With four weeks down, and three to go, we are now onto Week 5 of the UK Premiership, the top tier of UK’s domestic calendar. We are now just past the midway part of the season, it is now turning into one of the most unpredictable seasons we have seen thus far. The table looks so wide open to any team to take the title, although of course, the league stage doesn’t sort out the title contenders, just the four that make it to the finals.
The UK Premiership Finals will be heading to Leicester where only one of these eight teams will get crowned champions, and walk away with the biggest share of £10,500. Only four of these teams can make the play-offs at Leicester and certainly it should be intriguing how this all develops especially with our first two weeks of pulsating action we’ve seen. We’ve had the pleasure of watching some cracking games between AlterYourEgo & United Estonia and of course, United Estonia & Team uFrag where it went down to the wire. Even last week saw some intriguing results with AYE being beaten, and Team CeX being beaten.
If you wish to read up on all the relevant statistics that we have, and an in depth review on who should make it to the finals, you will able to see all this information tomorrow, as it’s taken longer than I anticipated and will be out tomorrow afternoon.
It seems that Team CeX wanted to prove us wrong again….. CINDER makes a point.
The single best match of the week was actually what started us off in Week 4, with Team CeX taking a surprising win over their other deemed rivals, AlterYourEgo. In what was a rather even affair, Team CeX managed to close up shop on de_dust2 by beating AYE 16:14. It now condemns AYE to their 3rd loss in four matches, and makes it very difficult for them to make the playoffs in a few weeks time. [Stat Watch]
Our second match saw, Team Infused take on Team uFrag. Both teams had something to prove here this week, Infused had picked up two solid results against two of the better teams in this division despite their shocking early Week 1 loss, whilst Team uFrag were full of surprises in the first three weeks running United Estonia close and picking up a win against Team CeX in Week 3. This match could have been the most pivotal match in the league season for both these teams, and it was Team Infused who raced out to an early lead. However after a slow start from Team uFrag, they managed to start putting rounds on the board. However it did seem like too little too late, as Team Infused managed to comfortably see out a 16:9 win.
In what was the most strangest match in the league this season, Reason Gaming who brought on Brandon “Weber” Weber for Week 4 (probably as they really want to make the playoffs) managed to run absolutely rampant against the Estonians. I wouldn’t read too much into the result as it seemed that United Estonia suffered an issue with money in Round 6 as Mick “MCK” MacDonald dropped off the server, and then the usual Valve bug of “well technically you suicided bro” meant a rather lengthy pause as admins tried to find a command that would give one player the correct cash (as 5 round loss bonus was in effect), they couldn’t and it meant that UE ended up just saying “let’s just go”. But it was an impressive result for Reason who now have a foot in the door at the finals. It does mean UE who earlier had a 100% record are now 2 losses out of the last two weeks.
Probably the most unsurprising result in the league, is that The Working Men absolutely stomped the whipping boys of the league, in the form of Team XENEX. Even the round the world strategy deployed by The Working Men was pretty hilarious to watch. The match finished 16:5 to the Working Men, and meant that Team XENEX were still without breaking double figures in scores let alone getting a win, but you have to admire their commitment to keep coming back for more.
Week 4 Results
Team CeX 16:14 AlterYourEgo
Team Infused 16:9 Team uFrag
United Estonia 1:16 Reason Gaming
The Working Men 16:5 Team XENEX
Week 4 Panel Results
Duck – 75% (Overall: 60%)
Emperor – 50% (Overall: 45%)
Ash – 100% (Overall: 80%)
Previous Week Prediction Articles
Current Standings
The Teams
- AlterYourEgo – Immi, Esio, MightyMax, Peggyyyy, Quiver
- United Estonia (Reigning Champions) – HS, cheti, Boaster, MCK, Joee
- Team Infused – redsnK, Dream, Roma, Jenko, Lumji
- 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, Jak3y, Powell, xfp
The Panel
M
ichael “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 – Miran “SpeedyG” Hoyle – Perilous.Fury player
Miran has been a fundamental asset to the CS:GO Community in the UK for many years now. Known for his bullish attitude and his incredible AWPing (ok I admit I’m really pushing that one there), he has often been seen helping out the scene in the background by promoting new talent, and helping newer players in the scene. He has been a part of Perilous Fury for many many years now, and often been partnered with the likes of Alasdair “AL” Maltby and Chris “debaser” Flynn, but is now in a rather revamped lineup heading to epic.EIGHTEEN in June. His insight into the top end of the scene is incredible, and his predictions this week should see some intriguing picks.
The Working Men Vs Team uFrag – 7pm
Michael “Duck” Moriarty
With Team uFrag’s recent roster changes make this a hard prediction as we’ve never seen this lineup before and that makes them unpredictable. However saying that, Jak3y and JT are strong players who I think can mix well with the team. The Working Men have an uphill struggle and I think they will eventually lose to uFrag 16:12.
Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram
I feel with all the doubts and changes around uFrag isn’t going to save them here especially if they start off badly. The only chance for uFrag is if a week 2 showing of the working men show up but I am more inclined to think that was a one off. I see the working men taking this around 16:10.
