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One to watch: arTisT

by meffew
written by meffew

Irish player Tom “arTisT” Clarke is currently playing for Viperio as both the team’s IGL and AWPer simultaneously. While this is no easy task and no small responsibility, arTisT has consistently led his teams to success, picking up trophies both domestically and internationally along the way. Today, we wind back the clock and take a look at the steps arTisT took when starting out in his CS:GO career, and how he fought his way into the upper echelons of UKCS.

arTisT‘s early days in CS:GO back in 2018 and 2019 were spent playing with British players, such as Kirk “Tadpole” Stephens back when in ESEA started in Season 23. It was here that he made his first dive into competitive play, participating in the UK Open and ESEA Intermediate seasons.

arTisT had numerous attempts at trying to qualify for the main section of the ESL Premiership tournament. This was back when divisions were included to separate the online and offline parts of the event. He played under various organisations such as Devious Gaming, Team Osterity and Chrome Gaming – the latter of which marked an early stage in his career, as he attended his second UK LAN being Season 3 of EPIC.LAN’s Grosvenor qualifiers in Manchester at the end of 2019 with the org. This came after his first UK appearance at Season 1 of the Grosvenor events in Manchester, where he played alongside Ciaran “biscu” King, an incredibly important and influential figure for arTisT in his CS:GO career.

arTisT shared some words about this early stage of his career and first UK LAN event:

Our core was Irish back then, so it didn’t feel possible to go over and attend EPIC.LAN or Insomnia. When we saw the locations for the Grosvenor events, we knew we had to take the opportunity to compete against some of the best players in the UK. We played for fun and we ended up beating a few teams, eventually playing Endpoint on Nuke.

 

We started on T side, which was a wild decision from biscu… and lost the game 16-10. I remember this because as a player, 10 rounds against Endpoint is Ciaran’s [biscu] highest achievement, and he never stops talking about it.

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arTisT and Chrome Gaming spending time with Irish team Mythos at Season 3 of the Grosvenor qualifiers in Manchester.
Photo credits: EPIC.LAN

After their run at the Grosvenor Manchester Qualifier, arTisT and Seth “Xeth” Jackson parted ways with Chrome and recruited some new faces to join them in their journey. They joined European organisation Eidos, and made their debut with a win in the group stage of ESL Premiership Spring 2020. They ultimately missed out on playoffs due to their 3W-4L record in groups, but during this time, they exchanged Josh “Yoshwa” Ryley for Matas “Extinct” Strumilla, marking the beginning of another important relationship between arTisT and his future teammates.

UMX Gaming

Swiss-owned organisation UMX Gaming came knocking after the team parted ways with Eidos, and it was here that the team’s true identity began to take shape and arTisT began to make a name for himself. Notorious for their hyper-aggressive playstyle which caught many teams off guard, UMX quickly rose to notoriety in the UK scene as devout followers of FURIA’s iconic approach towards CS. The players even changed their names to further this connection with the Brazilian team, embracing and embodying the fearless playstyle they preached.

It was at this time that arTisT had a notable change of roles too, with the titular player swapping to an aggressive rifle role to accommodate Oliver “Maza” Mazalero’s position as the team’s new primary AWPer. He clearly found comfort in the new positions, both from a calling and individual perspective, as these changes clearly paid off. The players began to advance past their peers of similar skill – UMX began seeing more appearances on HLTV, and were even invited to the Pinnacle Cup in 2021 and BLAST Rising 2021.

arTisT highlighted the reasons for this change in their team composition:

I realised we sucked, we were just truly horrible in every aspect of the game. So, I just thought about copying a team one for one – the defaults, the mid round decisions, and how they set themselves up to succeed. We fully bought into the idea, and that’s why it worked.

 

As an IGL, it felt like I was cheating. FURIA at the time were on the rise because they were utilizing a unique playstyle – for example, on Overpass, they would never go A. They’d just brute force monster and get as many rounds as possible. For some of our games it worked, and others it didn’t, no matter what the outcome was, the plan stayed in place and everyone kept the faith.

UMX were a serious contender in ESEA Main, and during their outing in Season 35, the squad managed to qualify for playoffs. arTisT was unfortunately knocked out from the running however, after the team suffered losses to both Partizan and a Kyle “Swaggy” Wilson-led Royals. After gathering themselves, and with the extra help of coach Oscar “Keto” Kilvington, UMX reached playoffs once again in Season 36 and took it all the way to earn their promotion to Advanced, after three best-of-three wins, bringing an end to arTisT‘s seven consecutive seasons in Main.

After this massive milestone in his career, arTisT didn’t take his foot off the gas. UMX continued their dominance in domestic competition such as EPIC.LAN’s online WAN events. The first of these was EPIC.WAN 31, where UMX sailed through the tournament to secure first place with a 2-0 result against “Stream Team” featuring UKCS icons William “mezii” Merriman and Alex “ALEX” McMeekin. arTisT produced a masterclass during the tournament, only dropping a single map to peak in the playoffs of the event.

This impressive form continued into subsequent WANs, as they won EPIC.WAN 32 in a similar fashion by only dropping a single map in playoffs once more, and made the three-peat, as they were crowned the victors of EPIC.WAN 33, once again only dropping one map throughout the entire duration of playoffs. These three titles were enough to solidify UMX and arTisT as some of the top dogs in the UK scene, and proved that their efforts in this chapter of his story were more than just luck.

I think the highest point for the UMX roster was winning EPIC.WAN, I don’t think any of us had won anything up to that point. We were copying FURIA for a while, and everything seemed to fall into place around that event. When we started getting our HLTV invites, we suffered a lot of losses and close games. I think it came down to having a small strat book and not completely understanding our ideas, which led to these results.

– arTisT on UMX’s success

Coalesce

After their stint with UMX Gaming and the organisation ultimately releasing the team due to funding issues, arTisT and his boys played under the mix name “The Zoo” while they waited for their next opportunity. This was very short-lived, as a major announcement was made public not even a month after their initial separation from UMX.

Coalesce was formed, a brand new British organisation. This was a major development in terms of organisations in the UK scene, as many orgs who suffered the same fate as UMX banded together and created a new “super-team”. This involved other household names in UKCS at the time such as Audacity Gaming, Electrify Esports and Peak Esports.

Sporting the core of their preceding organisation, Coalesce returned to EPIC.LAN with the three-time WAN winners under their banner. Yet another flawless run in the group stage cemented their spot in the upper bracket of playoffs, and once again, arTisT led his troops to victory in each round, ultimately winning the entire event without dropping a single map. arTisT dropped a 1.18 HLTV Rating in the grand finals against mix-team “Ratio’d”, adding another performance to shout about for the Irish AWPer.

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Coalesce celebrating their first LAN win as a team at EPIC.LAN 34. Photo credits: EPIC.LAN

Coalesce also found themselves with a spot in a tournament held in Malta, the SiGMA Esports Cup 2021. Ambush had dropped out of the tournament, and Coalesce had won the wild-card qualifier to swipe the last remaining spot at the event. Despite multiple factors working against them, such as the fact that they weren’t even meant to be in attendance at the tournament in the first place, as well as being forced to use two stand-ins in Tim “TIMMO” Musters and Javier “Ping” Griffiths, the team came up big. Besting the likes of SAW Youngsters and FTW, arTisT and Coalesce had defied the odds and showed up when it mattered, winning the grand finals 2-1 and scoring a 1.13 HLTV Rating and 1.28 Impact rating for the event.

None of us will ever forget the feeling of getting champagne blasted at us while they played Sweet Caroline in the background. We had played with TIMMO before, but we had only met Ping one week before the event. Immediately, we had the Ping effect on our side.

