On Sunday 4th June, Endpoint faced Into The Breach in the ESL Premiership Spring 2023 Grand Final, competing in a match for the top spot of the UK scene. Endpoint were looking to claim their 9th consecutive title, whilst ITB had their sights set on becoming the UK’s top dog after an incredible run at the final CS:GO major. Let’s take a look back at the journey they took to win ESL Premiership Spring 2023.
Group Stage
Due to Endpoint’s transition to an international roster, they were required to use a stand-in to follow the ESL Premiership rule of having at least 3 UK players. Prior to the season starting, Endpoint announced they would field Owen “smooya” Butterfield as their stand-in, however due to smooya participating in the IEM Dallas Showmatch, which happened to fall on the day of the Premiership final, he decided not to play.
At the start of the season, Endpoint used Rory “cryths” Ursell as their stand in, and had a shaky start. They lost three of their first five games, putting them on the verge of missing out on a playoffs spot, and looking nothing like the dominant Endpoint that had won the last eight titles. After this poor start, Endpoint decided to change things, instead using Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom as their stand in. Following this change, the team got back to winning ways, winning their remaining five games and ending with a 7-3 record in Group B. Strong performances from Milosz “mhL” Knasiak and Nikita “HeavyGod” Martynenko in the back half of the season helped to secure their playoffs spot. mhL posted a 0.92 rating in the first half of the season, but brought this up to 1.34 in the second half, whilst HeavyGod went from 1.04 to 1.42.
Into the Breach’s journey to the playoffs was one that provided very little resistance, however a loss to Coalesce gave teams hope that they might be able to beat the Major Legends. These hopes were quickly squashed as ITB finished the group stage with a 9-1 record in Group A, with only that singular defeat to Coalesce as a blemish.
As a team, they put up strong numbers across the duration of the group stage, with Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel securing the highest rating out of his teammates, finishing the event with an impressive 1.3 rating. Not too far behind him was ITB’s in-game-leader, Thomas “Thomas” Utting, who had a 1.26 rating over the group stage.
Playoffs
Coming into the playoffs, Endpoint had just exited the CCT 2023 Online Finals, whilst Into The Breach were coming off of a history-making run in the Blast TV Paris Major, where they placed in the top eight. Endpoint quickly dispatched of their first-round opponent, ex-eMasters/Sakana123, with a 2-0 victory. This was Sakana123’s first time making playoffs, and they were the only team in this season’s play-offs that didn’t make playoffs in the Autumn 2022 season. Into The Breach, Viperio, Endpoint, Coalesce (1PIN), and Arctic Raptors all participated in last season’s playoff bracket. This is particularly unusual in a region where teams seem to struggle to stay together.
Next up was Coalesce, who had been seeded directly into the semi-finals after a strong performance in the group stage, edging out Into the Breach by three rounds in round differential. A dominant showing from HeavyGod with an impressive 56-29 K/D helped Endpoint book their place in the Grand Final with a 2-0 victory, with scores of 16-11 and 16-10 on Ancient and Inferno, respectively. Endpoint had lost to Coalesce at the beginning of the year in CCT West Europe and arguably came in as underdogs given Coalesce’s form, but their experience gave them the edge.
After narrowly missing out on going directly to the semi-finals, Into The Breach were tasked with taking down Arctic Raptors, who qualified for the playoffs with a 6-4 record in Group A, securing victories against Endpoint and 7AM along the way. Strong showings from CRUC1AL and Karol “rallen” Rodowicz helped secure a 2-1 win in the series, with scores of 8-16, 16-11, and 16-4 on Ancient, Vertigo, and Inferno, respectively.
To secure their place in the finals, ITB were pitted against Viperio, who were coming into the match-up with a 9-1 record in Group A. After losing their map pick of Mirage with an overtime score of 16-19, ITB had to complete the reverse sweep. Sebastian “volt” Malos led the lines as ITB fought back on Viperio’s pick of Anubis, picking up 30 kills with only 10 deaths as ITB tied up the series with a 16-7 victory. Another good performance from volt on the decider of Vertigo helped ITB close out the series with another 16-7 scoreline, and seal their spot in the Grand Final.
Grand Final
Ahead of the Grand Final, Into The Breach were favourites to win, with a poll from caster Neo “Ne0kai” Caine showing that 88.6% of voters expected ITB to beat out Endpoint. First up was Endpoint’s first pick, Ancient. A standout performance from Cai “CYPHER” Watson, netting 24 kills with only 11 deaths, saw ITB annihilate Endpoint 16-4. Endpoint fought back valiantly on ITB’s pick of Anubis, with mhL and Kia “Surreal” Man putting up good numbers to take the map to overtime, but volt and CYPHER proved too much to handle, and ITB took a 2-0 lead in the series as they closed out map 2 19-16.
Although Endpoint bit back on their second pick of Mirage with a 16-13 win, the attempt to mount a comeback was quickly disregarded by Into The Breach, who dominated the first half of Inferno 11-4. Just when Endpoint began to mount a resurgence on their T-side, ITB stole away an eco to win the Grand Final 3-1.
This marks Into The Breach’s first ESL Premiership title, after participating four times, and placing as runners-up twice previously. Thomas takes home his sixth consecutive title, having previously competed with Endpoint as both a permanent player and stand-in, and CRUC1AL brings his tally to six titles overall. Meanwhile, CYPHER, rallen and volt all claim their first titles in the event. This also means Into the Breach will take part in the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 18 National Championships Qualifier, competing for a spot in ESL Pro League Season 18 in Malta later this year.
The UKCSGO MVP for ESL Premiership Spring 2023 was CRUC1AL due to his outstanding consistency and big time plays during Into the Breach’s victory.
Group stage statistics provided by Mischief_CSGO
