Many years ago, there was a keyboard brand called Zboard, who made some of the most unique keyboards on the market at the time. They were one of the first companies in the UK to support an eSports team with their own name, when they picked up X043. In their short four year existence, before Steelseries bought out the Zboard brand, they raked in first place finishes all over the offline and online scene and was the home to some of the best players in the UK. Some of those players still dabble in the scene, like Thomas “beta” Hanna, who we saw at i57 playing under the Perilous banner.
It looks like more players from that historic organisation are now making their way out of the woodwork with the amazing growth in CSGO, and esports in general. Ben “ben0” Balcombe, the old Zboard team leader, has made his way out of esports retirement, along with his old teammate David “jaFro” Davidson to bring back the name they were known as before joining up with Zboard. We welcome back X043 – Xtreme 0wn4g3.
Zboard at CGS 2007 – ben0 – far right, jaFro – middle (image from wiki.teamliquid.net)
The history lesson doesn’t stop there though, as the team brings back both Josh “admire” Sharp and Tim “stannly” Harrison who both had their time in the CSS limelight, playing for teams like Crack Clan, Auxilia and 4Kings.
The full X043 lineup is:
David “jaFro” Davidson
Danny “DaSy” Sykes
Josh “admire” Sharp
Ryan “yano” Nash
Tim “stannly” Harrison
Ben “ben0” Balcombe (manager)
jaFro released the following statement on the x043 website when his lineup was announced:
We are pleased to join X043 with such an experienced manager as ben0 who we hope can point us in the right direction for CS:GO. Most of us are relatively new to CS:GO and have had a long break from competitive CS so we are hoping to build our own individual skill aswell as progressing as a team.