FAMBIT

Although the official reasoning was kept from the public, arTisT and his men decided to part ways with Coalesce. Despite the lack of organisational support, arTisT didn’t struggle to lead his team to victory. In season 40 of Advanced, FAMBIT made a stellar run in playoffs after qualifying with a 9W-5L record in the regular season. FAMBIT picked up some serious upset wins against the likes of VELOX, ECLOT and even the Russian powerhouse of tier-2, forZe. Arguably arTisT‘s first deep run in the heights of tier-2 competition in Europe, Season 40 marked an important chapter in the history of his achievements as a player.

The team attended Insomnia 68, the first LAN event from the organiser since the COVID pandemic had struck the globe. After sailing through the group stage, FAMBIT continued to dominate the opposition throughout playoffs as they soared to the upper bracket finals without losing a map, besting The Last Resort and EKO Esports along the way. Matched up against Into the Breach, who at the time appointed Owen “smooya” Butterfield as the team’s AWPer, arTisT had his work cut out for him heading into this match-up. The squad were not dissuaded however, and emerged victorious with a 2-1 showing in the best-of-three, earning FAMBIT a spot in the grand finals. Into the Breach exacted their revenge in the finals, outlasting FAMBIT 3-2 in the best-of-five series, leaving arTisT as a runner-up at the event this time around.

EKO

After EKO’s stint with their Oscar “LVN” Levin-led roster came to an end, the organisation looked to fill the void in their place and return to UKCS with a vengeance. FAMBIT were signed as the new face of EKO, and arTisT led the team to continue their streak of wins under the red, white and blue banner.

Less than a month after joining, EKO had qualified for alpenScene LEVEL UP 2022, an offline tournament in Salzberg, Austria. The event headlined four teams with the semi-finals played out in a studio, and the grand finals being played on stage at the venue, where EKO dispatched Sissi State Punks 2-0 in the semis. They took it all the way into the finals, winning it out 2-1 against Austrian mix-team “murders2002” after a comeback from being down 5-10 at the half on map three of Vertigo. arTisT and EKO walked away with first place under their belts, as well as a sweet €3200 to boot.

Looking to seek vengeance for their last outing in Birmingham, arTisT and EKO returned to the halls of the NEC at Insomnia 69, looking to take it one step further than the fate they suffered at Insomnia 68. Another flawless group stage performance set them on the path ahead through playoffs, and EKO breezed their way through the upper bracket and into another showing in the grand finals on the stage. They faced off against ManHo “mrhui” Hui’s Temperate, who had faced trials and tribulations in their impressive lower bracket run to make it to the stage. Despite going up 2-0 in the best-of-five, EKO were reverse swept on the subsequent three maps and were forced to walk away with second place once again.

This didn’t phase arTisT however, as he led EKO to continue their strong strides into the UKIC Summer Invitational 2022. Taking down the likes of a fearless “tokyoxd” mix headlined by smooya as well as 1PIN during a very dominant period, EKO faced off against Into The Breach in the grand finals and ultimately bested the knights 2-1 to take the title and first place prize. arTisT posted a 1.08 HLTV Rating across the tournament, second only to Jack “Gizmy” von Spreckelsen’s 1.10 rating for EKO across the tournament, and even netted a 1v5 on map three, eventually being awarded with UKIC Play of the Year for such an incredible round.

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arTisT and EKO Esports with the 2nd place prize at Insomnia 69. Photo credits: Insomnia Gaming Festival UK

After a lengthened tenure with the British organisation, arTisT and his troops decided against renewing their contracts with EKO and returned to competition under the name SOS. Along with the rebrand, the team also underwent some roster changes in the form of removing Tadpole and Extinct from the active roster. They picked up the familiar face of Ping and promising young talent Rūdolfs “rud” Osmanis, a 17-year-old Latvian AWPer.

rud’s tenure with the team was short-lived however, as arTisT and his men were approached by British organisation Viperio with an offer of funding and representation. Rud would’ve stayed on the team, but UKCSGO understands that since Viperio were sponsored by a betting company, his young age meant that he would not be able to sign with the organisation. In response to this, the team took their chance and snatched up Marco “MMS” Salomone from Temperate to fill the void left in their team, and arTisT’s squad took its next step towards becoming the roster we know it as today.

Viperio

arTisT‘s debut with Viperio was one to remember. Shortly after signing with the organisation, the winter split of ESL Premiership 2022 rolled around and became one of the team’s most successful runs in the UK competition to date. After a group stage record of 3-2, the team went into playoffs with a point to prove, taking down Royals in the quarter-finals before dispatching 1PIN in a 2-0 fashion. Landing themselves a spot in the grand finals against the undisputed top dogs of the UK in Max “MiGHTYMAX” Heath and Kia “Surreal” Man. Endpoint emerged victorious in a gruelling 5 map series, but arTisT once again stood tall as the primary force on the underdog’s side, posting a 1.13 HLTV rating over the Bo5, as well as edging out Milos “mhL” Knasiak in their head-to-head duels.

Viperio decided upon undertaking the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR Qualifiers in February, even while utilizing Rory “cryths” Ursell as a substitute. The open qualifiers were no match for arTisT, as Viperio took down some legendary names on their path to the closed qualifiers, such as Swedish mix “boomer demons”, headlining the likes of Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, and Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer. Once again, arTisT stood out from the crowd as he boasted a roster-high 1.17 HLTV Rating for the event, earning Viperio a spot in the subsequent closed qualifier.

Going head to head against some household names in tier-2 wasn’t enough to phase arTisT. The British-Irish team scored serious upset wins against 1WIN, PGE Turow and even a #23 rated SAW to earn themselves the honors of attending the last CS:GO RMR in Copenhagen alongside fellow Brits Into the Breach. More can be read about here, where the details of both Viperio and Into the Breach’s RMR runs are expanded.

Qualifying to the RMR itself feels very special, I think we are the first full UK/IRE team to make it there, and hopefully we can put on a show for everyone. I’m just happy we have a scene since there isn’t many of us left, but we all do support each other and if anyone ever needs help, I’m more than happy to give it. I really think that’s important.

Despite their feats, Viperio were not without their flaws. At EPIC.LAN 38, the team cruised through to the finals for the umpteenth time, but once again stared down the barrel of defeat at the hands of a newly-signed Coalesce, who took the finals 2-1 in the best-of-three series. At the event, Viperio were utilizing Ping as a substitute for their yet-to-be-signed fifth player, which also carried over into their Advanced playoffs run in Season 44. arTisT and Viperio had a solid shot at their promotion attempt, but ultimately fell short as they failed to qualify for the ESL Challenger League.


Viperio in the grand finals of EPIC.LAN 38. Photo credits: Freddie “GrimyRannarr” Pritchard

Why is arTisT one to watch? As an integral part in each team he’s played for over the past few years, arTisT has taken up crucial roles such as AWPing and IGLing, even undertaking both at the same time as we track his chronology forward to the present day. He is a statistically superior player compared to domestic competitors in the UK scene, and through his effort in 2022, he earned himself both the UKIC Player of the Year award and the UKIC Play of the Year. Throughout countless iterations, the teams he has led have won numerous events online and offline, both domestically and throughout Europe. On top of this, arTisT led his team all the way through both the open and closed qualifiers for the BLAST Paris RMRs, where they secured a place at the event, making history as the first Irish player to compete at such a level. arTisT shall go down in the history books as one of the founding fathers of CS in Ireland, and it is clear that he intends to give so much more to his already legendary status.

arTisT shared his player to watch for the future:

For me, I’d say dox. He’s just someone that keeps working hard, improving his team, and you can see it with the recent results. Often IGLs never get the credit they deserve, but dox definitely deserves recognition for the grind he’s been doing for the last few years. Hopefully he plays Nuke soon.

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JAUSTERE drip drops to eMasters

by meffew
written by meffew

eMasters have announced their newest pickup, Josh “JAUSTERE” Philpott, in place of Emyr “eMy” Green. This comes after the many roster moves which followed the conclusion of EPIC.LAN 38, spanning various UK teams including Arctic Raptors, Royals, Legates and more. eMasters hope to bolster their already fearful firepower with this new addition heading into Season 45 of ESEA, and the UKIC CeX Invitational.

