With five weeks down, and two to go, we are now onto Week 6 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 playoffs 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 some pulsating action throughout the league season.
Despite Esio’s performances this season so far, he was unable to keep AYE together.
There were some interesting twists in Week 5 of the UK Premiership last week, one being of course Team XENEX’s impressive outing against Team Infused. Some of us were perplexed when we saw Team XENEX actually leading for large parts of the game, and could have even managed to secure the upset, but it simply wasn’t to be as being in such a unique position, meant they suffered from the inexperience they have in their side from a leading position.
It was the first positive thing I’ve seen from Team XENEX all season, and thankfully they gave a good game for spectators and showed they can compete with some of the UK’s finest. Although having said that, questions can be asked of Team Infused and how they managed to let Team XENEX run riot. Can I also give a special mention to Eirik Faraon “Mardant” Larsen who joins an elite club of people in the UK Premiership this season for grabbing an ace in the game. He is only the third player to do that so far this season.
Obviously the biggest shock to learn was that Max “MiGHTYMAX” Heath had been given a chance to play with Reason Gaming, and like the majority of the scene, took his chance to leave a “doomed” side in the league, to upgrade his own status and join Reason who are currently topping the table at the moment. As a result of Max leaving AlterYourEgo, it has since led them to collapse and in our recent announcement saw Ian “Immi” Harding join up with Sam “RattlesnK” Gawn’s new side as coach for that side. This means that AlterYourEgo who were on a 3/5 rule from the previous season for keeping their spot, now ultimately lose their spot from next season’s UK Premiership after defaulting their remaining games.
The Working Men continue to improve week on week, and have seen themselves storm back into Second place in the table as they dispatched of the new look Team uFrag side. Despite Team uFrag’s consistent lineup changes they put in a solid performance but couldn’t seem to break down the defense that TWM put in place to take a win. It seemed like that the usual star fragger of the side, Kostas “tsack” Theodoropoulos struggled last week, and it was actually Aaron “fre1” Frei who topped the charts with a rather unique performance of 35 kills to 20 deaths and not to mention a staggering 57% Headshot accuracy too.
If the other games looked routine, both Team CeX and United Estonia, who love their fair share of close games this season, managed to have a topsy turvy display for all the spectators watching the games, as they cracked out some overtime. Once again Kristians “CINDER” Bogdanovs was toppling the Team CeX charts, I believe that is at least 4 of 5 matches now for Kristians, who continues to impress in this new look Team CeX side. However the clear winner of the day actually goes to Kevin “HS” Tarn who racked up an impressive 38 kills to 25 deaths with 10 of those being opening frags into the round. We also got treated to our second ace of the day as Hendrik “cheti” Vallimägi managed to clock up being the fourth player of the season with an ace and second player from United Estonia to achieve the feat.
Depending on what happens to the previous four games for AlterYourEgo, Team XENEX may actually finish 7th this season, so a remarkable achievement for them. The Top 3 remain separated on round difference whilst 4th/5th/6th are 3 points apart currently. Interesting stuff moving into the final two weeks.
Week 5 Results
The Working Men 16:10 Team uFrag
Team Infused 16:12 Team XENEX
United Estonia 19:17 Team CeX
AlterYourEgo 0:1 Reason Gaming
Week 5 Panel Results
Duck – 100% (Overall: 70%)
Emperor – 75% (Overall: 65%)
Ash – 50% (Overall: 70%)
Previous Week Prediction Articles
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Current Standings
The Teams
AlterYourEgo – Immi, Esio, MightyMax, Peggyyyy, Quiver(Now Folded)- 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, MiGHTYMAX, 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.
The Working Men Vs Reason Gaming – 8pm
Michael “Duck” Moriarty
The Working Men have played well throughout this season, but Reason have opted for some upgrades to their squad since Week 1 and I feel that Reason could take this in a close match though. For both sides it is a must win match, and for teams such as CeX they will be looking for Reason to win, as the H2h is in their favour against TWM. It’s a tough one, but I can just see Reason taking this.
