After going flawless in their group, Ireland qualified directly for the IESF European Championships hosted in Kosovo, the first time Team Ireland has done so.
Team Ireland has previously attempted to qualify for IESF events in both 2023 and 2024; both attempts were unsuccessful, even if they did get close in 2023. However, apparently, the key to success was using their coach for the qualifiers.
Team Ireland originally fielded was comprised of Tom “arTisT” Clarke, Matas “Extinct” Strumila, Jamie “Tree60” Callan, Nathan “N8” Dowd and Jack “Jackmon” O’Donnell, with Jack “Zerpherr” Kelly as the coach. However, as it transpired, Jackmon was due to be out of the country during the qualifiers, and therefore, Zerpherr had to step up and try his hand at playing.
The keen-eyed among you would have noticed the British player Tree60 was playing for Ireland. Similar to his appearance last year in the IESF qualifiers for Team Ireland, Tree60 is eligible to play due to holding an Irish passport, which counts as Irish citizenship and allows him to play.
Team Ireland features the core of PERPLEXITY
Being placed in Group H, Ireland would be playing in a BO1 round robin format against Czechia, Albania and Malta.
The journey to qualification was simply to top the group. If Ireland won their three BO1s, they would automatically qualify for the LAN finals in Pristina. If Ireland were to not place first but rather second or third, they would be put into a Last Chance stage with seven spots up for grabs between the remaining 16 teams. If a team placed fourth or fifth in the first group stage, they would be automatically eliminated.
Day one started very well for Ireland as they steamrolled through Malta, winning 13-1. This was not an entirely unexpected result; the main challenge, however, would come the following day against Czechia.
Team Czechia was represented by UNITY, a team that frequently competes in Tier-2 and 3 tournaments in Europe with players like NEOFRAG. The one exception in their lineup was Ruslan “woozzzi” Aliev being replaced by Jan “pandi7o” Holák.
Regardless, this was supposed to be the game that makes or breaks Ireland’s chances to qualify, but it ended up being shockingly easy. Leading Ireland to a 13-8 win, arTisT produced a star-studded 24-13 performance to almost guarantee their place in Kosovo.
On the final day of the group stage, Albania stood between Ireland and Qualification. Despite having to use AdamJC instead of N8, Ireland where not deterred. Tree60 stole the spotlight in their final game as he delivered a dastardly 29-17 and 131 ADR performance in a 13-11 victory to guarantee Ireland’s place in the IESF European Esports Championship 2025.
UKCSGO understands that Zerpherr will continue to play in the team for the LAN, and Jackmon will be coaching instead of playing.
The IESF European Championships are to be held in Pristina, Kosovo, between July 9th and 13th. Alongside the 14 other teams qualified alongside Ireland, Kosovo will automatically be fielding a team.
Qualified to @iesf_official Championship in 🇽🇰 with @IrelandEsports_
13-8 vs Malta 🤠
13-8 vs Czech 😎
13-11 vs Albania 😍 pic.twitter.com/CQJTFGbJ98— arTisT (@ARTISTCS2) May 23, 2025
Alongside Ireland, there was also Team Wales or friends of UK CS, representing their respective nations.
Unfortunately, unlike Ireland, Wales didn’t have a great journey. Being placed in Group B alongside Ukraine, Serbia, Austria and Iceland, Wales were not able to win a single game. This meant they finished fifth in their group and were automatically eliminated from the qualifier. Wales deployed a rather unorthodox strategy of having an eight-man rolling roster. Undersatandably so, this didn’t go very well as they only kept the same roster for 2 of the four games.
In 2022, the Welsh squad made history by not only participating in the IESF World Championships in Bali but also making the playoffs. Since then, they have not been able to win a single game in qualifiers.
Iceland featured two EPIC.LAN winners and four players who represented DUSTY at EPIC.LAN 44. Meeting the same fate as Wales, Iceland only beat the Welsh side and ended up placing fourth, being subsequently eliminated.
Team Netherlands featured some very familiar names to UK CS, with ex-Endpoint and Into The Breach AWPer Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel being joined by Jacob “Rezst” Hemming, who currently plays on PERPLEXITY, and Antal “Cher1on” Lubbers, previously of The Last Resort.
Rezst will join Ireland in Kosovo as he qualifies with Team Netherlands
The Dutch side was rounded out by Thijs “rilax” Izaks and Dion “FASHR” Derksen, who actually played for Endpoint in late 2017, winning the ESL UK Premiership Autumn 2017 Finals.
The road was a bit longer for Team Netherlands as they clinched the 15th and final spot to Pristina, as they had to go through Group Stage #2 to ultimately end up in the Last Chance Stage third-place match against Berlus. After a fairly easy 2-0 win, the Netherlands join Ireland in Kosovo.
Unlike the previous IESF LAN at the end of 2024, which saw teams like Nexus rocket up the VRS rankings, it is unlikely that this tournament will be VRS-ranked. On the surface, this event does not meet the requirements to be ranked, but there is a chance that it can be if Valve gives it specific approval. The reason why the last event was VRS ranked was that every event on HLTV pre-2025 was ranked.
Therefore, even though the core of PERPLEXITY has qualified for Team Ireland, it is unlikely they will gain any extra points from this endeavour if they were to win games.
The Irish squad will travel to Kosovo to compete in the IESF European Championships as such:
Tom “arTisT” Clarke
Matas “Extinct” Strumila
Jamie “Tree60” Callan
Nathan “N8” Dowd
Jack “Zerpherr” Kelly
Jack “Jackmon” O Donnell (coach)
CS2 Qualified Teams!
The road was long, the battles intense, and the best are locked in.
16 nations have officially qualified for EEC25:
🇺🇦 🇨🇿 🇩🇰 🇩🇪 🇲🇰 🇭🇺 🇮🇪 🇱🇻 🇳🇱 🇵🇱 🇪🇸 🇸🇪 🇧🇬🇸🇰 🇽🇰See you in Pristina this July#IESF x #EEC25 pic.twitter.com/cBQyhDlvWb
— IESF (@iesf_official) May 28, 2025