This marks the end of a multi-year tenure with Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom for JAUSTERE, dating back to the end of 2021 under True Ambition, where they competed in ESEA Main alongside current teammate Jack “DeXter” Hepple. The trio underwent a handful of moves from orgs to mix-esque names, before finally finding themselves a place to call home in BLVKHVND back in April last year. The highlight of his time under the organisation was when the team attended Fragadelphia 17 in North America alongside fellow UK representatives 7AM. The latter was unable to qualify for the main event from the offline play-in, while JAUSTERE and BLVKHVND fought against the tides from overseas and earned themselves a spot in the main event.

Most recently in dripmen, JAUSTERE made himself comfortable in ESEA Advanced after being promoted from Main in Season 42. He played in the division for two seasons, and as well as his efforts in the league, dripmen also found success in the domestic scene. UKIC’s Beyond Winter Invitational was a highlight in JAUSTERE‘s career, where he posted a 1.13 HLTV rating across the entire event to push dripmen into the grand finals, resulting in a 2-1 win against the notorious 1PIN. JAUSTERE exceeded all expectations and stood up in the finals, topping the scoreboards for dripmen and earning them the honors of first place.

eMasters recently placed 4th at EPIC.LAN 38, with their lower bracket run being brought to an end by Arctic Raptors. The team also had a good run in Main last season, ending the regular portion with a 9-5 record. They managed to forge 3 wins in playoffs, but ultimately fell short at the final hurdle as their Advanced dreams were shattered by Illuminar by way of a 2-0 defeat. UKCSGO understands that with eMy‘s departure, JAUSTERE will be taking his positions, and the changes to the team role-wise will be minimal.

UKCSGO reached out to the team’s IGL, ManHo “mrhui” Hui, who shed some light on what he expects as a result of their newest addition, and what their goals are for the future with this roster:

I think the addition of Josh [JAUSTERE] can really elevate us to the next level thanks to his raw skill and good decision making, along with the experience he’s had with dripmen recently. Our goals are to make Advanced which in my opinion, isn’t very hard, and to be actual contenders to win UK LANs.

In his debut match under the British organisation, JAUSTERE and eMasters faced off against K10 for third place in the closed qualifier for the UKIC CeX Spring Invitational, where they emerged victorious as a result of a 16-9 win on Overpass.

Moving forward, eMasters are:

ManHo “mrhui” Hui
Harry “moshi” Raines
Jack “DeXter” Hepple
Olly “husky” Gollings
Josh “JAUSTERE” Philpott

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m0g steps away, Clique back down to four

by arnie
written by arnie

Clique had made an impressive run through ESEA Main this season, securing themselves a 10-4 finish and setting themselves up for a run at Advanced qualification. However, losses to MVP CYBER and Aurora Young Blood left them knocked out agonizingly close to promotion.

After Clique failed to qualify for ESEA Morgan “m0g” Butler announced on Twitter that he will be taking a step away from competitive Counter-Strike.

The news comes just over a month after m0g re-joined Clique for the season as a replacement for Fizan “Fizzy” Anjum after initially stepping away from the team in October 2022 as he wasn’t enjoying the game. m0g was also part of the Wales team that played in the IESF World Championship in Bali at the end of last year, placing 9-16th.

This won’t be the last we see of m0g, as he also revealed on Twitter that he plans to stay connected to the scene through playing in mixes and attending LANs.

With this loss Clique will have the following roster:

Lewis “Ziimzey” Coleman
Mohammed “Mophoria” Abbas
Christopher “VireZ” Wegmann
Elias “Rack” Karttunen

Sebastian “Wajk” Wikholm (Coach)

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Royals crown their new fifth

by meffew
written by meffew

Royals have announced their permanent replacement for John “Dutchy” Holland, in the form of Seán “Atrox” Greene. Despite the team’s success in the regular season of ESEA Main, Dutchy sought pastures new as a result of differences between his and the team’s cultural and in game philosophies. UKCSGO learned that Royals were considering multiple players to fill his place in the roster, and of the three choices in Kamyar “shateri” Shateri and Reegan “ReegaN” Ward, Atrox was the players’ final choice. More information surrounding these trialists can be read about in our previous report:

REPORT: Royals consider three players to fill the Dutchy void

Atrox leaves Arctic Raptors after three season with the team, spanning two extremely dominant showings in Main to ultimately qualify for Advanced, where the Raptors only managed to earn their stay for the last season. Arctic Raptors ended their inaugural outing in the league with a 5-9 record, and subsequently have been demoted to Main heading into ESEA Season 45. At the same time as Atrox left the team, the British organisation also announced the benching of William “wfn” Maskrey.

Royals recently extended their win streak in Main and ended the regular season with a 12-2 record, earning them a bye in the first round of playoffs. Their next opponent looks to be the Russian mix-team farfaraway whose only UK opposition in the season was Clique in their introductory match of ESEA this season, losing 16-12 on Overpass. It is unlikely that Atrox will play the post-season with Royals due to the deadline for ESEA’s roster lock , with shateri looking like the most feasible option to fill the void for the remainder of the season.

Royals head into Season 44 of Main playoffs as:

Kyle “swaggy” Wilson
Edgaras “entz” Luksas
Timothy “tvs” Sjöberg
Xavér “xavi” Hebők
Seán “Atrox” Greene
Kamyar “shateri” Shateri (stand-in)

Andreas “addi” Wallenberg (Coach)

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papp on Arctic Raptors owners: “it’s important to come here and show them what they’re paying for.”

by meffew
written by meffew

Arctic Raptors qualified for ESEA Advanced last season, and have been dipping their toes in the next tier of competition. Daniel “papp” Hart and his men hope that this step up to the next division will improve their other results as well, and the team had their sights set on EPIC.LAN 38 as a testing ground.

The Raptors have lived up to expectations at the event, as they breezed through the group stage and carried their form through the upper bracket of playoffs. The team couldn’t overcome the obstacle in their path, Viperio, for their chance at making the upper bracket finals. Now, in the same position as they were at EPIC.LAN 37, papp‘s men must prove that they’ve learnt from their previous endeavours.

UKCSGO’s Matthew “meffew” Godsell took some time to speak to papp about the team’s success at EPIC.LAN 38 so far, his thoughts on the other UK teams in attendance, and how it feels to play under the blue banner at LAN.

*This interview was conducted before Arctic Raptors triumphed against ROYALS 2-0 in the lower bracket Ro4 to make it onto HLTV.

Unfortunately, you guys lost 2-0 to Viperio. It was quite a dominant showing from them, was this Viperio playing really well or was it your own individual mistakes?

I think the difficulty of playing Viperio is that as a team, they counter us quite well. The way they play, it’s very different to ours. In terms of the map pool, they have got a stronger map pool. We do like Vertigo, but they love it which makes it difficult to play. We knew coming into LAN, if we wanted to have a deep run in the tournament then we need to be able to play it. We did beat them on Overpass recently, they were using bevve for that game but we want to try and pick that in the best-of-three. For map three, we were comfortable with Anubis but it didn’t go that way.

In terms of the map pool, Ancient was updated in the last few months. It was one of your typically stronger maps, does this change affect how confident you are in playing the map?

The changes definitely were a struggle for us to adapt to. It was one of our favourite maps prior to the changes, especially with the update being around the same time as Anubis was added to the map pool. Going into Advanced, it was almost like having to learn two new maps again. I think we have adapted to Ancient now, we played it a couple of times this LAN. I don’t think we played anyone who really tested us on it, but it’s very T-sided. All of the maps are very T-sided at the moment.

You’re up against ROYALS next, another mix team here at EPIC.LAN 38 – is this going to influence your choices going into the veto?

