ESL UK Premiership: The Group Stage Week 1

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It’s 2016, it’s a brand new year of Counter-Strike in the United Kingdom. However, now we know that this year, we have three full seasons to look forward to from ESL UK. The UK Premiership is the biggest tournament in the UK featuring only UK teams. It has a whopping £10,500 prize money on the line for 8 teams, most of which will feature at the offline finals, whilst the rest will be spread in the online portion of the league. Every win a team manages to accrue over the group stage earns them £179 in prize money.

Originally I would do a prediction article or a preview to the league season, however as evidenced by my recent run down for the Promotions Tournament, some of my predictions were wildly off point and so I have felt it’s in UKCSGO’s best interests to do something outside of the usual. This will be a weekly thing instead, as the league season is 7 weeks long, and every team will be playing each Monday evening, I felt this would be a great time to re-introduce what I did for a short time over at my old website for CS:Source called QuickScope. I used to have weekly prediction articles on EDCSSL where I would have a small select number of people to write their weekly feelings and contribute to some content on the scene, with a couple of guests here and there.

I have however decided to tweak this further, so each week, I will have a set number of people contribute and then I will have a weekly guest panelist who will contribute and write a small paragraph on what will happen in each of the matches. Each panelist and guest will be given a criteria, write a small paragraph and predict each of the matches, they are given the lineups in advance, and given time to predict. In an effort to engage all aspects of the scene, I have got one person from UKCSGO.com to be on the panel, a current player outside of UK Premiership, and a former player. The Guest Writer each week will be someone who either is of a higher standard within the scene (ie a top player) or a celebrity within our scene (like casters). This gives the predictions a wide variety of scope to fill and gives everyone a voice.

The Teams

• AlterYourEgo – Immi, Esio, MightyMax, Peggyyyy, Quiver
• United Estonia (Reigning Champions) – HS, fetjz, Boaster, MCK, Joee
• Team Infused – redsnK, Dream, Roma, Jenko, Ozzy
• Team XENEX – Gizmo, logaN, LIFELIKE, JPK, sHAW
• Team CeX – medic, CINDER, Charley, resu, Spandex
• Reason Gaming UK – keita, batham, conoR, miNi, REAZN
• The Working Men – jakem, dUdLeY, tsack, fre1, robiin
• Team uFrag – adamxoxo, HypeIzBack, Yoshi, Powell, xfp

The Panel

Michael “Duck” Moriarty – UKCSGO Journalist

Michael is one of our journalists here at UKCSGO.com, he has written for many different organisation websites including Team Acer, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Reason Gaming. His CS knowledge is relatively restricted to recent times as he has no prior knowledge or playtime in the UK Scene from either CS: Source or 1.6 and therefore his opinion should be treated as a relatively new to the scene.

Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram – Team exceL In Game Leader

Luke is one of the UK scene’s well known fringe players, he currently is playing for Team exceL who will be heading to epic.EIGHTEEN in June later this year. Luke has a rich history in the domestic Counter-Strike Scene, having started playing CS: Source, he has been around the block in many different communities including both Ministry Of Darkness and Rasta back in the day.

 

Ashley “ashhh” Battye – Former Team uFrag player

Ashley has often been on the fringes of the UK Scene, however made his official break out in last seasons UK Premiership with Team XENEX. He also featured in the Team uFrag lineup which courted headlines at epic.SEVENTEEN but then flopped massively at insomnia57. Nowadays, he can most likely be seen playing with the likes of long term friends Eddie “eddie” Dixon and Richard “Rhaz” Hazzard as they formed previous teams such as Team MINISTRY and often go to iSeries tournaments as a group of friends enjoying their dynamic style of CS. Ash can rifle incredibly well and is one of the few people who can frag well enough when calling.

Guest of The Week – Tom “vertiGo” Rockliffe – UK Scene Expert

Tom has been around for a very very long time. He has a string record of impressive 4th place finishes at many different LAN events with lineups that included Roger “paynt” Paynter and Som “s0m” Haddow. Tom is a LAN winner after he won both insomnia49 & insomnia50 with fm-eSports. He has played for organisations such as fm-eSports, Team Dignitas, Molotovs N Marshmallows. Being that he has been around for a long time in the top end of the UK Scene, he has a unique perspective to bring to the table, and will contribute immensely to this week’s panel.