Reason to win 16:14.
Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram
On the assumption that AYE don’t turn up to the rest of their games this means The working men have made top4 but Reason will need to this to cement their place within the top 4 spaces. I feel this game is certainly winnable for Reason and if they can replicate the performance they put up against UE then I feel they will come out on top. Reason will have more pressure on them than the working men to “get the job done” but I feel Reason will step up here.Going for overtime here 19:17 Reason win.
Ashley “ashhh” Battye
Huge game first up with the winner being the first confirmed team through to the finals. I thought Reason would come 4th or 5th but they’ve been well above expectations so far and could find themselves taking the first seed with a win tonight. The fixtures have worked out phenomenally for The Working Men so I think their 4-1 flatters them a little bit, but due to AYE folding they will be making the finals and it’s just a case of whether they can take the first seed spot ahead of Infused or Reason. It was a very good win for TWM last week and for that reason I think that this game will be a close one.
Reason 16:13
United Estonia Vs Team XENEX – 9pm
Michael “Duck” Moriarty
Team XENEX last week finally showed up, and they showed us pundits a thing or two about being able to compete with some of the UK’s finest players. However, once again they find themselves out of their depths, and I just don’t see them ever getting into UE’s defence. It should be noted that UE managed to return back to full strength last week, so I assume they will again roll over XENEX as they just have superior aimers to the XENEX lads.
United Estonia 16:6.
Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram
Ashley “ashhh” Battye
Massive massive win for UE last week and that should realistically be enough to see them across the line. As it looks now, Reason and TWM are almost certainly on their ways to the finals with Infused very likely to join them, which leaves 1 slot for either UE, uFrag or CeX. Any other week I would be predicting a very one sided game, but Xenex really showed up last week and though they might feel they did well, they really showed a lack of experience in throwing away what seemed to be a won game at a few points. I still think UE will win this and nobody will be wanting to play them in the finals.
United Estonia 16:10
Team Infused Vs Team CeX – 10pm
Michael “Duck” Moriarty
Probably the most crucial match of the week, as this should in theory either keep Team CeX in the hunt for a Top 4 place, or end their hopes entirely. Let’s put it this way, if Team CeX lose this match, they won’t be going to the Finals in Leicester as UE play XENEX this week and should pick up three points, which would leave UE on 12 points whilst CeX would be on 6. If CeX win this match against Infused, it would put Infused in a rather frustrating position, as they would have to win against UE next week to secure their place in the finals. This could be a messy affair, and I’m going to go with it heading into overtime.
Infused should win 19:17 though against Team CeX.
Luke “EMPEROR” Ingram
CeX have been the team that I feel have underachieved this season with defeats and performances they can’t be pleased with and most importantly it has cost them games Infused are looking stronger and stronger, and i don’t see them letting up for the rest of the season. I would like CeX to prove me wrong just for the sake of every time I have predicted them they have let me down and vice versa. I am going 16:12 Infused.
Ashley “ashhh” Battye
If Infused lose both of their remaining games and CeX do the opposite then they will finish level with each other. I have Infused down as favourites for both of their remaining games, but them going 0:2 is far from unlikely as they have two of the strongest sides yet to play. Because CeX have Xenex as their final game, if CeX do take this one then they could potentially knock Infused into 5th position due to head to head results (if this is the route we go down) but that would require a few results to go against them. The question here is if CeX will show any real fight after losing from an 8:1 advantage to UE last week. Hopefully this won’t have fractured the team too much and they can bring their A game here so we can see who properly deserves to make it to the finals.
Infused 16:14 in a back and forth game
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 7:50pm, as each week will have all four matches going until 11pm.
Don’t forget, if you want to qualify for next season’s UK Premiership, you can go and join the Major Ladder today and start competing. Just follow this handy link here and sign your team up today!
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.