I think going into the veto, we expect them to go for Vertigo. We’ll probably go for Inferno or Ancient, I mean typically they don’t really like playing either. They are mixing this event, so I think we’ll go for either and try to have Overpass as map three, which we beat them on yesterday in groups. It should be a much better veto than than our veto versus Viperio.

All the seedings panned out pretty well, in the end.

synergii spoke about your seeding of your group, which he was happy with, do you agree with the seeds in your group?

We spoke about it this morning, it’s quite interesting because all the teams have predicted as they were meant to, according to the seeding, so with hindsight, I’d say the seeding was really good. When I saw the seeding at first, I thought the groups were a bit weird. You had: us, ROYALS and Clique. ROYALS have all played Advanced before, Clique are a solid Main team, and then in the other groups like Group A you had eMasters and a bunch of mixes. All the seedings panned out pretty well in the end.

We did that sort of quickly, Advanced second time, EPS instantly, and I said to the team that it’s important for us to think “what’s next?” – papp on Arctic Raptor’s goals

Something else to mention, synergii also spoke about your goals for this event. Was this intentional or just not a primary focal point for the team?

It’s something that I brought up when we qualified for Advanced. When we qualified last summer, the goal was always to get Advanced, to get EPS. We did that sort of quickly, Advanced second time, EPS instantly, and I said to the team that it’s important for us to think “what’s next?” So it’s important to set goals. This event has been an important one, because it’s sort of part two of the first one with XRAVEL. Now we’re with Arctic Raptors and they’ve been really good for us, and we want to at the very least make it onto HLTV.

Our main goal as a team is to stabilize ourselves in Advanced. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew, and the next step is us showing our worth. We’re not playing qualifiers at all, which is more of a scheduling issue than anything else. It’s not that we don’t want to, we have 5 day prac weeks in the evenings. A lot of these qualifiers are at 4 o’clock, you know? Then day two starts at 11am the following day, we wouldn’t be able to play that.

Thinking back to last EPIC.LAN, you’re in the same position in terms of being in the lower bracket, and your only guarantee is top six. What is the game plan going forward?

It’s in the back of our heads, we know where we are. We also didn’t have that gruelling best-of-three with smooya’s lot this time [laughs]. Viperio was quite a quick one, and we can get that out of our systems. We spoke yesterday… it was a long day yesterday, it was long for everyone. That’s what I say to everyone, it’s a long day and it’s hard. If it was this event last time, I think we would’ve lost to Legates. Not because of a skill problem, but more in relation to the team’s energy. We started so slow in the best-of-three, I took everyone outside in between maps and just tried to clear our heads.

If we didn’t beat Legates, I’d say we’d have failed.

Speaking of that best-of-three, Legates won the first map on Nuke, 16-14 and Overpass was a close win for you guys. Did you expect them to put up such a big fight?

They’re a good team, they’ve been a team for a while. We’ve played them many times before, Atrox knows them well. I expected them to give us a good game, but we get to play against much better opposition in practice week in, week out right? It’d be silly not to say that. The whole point is that we need to show our level, if we didn’t beat Legates I’d say we’d have failed. It’s no disrespect to them and they said the same in their interview.

It’s true, the pressure is on us, there’s no pressure on them. Losing that first map on Nuke, it was very close, but they did drill us on their T side. It was 11-4, and then we turned it around to 16-14. We did have a comeback, but even Overpass was quite close and that’s one of our favourite maps.

You’ve got more staff than players at the event this time round. Does this add any pressure to you?

I’m the guy that speaks to them, I’m the face of the team to them. We normally speak before and after the event […] you want to do well for them, because you see how much they love it right? So you don’t want to disappoint them. There probably is a bit of pressure with it of course, but they still show a lot of support. They do a lot for us and they give us a lot of resources, so it’s important for us to come here and show them what they’re paying for.

To round everything up, are there any teams who have impressed you this event?

I think eMasters have been doing really well, a lot of people have probably been a bit unfair about them. I speak to them a little bit, and they understood they were sort of underwhelming in ESEA. When it comes to LAN, they’ve probably been one of the better UK teams consistently. The old core of them won Insomnia 69, they got to the finals last EPIC.LAN, they’ve done really well this time with a close game against Coalesce… I think they’ve been doing really well.

Viperio are unreal, obviously they’ve come into the event on fire, making the RMR and stuff. I think in general, the scene is doing really well. It’s got to be the best it’s been in a long time, if not ever, right? I’d probably say Viperio are going to win, but I think a lot of people expect Coalesce to own them in the final, which is fair. Coalesce don’t seem to be playing quite to the same standard as they have online, I don’t think we ourselves play as well as we can online, but eMasters seem to know what to do.

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leaf: “We’re almost in limbo when it comes to our map pool.”

by meffew
written by meffew

Oliver “leaf” Jackson is a veteran of the UK scene, despite only being 19 years old. Being one of the players who formed the notorious 1PIN core, who made waves in 2022, he now headlines Coalesce as one of the team’s key fraggers. The majority of players in the squad have not attended a UK LAN for numerous years, and EPIC.LAN 38 marks both the players and the British organisations return to the KCC.

Coalesce managed to achieve a flawless run in groups despite a close call from mix team 3F2F, and have charged forward into the upper bracket of the playoffs. After scoring wins against both Jezzies R US Red and eMasters, leaf and his team find themselves in the upper bracket final, with only one best-of-three standing between them and the grand finals. Despite their impressive run, the goliaths of the UK seem to have a chink in their armor after suffering their first loss in the entire tournament to eMasters on Ancient, 16-12.

After Coalesce managed to reverse sweep a fierce-looking eMasters, UKCSGO’s Matthew “meffew” Godsell took the opportunity to speak to leaf about the team’s games in the tournament so far, their goals for the event and some of his thoughts surrounding the UK scene.

*This interview was conducted ahead of the upper bracket final, where Coalesce emerged victorious against Viperio 2-0 to net themselves a spot in the grand finals on Sunday.

About the eMasters game, you lost the first map, which is your first map loss in the entire tournament so far. Did you expect Ancient to go their way?

I don’t think we expected it to be that rough at the start, we probably expected to get at least seven or eight rounds on CT. They caught us off guard, and they got off to a really good T-side. We haven’t played Ancient much recently, so I think it was a good pick for them.

We’re almost in limbo when it comes to our map pool.

Ancient was one of your better maps before, do the changes made to the map hurt your map pool in addition to Anubis replacing Dust 2?

Yeah, we kind of chose to play Anubis more than Ancient when it first got changed. The changes feel a bit random… we’re almost in limbo when it comes to our map pool, it’s like Anubis, Ancient, which one is the better option for us?

With Anubis, do you enjoy it personally and have your team put a lot of time into learning the map?

I wouldn’t say I enjoy it, I think it’s very T sided. CT sides can be really hard with how easy it is for Ts taking control, and some other stuff too.

Bringing it back to the eMasters game, you won Vertigo pretty comfortably and on Overpass they got off to a pretty strong lead on their T side. What happened there?

I don’t know, they were playing pretty crazy. mrhui was just walking through smokes and catching me and shyyne off guard on A, and then we lost some rounds on B which meant our money was messed up. I think it was important for us to get a 7-8 half, especially since we were down so much at the start. We’re always quite confident in our T-side on Overpass, so I was happy with seven rounds at halftime, with it being so bad at the start.

Now you’re in the upper bracket final, you’re guaranteed top 3 and you’ll be playing against Viperio. Is this a game you’re expecting to win?

Viperio are a very good team, they’re definitely one of the favourites. Hopefully we can make it close and we can win, but the map pool is going to be weird. They ban Inferno, which is our favourite map, and Vertigo is their own favourite map also. I don’t know how the veto will end up going, but it’s in their favour.

Grand finals are the minimum for us, obviously we want to win, but it’s between us and Viperio.