Ashley “ashhh” Battye
TheWorkingMen had an easy game last week against Xenex which followed a default win over UE, a hammering from CeX and an easy win against Infused. So right now they are comfortably the most unknown quantity package this season and predicting their games is anyone’s guess. uFrags results make slightly more sense, but they lost to a side TWM beat comfortably in Infused 16:9, yet beat CeX who demolished TWM… From what I’ve gathered their roster has finally stabilised and had a little time to practice and so I’ll go with a win for them purely because they’ve shown more in the last three games.
uFrag 16:12
Miran “SpeedyG” Hoyle
This game can be a really close game depending on what type of mindset the uFrag boys are in with the main man Adam “adamxoxo” Rotherham being the top caller, and big baller after some issues in the past I think the uFrag boys can take this game 16:14 even though The Working Men have had some really great results.
Team Infused Vs Team XENEX – 8pm
Michael “Duck” Moriarty
Team XENEX have a grand total of 0 wins, 4 weeks into the UK Premiership and i don’t foresee them getting one this week. Infused have been one of the strongest teams in the tournament and they outclass the XENEX players immensely. 16:5 to Infused.
Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram
Ashley “ashhh” Battye
That’s three strong wins on the bounce now for Infused and they are now one of my two new teams to finish in the top two along with Reason, thanks to United Estonia’s recent struggles and the AYE side imploding. The most inform side against the side without a win means that this won’t be the game for Xenex to look to break their duck and might be a stat padder for Infused.
Infused 16:4.
Miran “SpeedyG” Hoyle
I predict a write off to Team Infused, as I can see them smashing it 16:1 as Team XENEX have been written off with past results and having seen them in online results with their team like UK Masters they haven’t gone far or done anything noticeable.
United Estonia Vs Team CeX – 9pm
Michael “Duck” Moriarty
After UE’s thrashing at the hands of Reason Gaming last week, it’s hard to say what version of UE we’ll see tonight. I’m expecting an interesting match between the two teams with both of them showing their strength as UE have to prove to us and to themselves that last week was just a bad game and that they haven’t lost form. CeX however will be looking to capitalise on their shaky form and steal a victory from under their noses. However i see this going the way of United Estonia 16:10.
Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram
Cex the team that keep showing me wrong, well let’s see if they can prove me wrong again this week with an upset. United Estonia after being stomped last week will most certainly not want it to happen again and in order to protect their title will need to show up big this week. CeX seem to enjoy the “bigger” matches and almost at times seem to make the games harder than they look by some odd individual plays. None the less this game will go down right to the wire but United Estonia is my pick this week 16:14.
Ashley “ashhh” Battye
I’m not sure what has happened to United Estonia but thanks to a default against TWM and a total thrasing from Reason on dust2 of all maps they’re really losing steam at the wrong time. With three teams out on three wins UE need to win this one or they’re going to be relying on a win in the last game against Infused who could very well be top of the standings. It’s exactly the same case for CeX who have identical fixtures and the loser of this will be in VERY big trouble when it comes to reaching the finals. I’ll go for CeX for this one purely because UE were abysmal last week, but this is the game of the night for me!
CeX 16:14.
Miran “SpeedyG” Hoyle
This is the by far the most interesting game of the week as this will be a close game in my eyes as Team CeX and United Estonia are both really good teams, united estonia have beat teams that cex have lost to, in the past meaning. Though I am saying this I still think with Andrew “resu” Robson being in charge with the boys over at Team CeX they will win this game 16:14.
AlterYourEgo Vs Reason Gaming – 10pm
Michael “Duck” Moriarty
Reason are on a high after their incredible performance last week, and with AYE’s roster instability i don’t expect anything less than a confident win here by Reason. Especially since Reason have replaced one of their players with Max “MiGHTYMAX” Heath, who played in the AYE roster last week. Reason will take this one 16:7
Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram
It is well known now that AYE have collapsed and Reason coming off the back smash win over United Estonia so all fingers would point to a Reason win right with chain logic, however i feel with pressure off the AYE guys they might just take this, so i am going to stick my neck out and go for a 16:13 win for AYE.
Ashley “ashhh” Battye
So the two rumoured lineup changed sides will be playing against each other, which involves formed AYE player Max “MiGHTYMAX” Heath coming up against his former team straight away. From what I can tell it is Shaney and Sheekey in for Max and Quiver though this could be inaccurate. Reason need to take this chance to push for that 1st place and use the momentum they have to do so. I don’t think AYE will stop them here but who knows anymore with how results have been going this season.
Reason 16:9.
Miran “SpeedyG” Hoyle
I predict from what has happened over the weekend to Alter your ego and how they’ve folded, that they won’t be turning up to this game so I guess it is 0:1 to Reason Gaming they can have the default on the house!
This concludes our predictions for Week Five 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.
For those of you who haven’t been able to watch the games each Monday, ESL UK have a rather nice collection of the streamed games on their YouTube channel, be sure to check it out over at ESL UK Youtube Channel.
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.
