offs on round differential. (One team, “Sinkin Ship”, managed to avoid relegation on the same basis despite a 4-10 record, thus creating a perverse symmetry).
The only team relegated was TRAXXMANIA, noting the likes of former caster and pro David “DAVEY” Stafford and James “JamesBT” Beattie but folding after being unable to fulfil their fixtures.
Open
With over 200 teams making play-offs there were plenty of UK sides in the mix. Wales’ finest, Pirates Esports, achieved promotion to Intermediate to become, what they believe is, the first full Welsh side in the division. They will be joined by PREDULOTL, featuring Matthew “meffew” Godsell and Igor “Igorek” Kochany. Kai “faite” Knight’s LF Goth GF also secured promotion to Intermediate. No teams managed the ‘double promotion’, making it to Main from Open, which requires 4 victories in the play-offs.
While there will be no new teams in Main from Open, there will be an extra UK side in Advanced. John “Dutchy” Holland’s Next In Line Esports went 13-1 in the regular Open season and survived close encounters in the play-offs to set up a grand final against Ioann “Edward” Sukharjev’s ESC Gaming, with a spot in Advanced for the winner. They won 2-1, reverse sweeping after losing the opening map, to jump from the bottom division all the way to the third tier – just as Heaven & Hell Esports, later to become Coalesce, did in season 40. The circle of life?
*The author of the article works for Endpoint as their Community Manager.