I also wanted to ask about the expectations for Coalesce. Most people expect to see you in the grand finals at the very least, is that something you agree with?

Yeah, 100%. Grand finals are the minimum for us, obviously we want to win, but it’s between us and Viperio just now. One of us will go down to the consolidation final, and then hopefully whatever happens, we meet each other in the grand final.

To continue the talk about Viperio, they made the RMR. You were in the qualifiers yourselves and had some tough losses, tell me a bit more about that.

In the first qualifier we lost to ITB on Vertigo, this was after a best-of-three against Illuminar in CCT at 1:30pm. We finished that around about 4:30pm, and then we had the qualifier at five, so I think we played something like 5 best-of-one’s… We were tired, and it wasn’t even close in the game against ITB.

Let’s tie that back to LAN, on Friday you played seven best-of-ones’s and a best-of-three. It’s been a while since you’ve been at LAN yourself, did it take some time to settle in?

It was made easier since, without disrespecting any teams, we had some games which didn’t run over, so you can kind of get a feel of things and make sure your setup is all good. That made it quite nice, because we didn’t have any hard games at the start of the day.

Speaking of groups, the closest game you had in groups was against 3F2F. They were up 14-10 and you brought it back to a 16-14 victory, was that due to their mistakes or did you out-perform them in the final stretch?

I don’t know… I won two 1v2s in those six rounds, so I would say it was probably down to their mistakes. They obviously got themselves into round-winning positions to close it out, but they couldn’t do it in the end. I think we were playing pretty badly as well, our Overpass is usually okay, but I guess against these teams, they just got too many rounds against us. It’s too close to be comfortable.

Compared to some other UK teams in attendance, you guys are quite reserved and quiet when you play. Is that something by design that you’ve discussed?

Nah, it’s just how we are. We’ve always been quite calm as players and as a team, we’re not really ones to shout. I mean for me personally, I don’t like shouting because say you win a 1v1, you shout or whatever, and then you lose the following round… you feel like a bit of a div [laughs]. So it’s not really for me, I wouldn’t mind if my teammates did, but I think they maybe feel the same way as me. That’s just not something we do.

When other teams get loud and shout, do you see it as them trying to be disrespectful, or is it them more showing passion for their own team?

It’s all fun and games, I wouldn’t say they’re purposefully trying to be disrespectful. Obviously they’re trying to get us mentally, they’re trying to pull us down, but I think we’re quite calm. I don’t think it gets to any of us, we just focus on our game.

Let’s talk about the UK scene. In your opinion, is the scene in a good place right now? We’ve got two teams who made the RMR, you guys of course were close as well.

Yeah, I think it’s in a good place. I think Viperio are definitely a good team, I think ITB have got some really good players you know, they’ve been winning a lot recently. Then you’ve got these other teams, eMasters, Legates, Arctic Raptors, 7AM as well even though they’re not here. There’s a lot of orgs supporting these teams, which means obviously there’s a lot of potential.

Going back to your online results in ESEA, you’ve had a lot of close games. You’ve had close wins and even closer losses. Talk to me about your feelings about playing in Advanced.

Advanced is always hard, when it’s all best-of-ones and you’re doing the veto ten minutes before the game… yeah, you can get off to a bad start pretty easily. With the losses, I think it’s on us. In some of the losses we’ve played bad. Pistol rounds are crucial for these games, and we’ve been losing a lot of them recently.

Do you think that fact makes ESEA season records hold a little less value?

Maybe a little bit, that’s just how it is when it’s all best-of-ones. But you know, obviously we still want to get playoffs and we want to beat as many teams as we can. But for sure, Advanced can be hard to deal with.

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K6y: “We got rolled by AdamJC which makes me want to die”

by meffew
written by meffew

Legates showed up to EPIC.LAN as a relatively unknown quantity. With a solid record in ESEA Main, despite losses to UK teams K10 and Vitalize, the team’s performance heading into EPIC.LAN 38 was relatively unclear.

On Friday morning, Legates managed to finish second place in Group A, with eMasters being the only team to best them in best-of-ones. Despite the narrow 16-14 loss, Legates earned their spot in the upper bracket quarterfinals for playoffs, and have been matched up against the top dogs of Group B, the Arctic Raptors.

Kerran “K6y” Bartlett took some time to speak to UKCSGO about the team’s expectations for the event, how he thinks Legates are valued in the UK scene, and their goals for the rest of the event.

*this interview was conducted before they played Arctic Raptors in the upper bracket quarterfinals.

You’ve just come off of a win versus shushgg. A 16-13 victory with a 2v5 to close it out – what were your expectations going into this game?

We knew it was going to be difficult, shoobie is sort of our kryptonite at LAN. We didn’t expect to play Nuke against them, we thought the veto would go elsewhere. We were expecting an Overpass, maybe a Vertigo pick too. Once it went to Nuke and we didn’t fumble our start on CT, we got a fairly decent start and managed to finish with a 10-5 half. We knew that our T side should be strong enough to close it, as long as we made the right decision in important rounds.

So is that something your team has identified as an issue going into some games?

Yeah, slow starts are where we fall down a lot at the minute. I think in the eMasters game we were 0-7 down at the start of CT Vertigo, and it just turns the game into an uphill battle as opposed to bringing in the momentum yourselves. We did well to bring it back in the end of that game, and I think that carried forward into the shushgg game. Had we just been steamrolled 16-7 the game before, it wouldn’t have been as easy to reset going into it.

Let’s talk about the seedings. Last EPIC.LAN you were put into pot three, and this time round you’ve been seeded third again. Is this something you expected?

We’re LAN bottlers, I’m not that arsed about it. Last EPIC.LAN we were frustrated, mainly because the competition isn’t quite as strong as it is this time. Outside of eMasters, I don’t know if there were any other actual teams at the event. There were a lot of good mixes, but they’re an unknown quantity when it comes to LAN. This time around we got third pot, and we’re not really upset, especially when you get a group like ours. We could’ve been playing the likes of Arctic Raptors, ROYALS, Clique, we could’ve had a much harder groups. I feel like we got one of the nicer pot 1 and pot 2 teams… we’re gassed about it.

Going back to EPIC.LAN 37 again, you made some roster moves after the event. Was that because of where you placed in the tournament?

Dag decided that he wasn’t really enjoying it, which is perfectly fair. I feel like sometimes it is difficult to enjoy it as much as you can when you’re losing. It’s perfectly understandable. With regards to whether it was due to LAN, not particularly. Dag had never been to LAN, but I think he enjoyed himself. He had a funky Nando’s order, but apart from that he was pretty sound. But I think it was more personal reasons outside of the game, and obviously at the last LAN we’d only just picked up Praisy again, so while you’re unstable as it is, it’s better to make the moves all at once rather than once every few months.

Thinking back to your other games in groups, you had convincing wins against the lower seeds in your group, with those teams only reaching single digits for rounds. You had two close wins against shushgg and 25AVG, of whom the latter was up 7-1 on T side Overpass. What happened for you bring it back?

Nothing really, obviously they won pistol and they converted, that meant they were already off to a good start. I feel like on T side Overpass especially, having those first three rounds under your belt – even if you pick up only two, three more, you’re gonna have a good half regardless. We won the first gun round and then they broke us back… the game’s 5-1 and you’ve had two gun rounds, of which you’ve won one of them. You’ve got 50% of the gun rounds, and you’re 5-1 down, so I don’t know.

It’s one of those ones, sometimes that’s the way it goes. But I think with LAN, it’s foreign territory. That was our second game of the day and we’d farmed the first game. We hadn’t actually had a taste of competition up until that point, so maybe some nerves or whatever. We brought it back at the end of CT, we sort of steadied the ship. On T side, we didn’t necessarily out-perform them in the macro, we just individually shone through.

Let’s talk about ESEA. In Main, you guys have a solid record just now. You lost to Vitalize and K10, do you think that led to this feeling you seem to have of being undervalued in the UK?

