It’s unfair to say that the 2023 Into the Breach lineup came out of nowhere, because all their parts have in fact been around for years. However, the impact of the roster putting those pieces together has been explosive. The combined experience of Endpoint alumni Thomas “Thomas” Utting and Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel, along with probably the two brightest young talents in the UK scene in Cai “CYPHER” Watson and Sebastian “volt” Malos, anchored by journeyman rifler & FPL mainstay Karol “rallen” Radowicz have people wondering… why has nobody tried this before?
2022 was a rough year for everyone in the lineup. Thomas joined Team Coalesce, but parted ways with the majority-Swedish team after just three weeks and spent the rest of the year confined to stand-in appearances. CRUC1AL was benched from Endpoint after two-and-a-half years with the organisation, while the initial promise of the old Into the Breach team with CYPHER and coach Gustavo “Juve” Alexandre devolved into stagnation in the world rankings. rallen’s path in 2022 took him to teams including Monte and GamerLegion, but he found himself cut before their successes. Even volt, despite his success with fnatic Rising, ended up teamless following the dissolution of the roster.
The Into the Breach roster was something of an open secret throughout the winter, but even then it wasn’t set in stone. Into the Breach owner Sam “SlayTheMinotaur” Macedonio teased an upcoming lineup and promised that over 50% of the organisation’s salary budget would go on the CS:GO team alone. At the time, it was rumoured heavily that Owen “smooya” Butterfield and Thomas would re-unite, as well as bringing in CYPHER and volt. But after various trials and fifths, smooya ended up leaving the project, opting instead to re-form his Benched Heroes mix. In his place came Thomas’ former team-mate CRUC1AL, with Thomas taking on IGL duties and rallen chosen as the fifth to create a UK core with an international flavour.
UK fans got a sneak preview of the lineup when they were invited to the CCT West Europe Series 1 Closed Qualifier as Orgless Heroes. They qualified without dropping a map, defeating Viperio in the qualification fixture, and their signing was announced in time for the main event to start. A week later and the team lined up for the BLAST Paris Major Open Qualifier, defeating PGE Turow and Masonic to reach the Closed Qualifier. Racing into a 2-0 lead, the team suffered defeats to 9INE and Eternal Fire in the best-of-three qualification games, but ultimately secured their spot in Copenhagen with a victory over HAVU to give them a 3-2 record.
Their best weapon in 2023 has been rallen, whose late-round lurks and strong CT holds make him the top-rated player on both attack and defence. At the Closed Qualifier, he averaged a 1.24 rating to pull Into the Breach over the line. It also helps that IGLing has not slowed Thomas down, with the 25 year-old managing a 1.07 rating – the same as AWPer Cruc1al – over 2023 so far. While CYPHER’s average rating has taken a drop from 2022, perhaps impacted by roles, his consistency in going for opening kills (which is double the attempts of his team-mates on the T-side) is vital to the team. volt, meanwhile, has thrived as a late-round closer, with a 57.5% success rate in 1v1s and a number of 1v2 and 1v3 clutches to his name.
The team have managed some key milestones outside of RMR qualification. They rose to the top of the UK rankings at the beginning of February off the back of strong performances in international events, and remain unbeaten against domestic competition. They also managed to take a victory against Endpoint in CCT West Europe Series 2, the first time since late 2021 for CYPHER and a spot of revenge for Thomas and Cruc1al. They made it into the top 50 of HLTV’s rankings, peaking at #46 in late March – just 5 places off the organisation’s peak last year.
That said, good results have been difficult to come by. Into the Breach have played four CCT events this year, but have a best finish of 9th-16th. Their 3-0 run in groups of CCT West Europe Series 2 was followed by an immediate exit to Sangal, while an upset win over a struggling Sprout in BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic also proved for nought as the team fell to HEET in the last round of the Swiss Stage. CYPHER and volt being the two lowest-rated players on the team may be a cause for concern, both youngsters posting lower average ratings than last season, and Cruc1al’s numbers continue to be more solid than flashy in a meta that increasingly relies on star numbers from a team’s AWPer.
Things don’t get easier at the RMR, as the team face NAVI in the opening round. While the Ukrainian organisation are not the force they were in late 2021/early 2022, having struggled to replace Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov, they remain one of the scene’s top sides with the ever-present two-pronged threat of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev and Denis “electroNic” Sharipov. One factor in Into the Breach’s favour is that CRUC1AL was part of the Endpoint side which stunned NAVI at ESL Pro League Season 16. The match is also a best-of-1, perhaps injecting just enough randomness for the Brits to pull off an upset.
Another factor in ITB’s favour is the groupings for the RMR. Being based on Valve’s ranking rather than HLTV’s, many of the “big names” have ended up in RMR B, which has an average HLTV ranking of 18.7 – RMR A, which Into the Breach are in, has only 4 top 10 teams and an average HLTV ranking of 31.7. With a few upsets, a path does open up for Into the Breach to make Paris – though with the sheer number of possibilities, this author does not want to speculate on any particular set of outcomes. They come in as the #13 seed, and a victory over NAVI would potentially set up a fixture against Virtus.Pro – the roster who won the IEM Rio Major under Outsiders. Unlikely wins? Yes. Impossible? No.
That sums up Into the Breach quite nicely actually. Nobody expected Thomas to take up in-game leading duties, but much like Max “MiGHTYMAX” Heath before him, he seems to have made a strong transition from star player to caller. CYPHER returning to the organisation which released him was not on many people’s bingo cards, but he has backed the decision by showing up with impact in key rounds. And rallen has found a team willing to put faith in him and rewarded them with strong performances. Regardless of what happens in Copenhagen, there is surely more to come from this lineup over the course of 2023 – the new domestic kings just need to take that extra step in the international scene.
Disclaimer: Tom Coles, the author of this article, works for Endpoint as a Community Manager.