Team CeX Vs Reason Gaming UK – 7pm

Michael “Duck” Moriarty

Set to be a close game, CeX with recent-ish changes against what is effectively a mix (although they’ve been together for a while and are practicing together). With medic + Spandex performing for the CeX side, it puts it closer in their favour, but with the talent in the RG side… It should be close but my money is on Reason

Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram

With all the turmoil surrounding CeX in recent months Cinder and co will be wanting to get off to the right start, despite Reason (known to most as fish123) fielding some of the most experienced players within the UK scene I can’t help but feel CeX just have something about them to come on top in this game call it a gut feeling they have also now had more time to play more with Medic and Spandex however with all first games neither team will want to start off with a loss I don’t expect Reason to be any kind of push over. Both teams have the potential to win this however I am going for a 16:14 win to CeX.

Ashley “ashhh” Battye

Despite fielding two new players in Spandex and medic, CeX were fairly comfortable in the promotions tournament only losing a map to The Working Men. If they have continued in the right direction and put the time in then I see them as strong favourites as the core of the team have been there for some time now, with Resu and Cinder winning an iseries not too long ago.

This Reason side on paper do seem fairly strong but I think this all comes down to just how much they have played together and how many maps they have covered. If this game goes to a map like dust2 or cache then I think it will be a coin flip, however CeX will most certainly already know this and it should be fairly convincing unless Reason get a quick start.

16:12 to Team CeX if they avoid the mix maps

Tom “vertiGo” Rockliffe

The map is likely to be cbble/cache/d2, if they end up playing on either of the former, I can see it coming down to whoever wins knife round and that team will win 16:12/13 ; If it is dust2 it will be a close game that I can’t call. Both teams are an unknown entity featuring some extremely strong players, yet both have a handful of players I haven’t seen play for at least a couple of years so I don’t know what to expect.

Expecting CINDER or conoR/REAZN to be the difference.

Team XENEX Vs Team uFrag – 8pm

Michael “Duck” Moriarty

No question, uFrag should take this game any day of the week. XENEX as a lineup are nowhere near that in terms of firepower with uFrag, or any of the other teams in the competition and they should fall relatively quickly. However, we’re still waiting on whoever uFrag get in as a fifth, but whoever the final player ends up being it should make little difference, for this first game at least.

Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram

Xenex are in my opinion the weakest team this season however they will be wanting to show they aren’t just their off the back of the name and not making up numbers. Team uFrag have had issues with finding a 5th that fits into the role and mentality that adam wants, however I feel it won’t be an obstacle in this game. Team uFrag have enough fire power man to man regardless of their 5th for this game. The game however could all go up in flames if we see anything like some of their recent online performances. All in Team uFrag’s hand. I am going for a 16:6 uFrag win.

Ashley “ashhh” Battye

Team uFrag have looked intensively into sorting a 5th who fits the role, ambitions and personalities, but whoever that may be, I think they are stuck using a sub for the entire season due to not being able to nail down a first choice in time and xfp recently taking an elsewhere team offer. However he will still be playing for them as he left on good terms, which most UK players seem unable to do despite being older and having more experience.

I don’t really know too much about Xenex, but quality wise I don’t think they will win a game this season and they should use this time to develop as a team and learn from their opponents.

16:5 to Team uFrag with Powell to kill everyone.

Tom “vertiGo” Rockliffe

The biggest mismatch of the night, I hope they prove me wrong but I can’t see Team XENEX achieving double figures in any situation. They feature a team with no results to note and their players are relatively unknown in terms of high level UK CS. If they do not win the knife round and start on a less favourable side, I wouldn’t be surprised with a score of around 16:3.

United Estonia Vs AlterYourEgo – 9pm

Michael “Duck” Moriarty

This new AYE side, bringing the core of the team from FM up against a slightly changed side of United Estonia. The UE side brings in the well known “Big boy” Joee and Orbit’s Boaster, with AYE returing Peggyyyy and taking Perilous’ Quiver. This game will be close, considering UE feature players who feature around the Scandinavian scene and AYE being at the top of the UK… I can’t call it – but give the edge to AYE considering they’ve been playing and practicing as a team.

Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram

Since the collapse of FM, it hasn’t stopped Immi. No matter the players available to him you can’t help feel Immi gets what he wants out of them, the core have been together for well over a year now and in any scene you can’t overlook that organic team play, UE on paper look a weaker force than last season but the talents of hs and fjtz can’t be overlooked no matter the line-up but is that enough for them to win? Not for me. I feel this game is the closest of the 4 tonight but My prediction goes with Alter Your Ego 16:12

Ashley “ashhh” Battye

Immi will definitely have his veto planned out for this game and will most likely have the exact map planned and practiced with his team in anticipation. Again, as this is very much a team v a mix and I expect a Cobblestone/Overpass type map to which UE will be incredibly 1 dimensional and unstructured due to HS being in his own international side (unless that has fallen apart). UE will probably come out firing with their no fear style and take a load of early rounds, but after that I think they will struggle to close the game out and AYE will come out ahead.

I believe AYE will win 16:10 but HS to go nuts

Tom “vertiGo” Rockliffe

If you can only watch one game, this is the one I’d suggest – it features a team with a core that has been together well over a year and a mix team that have likely never played with each other until this week. AYE will likely be the most drilled team in the league and it should make their EPS experience a whole lot more comfortable than most of the line ups. Knowing UE will be limited in their map choice, AYE should be able to get a map they are comfortable playing – the irony is the biggest counter to a drilled team is unpredictability and that will come in floods from players like Boaster and fejtz – if they are given too much respect they may be able to open the game up and give us a spectacle.

I would predict the game will be played on Inferno or cache, AYE will win regardless of what team they start on but I believe a T side start on either map will lend them an easier game than a CT start as mix teams are notoriously poor at organising their CT setups. Fejtz & HS should be fun to watch but MiGHTYMAX and co should lock this down and not give UE any space to work with.

I can see UE getting somewhere between 10 and 14 rounds. Should be a good game to watch.

Team Infused Vs The Working Men – 10pm

Michael “Duck” Moriarty

Final game of the night will be the new Infused team, up against Jakem’s mix. Infused taking in the core of the former-former NR team, who are arguably strong online and add in Jenko (one of the surprises from the qualifiers) to give them some raw power. Jakem joins the remainder of that side, adding robiin to help them along. Seeing that, and knowing how well robiin can play it has to be a win for the TWM.

Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram

Now if there was a game that summed up the uk scene in a nutshell it would be this one, line-ups created from the notorious UK shuffle even as recent as the team sKy that won the first two qualifiers. Infused have had issues with pracc due to Roma’s pc problems and the working men are a mix so it will come down to which team turns up on the night for me. If the working men get off to a good start I think they will take it but you have to question if they have the ability to grind rounds if it gets late in the game with their mix mentality. Hard call but I am going for 16:13 The Working Men.

Ashley “ashhh” Battye

Redsnk traditionally does very well with his sides, and under Infused very rarely fails or falters so this could really come down to how much time and effort his side has put in. I don’t think he has ever had a lineup with so much inexperience so this could be a very messy game with lots of individual errors, and with not a single player other than himself having any UK Premiership experience I think nerves will show and make these errors stand out more so. I still think this side will finish in the top half and make the finals, but this doesn’t seem like a good game to start with for them as they will have been hoping to play a team early on.

The Working Men on the other hand have vast amounts of experience, and with a player like Robin stepping in I think we will have our first ‘upset’ even though Redsnk will most likely push this game to a more unconventional map for the mixers. If Robin isn’t on his game then they could be blown out of the game very early on but he almost always shows up and may be more determined for this one in playing against a former teammate in Redsnk.

16:14 to TWM closest game of the night and very similar circumstances to the first game.

Tom “vertiGo” Rockliffe

Another mix team vs drilled team – the nature of this match up makes it hard to predict a score but I would have to say the Infused will take it as they will be able to eliminate the more aim-centric maps and ensure a win on a map they have had some practice on. If Infused opt to play on a map such as dust2 however I wouldn’t doubt in robiin’s ability to tear through UK teams with his bullish play-style. I’m excited to see Jenko play as I’ve heard good things however JAKEM will be surprising a few doubters I’m sure.

16:10 to Team Infused on most maps, although I can see TWM taking this on dust2 or mirage.

This concludes our predictions for Week One in the UK Premiership, to follow the progress of all of these matches, then make sure you tune into the ESL UK Twitch Stream on this evening from 6:50pm, as each week will have all four matches going until 11pm.

We will have more coverage of the UK Premiership over the coming weeks, including statistical breakdowns of all the major players in the league, interviews, and more prediction articles on a weekly basis. Make sure you keep yourselves posted to UKCSGO.com as we continue to cover the top tier of UK Counter-Strike. You can follow us on Twitter and like our page on Facebook for further updates so you never miss a beat in the UK Scene.