If you take the UK teams out of our season, we probably look a lot better than the rest of them. Obviously, we got rolled by AdamJC which makes me want to die… the Vitalize game, fair play to them.

We got rolled by AdamJC which makes me want to die… the Vitalize game, fair play to them.

They turned up with a stand-in, and Rhys has absolutely farmed us. They were definitely the better team on the day, but they’re all nice guys and I don’t mind losing to them as much. They had a good T side to keep them in the game going into CT, and we weren’t able to keep up. We live and we learn.

On a more positive and recent note, Legates are in the upper bracket for playoffs. You’re against Arctic Raptors as your first match, what are your thoughts ahead of this matchup?

Again, out of the pot 1 teams, to have eMasters in our group and Arctic Raptors in the upper bracket, we’re gassed. Atrox obviously used to play with us, so we all know him fairly well. I’m looking forward to screaming, it’s nice when you know Atrox is on the other team because he’s like 50kg [laughs], you know you can say whatever you like and he’s not doing anything about it. It’ll be good craic.

The map pools favour them, we’re in sort of a weird place with the maps. Obviously we’ll be looking to pick Nuke against them, they permaban Mirage, although we’d have liked to play Mirage if we could’ve. As far as we’re concerned it’s probably Inferno and Overpass, and they probably should beat us on those two maps. If they don’t, something’s going wrong for them, and it’s going right for us.

Now that you’ve got to this stage in the tournament, is there any pressure on you guys? Is there this expectation that you’ve got to meet or is it a case of going as far as you can?

To be fair, I don’t think I’ve opened the bracket and seen who we’d be playing next. I like to wait and see the game pop up on my screen and then I’m like “oh, we’re playing them, sound”. I know that underperforming at LAN before, you sort of plan ahead by 3 games and then lose the next game to shitters. We’ll cross each bridge when we come to it, and I know that if Arctic Raptors lose to us, I expect at least a couple of roster changes because that’s just criminal [laughs]. I feel like at LAN, strange things happen. If this was an online best-of-three it’d maybe be different, but LAN CS is a different breed. You never know what’s going to happen at LAN, maybe we’ll be unreal and absolutely roll them.

Do you think it’s fair to say that there’s no reason you can’t go all the way?

Oh yeah, even just getting 14 rounds against eMasters and beating shoobie, we’re in the best form of our lives when it comes to LAN, this is gas! Our form is improving too, as much as we rolled the lower seeded teams we played earlier in groups, we’ve done that at previous LANs and then we’d fall over our own feet against a pot 4 team or something. We haven’t done that this time and we’ve beaten everyone we’re meant to beat, and almost two teams that we weren’t meant to. There’s no reason why we can’t beat Arctic Raptors.

Lastly, is there anything you’d like to add?

I just wanted to congratulate AdamJC on making it through to the lower bracket. I know it’s been a struggle with Wiiam, I had a chat with him outside and gave him a little pep talk, pat on the back, told him it’s alright… that’s made my LAN to be honest.

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synergii: “For the past month or two we’ve just plateaued.”

by meffew
written by meffew

Arctic Raptors came into EPIC.LAN as one of the top teams in the tournament, seeded first in Group B. They joined Coalesce, Viperio and eMasters as the top teams at the event meaning they had it all to win or all to lose.

During the first day of the event, they played against d0k’s Money Crew, Swann Esports, and the third seed in their group, Clique. Against the latter, the teams battled it out on Ancient, and with Arctic Raptors starting off on the offense, they hit the ground running and chalked up a 12-3 lead by halftime. After switching sides it didn’t take long for the squad to up the ante and shut down Clique’s attack, and resulted in a 16-6 win for the Raptors.

After this display of dominance, UKCSGO’s Matthew “meffew” Godsell sat down with Euan “synergii” Wilson to talk about the group stage matchup, the team’s first season in ESEA Advanced, and their hopes for the tournament this weekend.

synergii, you are hot off of a win versus Clique – what were your expectations for this match?

Honestly, we expected an easy win. The 16-6 scoreline is very good considering that we lost both pistols, and we only won one second round. So, yeah. I’d say that we met our expectations.

In the group stage, it’s only best-of-one matches. Does this win against Clique hold significance, or is it just another game?

It was just another game really, they are third seed in our group and playing against them, the goal is to make sure we don’t get upset. ROYALS are our main targets to beat, but we should be beating them and topping our group ideally.

Let’s talk more about the seeding. Clique were seeded third, do you think that they have been seeded fairly, or should they have been seeded elsewhere?

I mean I didn’t do the seeding, but I would say they’re probably where we expected them to be. Maybe pot two, but personally I think that pot three was pretty accurate taking everyone else’s choices for the seeding.

Seeing as Arctic Raptors are seeded first in Group B, do you think you’ve managed to get a better draw of teams compared to some other groups?

I think all the groups are pretty stacked. In terms of ROYALS, they’ve come to LAN with three players from their actual team. tvs, swaggy, Dutchy… I think Dutchy’s pretty bad [laughs]. But aside from that, I think they’re a good team, and they’ll definitely be able to pull off some upsets even as a mix. I want to beat them.

Let’s move onto your ESEA Advanced season, your record is 4-7 currently and you’re still at risk of losing the spot. With three more games and two wins needed, do you feel a lot of pressure going into these next few games?

There was definitely a lot of pressure throughout the entire season so far, to try and not lose the spot. We lost a lot of really close games this season, and by far our biggest problem has been second rounds. We’ll win like 80% of our pistols, and lose almost 100% of our second rounds… we lose so many stupid rounds, it’s ridiculous.

In terms of saving the spot, I think we can do it and the next few games are very winnable, we should have won the game we played the other night against 7 Reasons. I definitely think it’s doable, but we just have to take it game by game. No pressure on us, we’ll just grind out the games one by one and go from there.

To continue this talk of pressure, EPIC.LAN 37 was a bit of a disappointment for you guys when you ended the event 5-6th after a loss to shushgg, what are your goals for the event this time round?

As a team, we didn’t actually talk about any goals. We probably should have, but specifically for myself, I think top four is the minimum I’d be satisfied with. I’d be really disappointed if we didn’t make top four. Realistically, I want to see us in the grand final.

I think top four is the minimum I’d be satisfied with […] Realistically, I want to see us in the grand final.

We beat Viperio in Advanced this season, they might’ve still been playing with bevve, and they might’ve still played poorly. They did really well to make the RMR, but I still think we can beat them if we match up against them. On a good day, I think we can beat Coalesce as well. Grand finals are definitely my goal for this weekend.

Just to add to that, when you see Viperio and ITB making the BLAST RMR, does that motivate you as well even though Arctic Raptors didn’t play the qualifiers?

That’s right, we had anti-cheat problems for the first qualifier. The second qualifier was on Valentine’s Day, and people with girlfriends were busy. For me, Viperio making the RMR was massive, I was watching it and that’s where I want to see myself – at the next RMR. I want to be in the closed qualifier, making the RMR, definitely. That’s my goal.

In the last half of 2022, you guys were touted as one of the up and coming UK teams, do you think you’ve lived up to these expectations or do you still think there’s a ways to go?

I think we still have a little way to go, I think we’ve stalled and hit that plateau that a lot of teams at this level hit, I think we need to elevate our game again to how we played when we qualified for Advanced. We want to be a team who can stay in Advanced as a stable team, keep our spot, eventually push for playoffs so we can beat teams like Viperio and Coalesce.

Is this something that will just take time and hard work? Or is there something else that needs to happen?

I think there needs to be a lot of work and we need to rethink what we’re doing at the moment, because I feel like for the past month or two, we’ve just plateaued. I feel like we need to look at how we were practicing all these different things before, strats, defaults, work out what has went wrong and how to fix it.

To put it into simple terms, do you think that’s just the different between Main and Advanced? The standard of the teams you play, and the extra assistance outside of the server, is that something you need to acclimatize to?

Yeah definitely, our practice schedule is alright – we prac for five hours five days a week, so it’s not terrible. As for Main teams, they’re just terrible compared to Advanced teams. They’re just nothing really. The good teams in Main are really solid, but in terms of the jump up to Advanced, it’s just massive. We expected it to be hard, but I think we found it harder than we initially thought it would be. We’re getting used to it now, and we’ve definitely come a long way since our first few games in Advanced and we’re seeing some real improvement now.

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Clique regains a founding member

by meffew
written by meffew

Morgan “m0g” Butler was a part of the team that Clique signed when they first entered into the UK CS:GO scene back in August of last year. In October, he left Clique after revealing that at that time, he simply wasn’t enjoying the game enough to justify a spot on the main roster.

m0g has had a few sparse appearances on other rosters such as Vitalize and Linx Legacy as a stand-in, but has recently been seen subbing in for Clique, sitting on the roster while they looked for a permanent fifth. While contributing to the team’s efforts in a substitute capacity, the taste of competition after a brief hiatus has tempted m0g into joining the team for the foreseeable future;

I lost a bit of motivation when I originally left the team last year due to internal issues, which meant we didn’t have a chance to qualify for ESL Premiership […] I saw the opportunity to join again with new players who are hungry to win, and I already knew from past experience that the team could work now that everything was back on track ever since the last season.

Clique have been without a permanent replacement for their previous fifth man, Fizan “Fizzy” Anjum, for just a couple of weeks. Fizzy was benched even after a successful season with the multi-national squad, more of which can be read about here:

Fizzy becomes a free agent

UKCSGO also asked m0g about the team’s goals for the future:

Our main goals are to hopefully do well at the upcoming EPIC.LAN which we are attending as a team, and qualifying for ESL Premiership would be a good step in the right direction, not only for us players, but also the organisation. Finally, the boys made ESEA Main playoffs last season and were very close to making Advanced, so I think the minimum we would like to achieve is Main playoffs, and possibly Advanced if we can play to the level we know we can.

Clique are currently 4-2 in ESEA Main, and moved into their last game against RePlay Esports with their official 5-man roster, earning a 16-8 victory on Overpass. They will play against the Swedes of Goodfellas on Tuesday the 7th at 7:30PM GMT, in the hopes of extending their streak of 4 victories in a row.

Clique Esports are now:

Lewis “Ziimzey” Coleman
Christopher “VireZ” Wegmann
Mohammed “Mophoria” Abbas
Elias “Rack” Karttunen
Morgan “m0g” Butler

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One to watch in 2023: Ducky

by meffew
written by meffew

21-year-old Mohamad “Ducky” Nourelden is a crucial part of the Arctic Raptors fearless offense, with many describing him and the team’s AWPer William “wfn” Maskrey as the fangs and claws of the prehistoric predators. As they prepare to head into their first season of ESEA Advanced, UKCSGO took some time to look back on Ducky’s difficult path to success, looking at the victories, painful defeats and lessons learned along the way.

Ducky’s first notable team was Feenix Ryzing, previously known as Ignite Esports. Headlined by the titular player of Ducky, he was joined by some other now-known elements within the scene, including both Isaac “isaac” Patto and Zy “yz0” Esponilla. This team was somewhat of an underdog in ESEA Intermediate during their expeditions in season 39 and 40, and after an impressive run in the latter, the squad qualified for playoffs and scored 2 wins to guarantee a spot in the next season of ESEA Main. Ducky was a key factor in the team’s success, posting 92 ADR and a 0.86 KPR throughout both the regular and playoffs portions of the season.

UKCSGO asked Ducky about this first step in the early stages of his career:

My time in Feenix Ryzing was a good opportunity for me to develop as a player. Making a name for myself in the UK scene was not something I intended to do, but I was fortunate enough to have met the likes of yz0, isaac, ARTZ, Hazzernator and Jins; a great set of players both inside and outside of CS.

Their string of success was coming to an end however, as was revealed in a twitlonger from isaac. He spoke about how he and Ducky had made it clear that they were considering other offers together after the season had concluded, but after their progress in playoffs, they put those plans on the back burner and focused on sticking with the team. This sentiment was not shared between the other members of the roster, which resulted in both isaac and Ducky losing out on their spot in Main next season.

This left Ducky to fend for himself, but with a statistically outstanding season of play under his belt, it wouldn’t take long before he found himself a spot in his next team.

Being with them for a season (some two seasons) taught me a lot, especially from Hazz as the coach. He helped me develop the correct attitude and mindset, which in turn had a huge impact on the way I play team CS.

While it wasn’t a permanent spot on the roster, the ManHo “mrhui” Hui-led The Last Resort were down a player at the beginning of the season, and recruited Ducky to fill the empty space on their starting five in a substitute capacity. While he didn’t perform to a stand-out level, he was an extremely reliable force during this limited opportunity, even assisting the team to qualify for Beyond’s 2022 Spring Invitational.

His duties soon came to an end as TLR were finally able to field their official 5 man roster, making Ducky redundant and LFT once again. His next team, AVA Esports, took no shortage of time to come knocking thanks to his string of remarkable performances. After losing two players in the middle of the season, most notably Oscar “AZUWU” Bell to a head-turning Heaven & Hell at the time, AVA hoped to bounce back and pick up where they left off with new additions Ducky and Seth “Xeth” Jackson. Led by a promising IGL in the form of Earl “Earl” Stephenson, the team looked set to make waves throughout the rest of the season in Main.

Ducky’s time under the AVA banner was much shorter than expected, as he was dropped from the roster at the end of the season. Initial speculation would point towards a poor statistical performance for such a quick change, however, Ducky was up high in the stat lines only second to Earl, boasting 85 ADR and another roster-high 0.83 KPR. UKCSGO understands that the team didn’t think Ducky fit into the overall system they were hoping for, and once again, it seemed as if he was left without a team for the upcoming season of ESEA.

Shortly before this, Rasmus “zodi” Frølich had parted ways with the Danish team SERA ESPORT, and Havik Esports’s rebuild going into season 41 left wfn on the sidelines. The two team-less players approached Ducky while he was playing for AVA, and he accepted their offer of a new project. He prepared to announce this to his teammates, but on the very same day, AVA had come to the decision to drop him from the starting five. They officially joined arms and announced their search for the last two players to round out their roster on Twitter, and after picking up Maciej “m1ster” Rudzki and fellow Havik Esports player Euan “synergii” Wilson, the bones of what we know today as the fearsome Arctic Raptors was born.

After my stand-in situation with TLR and playing in Earl’s team for a short while, I was approached by wfn to trial with him and zodi. Being in the team at the very beginning was challenging. I had much to learn, however, with papp and zodi’s support, I was able to bring out my potential [as part] of the team in practice and officials.

This squad’s potential was very promising, but many were quick to point out attitude as a possible downfall for the team. While some may have talked them down, one organisation had their eyes set on Ducky and company, which they followed through with by signing the team. New British organisation XRAVEL announced their partnership with the team, and the first step in Ducky’s next breakout team was born.

 

XRAVEL got off to a formidable start. Their inaugural season in Main reaffirmed the confidence reflected in the players from the organisation, where they recorded an outstanding 11W-1L scoreline in season 42’s regular season. Ducky was once again the frontrunner in this incredible accomplishment, totalling another roster-high 85 ADR and 0.78 KPR, tying with zodi as the primary offensive forces in the team.

These strides continued into the post-season, where XRAVEL took on the Danish opposition of Catchii in round two of the upper bracket and came out on top with a 2-1 victory. Only one Bo3 stood between Ducky and Advanced, but their dreams were cut short after losing to ONYX Talents and flowstate in the upper and lower bracket respectively. Although the squad had fallen short at the very last hurdle, Ducky stood above the pack as a force to be reckoned with, sporting another 0.78 KPR and 88 ADR.

Throughout the season and during this downtime, the team played in other tournaments and qualifiers with moderate success. They qualified for ESL Premiership Autumn 2022 in the second qualifier and took part in SCL during season six – which further contributed to Ducky‘s status as the team’s top fragger, posting a 1.35K/D and 0.88 KPR. Most notably, XRAVEL qualified for Beyond’s 2022 Summer Invitational, where they took down fellow Main competitors K10 and Temperate to qualify for the main event on HLTV, a career first for Ducky. Although it was a single-elimination format, and while being forced to play with a stand-in due to synergii being out of the country, Ducky stepped up on the server and finished the Bo3 with a 1.20 HLTV rating versus a formidable 1PIN.

With some time for post-season evaluation, Ducky and co. parted ways with m1ster and acquired Seán “Atrox” Greene to bolster the team’s firepower even further. EPIC.LAN 37 rolled around, and XRAVEL were anticipated to make a very deep run at the event, looking likely to beat many of the other teams and mixes in attendance.

UKCSGO reached out to the team’s coach, Daniel “papp” Hart, for a few words about their experiences at EPIC.LAN:

EPIC.LAN 37 was our first event as a team, and for some players, their first LAN entirely. We just made roster changes a week or so before the event, leading to little practice with Atrox.

XRAVEL were placed in group B and had a strong start to the event with a 6W-1L record to show, losing only against Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom’s mix team, Psych Ward. After making playoffs, the team were matched up against familiar faces to Ducky; mrhui and Emyr “eMy” Green of eMasters, whom he played alongside during his short stint under TLR. It was a difficult battle between the two teams, with XRAVEL narrowly besting the opposition 2-1, with each map surpassing over 27 rounds of play.

This earned them a spot in the upper semi-finals, where they next faced off against another mix team, The Neighbours – spearheaded by UKCS legends Owen “smooya” Butterfield and Thomas “Thomas” Utting. Their second matchup in playoffs was an even tighter affair than the first, once again going the distance with all 3 maps, including 16-14 scorelines both for and against Ducky and his comrades – the latter being the result of the third map between the two teams, earning the smooya‘s mix a ticket into the upper bracket final.

After this deflating and draining loss, papp‘s boys only had 30 minutes before their next game in the lower bracket for a second chance at a HLTV finish in the event. They came up against a Shuaib “shoobie” Saddique-led shushgg, accompanied by none other than ex-Feenix Ryzing AWPer isaac. This mix had already garnered the status of a dark horse, completing an impressive lower bracket run against Legates Esports, K10 and Clique Esports.

Although XRAVEL took the first map with a confident 16-5 stomp, shoobie didn’t back down and IGL’d his brothers to successfully pull off the reverse sweep against Ducky and the rest of XRAVEL. They followed the classic Bo3 narrative and closed it out in overtime after a nail-biting third map on Inferno.

In playoffs, Ducky put up a respectable 76 ADR and 0.69 KPR*. While it may seem like a far cry from the standard he would typically be held to from his performances in the likes of ESEA and SCL, he was one of the team’s two top performers alongside synergii, scoring more roster-high stats for the event once more.

It was a new experience and one we all enjoyed … although, it’s fair to say we underachieved especially when you consider our ESEA and ESL Premiership form during that time. We’ve mainly put that down to being our first event and it being more of an endurance test than anything else. We quickly put EPIC.LAN behind us and set our focus on what was more important to us, reaching ESEA Advanced and having a good showing in EPS … Though we definitely took a lot out of our first LAN together, and I personally felt we played much better with much more chemistry after EPIC.LAN. – papp

Ducky and his compatriots didn’t let disappointment set in, however. The Brits took the opportunity to bolster the organisational support behind them and signed under Arctic Raptors, an organisation that looked to take fewer gambles on instability and to put their efforts and funding into a more stable project going forward.

 

The Raptors silenced their doubters with another monumental season in Main, recording another profound 12W-2L record in the regular season, solidifying themselves as a dominant force within the division. Once again, Ducky was one of the crucial components to this success, returning to his throne as one of the dominant players in the squad by raising yet another roster-high 84 ADR in the regular season.

With the momentum we gained from the previous season, we knew we had what it takes to get out of Main … it was an important time to do it with ESEA Advanced becoming smaller, so you’d expect the next season of Main to be far more competitive. – papp

As playoffs got underway, the team had to do one better than last season’s swing at promotion in more ways than one. ESEA had announced changes to the formatting for the upcoming season, which meant that fewer spots were up for grabs in Advanced. Coming in from the second round of the upper bracket thanks to their efforts before playoffs, Ducky and the Raptors had set themselves up for success with another shot to advance into the next division of ESEA.

Arctic Raptors held themselves in high regard, and reflected this in their play. The team breezed through the upper bracket, beating BIT Esports, Enhanced Esports, and Kirikou all in a 2-0 fashion, adding to the hype with some overtime victories to boot. This subsequently secured their promotion to Advanced, finally reaching what once eluded them only a few months ago.

After not making Advanced in season 42, we all felt slightly down … but with it being our first season together, we pushed for it on our second season. Making Advanced on our second attempt felt really good. Despite it being a goal for us in our first season together, and as my first full season in Main, I did not think I would be pushing for such a goal so soon, but it worked out in the end and it felt amazing. – Ducky

The Raptors couldn’t repeat their past feats against the next opponents, falling to both Hydra Team and LODIS, ending the season with a top 6 finish in Main. Bested only by his IGL zodi, Ducky once again stood tall and posted a commendable 80 ADR to top off their Advanced run.

Read more:

Arctic Raptors lock in promotion

 

Another opportunity for the Raptors to show their capabilities rolled around as ESL Premiership Autumn 2022 finally began. Ducky and his comrades scored a 3W-2L streak in group B, acquiring victories over eMasters, 7AM and Legates. However, due to losing their matches in groups against Into The Breach and Viperio, they were seeded low in playoffs and faced off against Endpoint in the quarterfinals. The team were no match for the 10-time EPS Champions, and were eliminated from the tournament with a 0-2 loss, placing them in 5-6th place for the event.

The Raptor’s first season in Advanced looks to be one to remember if their last few tenures in Main are anything to go off. With the recent announcement of Todd “Skeliton” Davison as their newest analyst, as well as the sky being the limit for this team of talent, the possibility of deep qualifier runs and HLTV invites are just around the corner for Ducky and his team. The Arctic Raptors are poised to leave a mark on the next UK LAN in attendance, EPIC.LAN 38 in late February.

Overall I am very happy with the position of the team, we played very well in EPS and also locked in our promotion to Advanced. We have great support from our org which we are very grateful for. Our target is to now maintain stability and to try and establish ourselves in Advanced. Lastly, we will be attending EPIC.LAN 38 and we fully expect to be in a much better position for the event to improve upon our last showing. – papp

UKCSGO asked Ducky for his “One to watch” in 2023, and why he thinks they are going to stand out this year:

Not because I’m in a team with him, but I would say zodi. He started IGLing for the first time in his first season of Main, and he is just incredible mechanically . His ability to IGL and rifle as well as he does is not something you see everyday … I am blessed to spectate him everyday and I realise how good of a player he is. I would also put forward MMS and synergii as honourable mentions, since I think both players are on track to achieve great things this year.

Why is Ducky one to watch in 2023? The future for Ducky looks very bright –  as a player who is very clearly brimming with talent and skill, it is no stretch to expect a solid debut season from Ducky in Advanced. His consistent stand-out performances despite all the hardships he has faced along the way have become almost synonymous with his identity, as a part of the team both throughout his stay with both XRAVEL and now Arctic Raptors. Ducky and the Raptors will make their debut in Advanced tonight at 8:00pm GMT versus IKLA.

*As always, all stats and ratings for EPIC.LAN are organised by @Mischief_CSGO

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