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Interview

Earl on playing with Frazehh: “I’m learning a lot from him”

by arnie 26 February 2023

written by arnie

Vitalize are considered one of the UK teams that could be the next to bridge the gap into Advanced. However, after a season in which they have had to consistently use a stand-in and gone weeks without sufficient practice, the team find themselves in a bit of a limbo coming into EPIC38.

The team arrived in Kettering with minimal expectations and to add to the lack of practice, the team were using Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom as a stand-in. The veteran IGL and AWPer helped the team through to the top six where they eventually fell in a tight 2-1 loss to eMasters. UKCSGO’s Arnie Petty caught up with Earl “Earl” Stephenson before that match, to discuss the team’s recent troubles, their expectations for the event and what it’s like playing alongside a veteran IGL.

This is your first time attending a LAN with, nearly, a full team. What’s the difference between attending with a mix and a team?

With a mix, there is no expectation right you are always the underdog. It’s a lot easier it’s a lot freer, whereas you come into this event and people are like Vitalize are the next team to make advanced, they are the team to make a deep run in this tournament. So there’s that pressure and that expectation, so when things aren’t going right you start to worry and stress and get into your own head. Especially without being able to practice, we don’t have that synergy we are meant to have. So it’s a bit tougher than attending with a mix.

You had some good placings, like top 3/4’s, coming into this LAN with a team did you expect to do better than those tournaments or were your goals the same?

Well with the mixes, I think when I had the mix for EPIC36 we expected to make top six so when we made top three we were amazed. For the I69 I wanted the final, I thought we could get the final and the fact we didn’t left me quite hungry. Last Epic, I went in saying I don’t know, I don’t see us going far. Then we started owning everyone and I was disappointed we didn’t make the stage in the end, because we were playing well enough to make the stage.

You lost a couple of matches that maybe you shouldn’t of at this LAN, what was the feeling in the team after those results and how did you recover from them?

The feeling was disappointment and confusion about how we lost those games. At the end of the day, we are all human and that’s why they say LAN can be a teamkiller because these upsets happen frequently. Now the adjustment process has been to take a step back and free up everyone in terms of the roles and not go too structured because of the lack of practice, and my situation to overthink everything is pointless.

You’ve touched on the issues you have had this season in ESEA. Once you get your settled roster and can play with your full team, what’s the plan for the next few months?

I think we are going to have a chat after this LAN and assess everyone’s situation. Not being able to touch the game for three weeks has affected me individually and also on the calling side of things. The meta hasn’t changed dramatically, but little tricks and things are being posted and found daily these days. So not being able to do that has been frustrating, I think going into this season of ESEA we wanted to be winning a LAN or at least attending a final at LAN and making ESEA Advanced, which is looking less and less likely.

Bearing in mind you are an IGL, you have some solid stats that suggest that you are a ‘fragging IGL’ is that an important part of your playstyle?

Originally it was, I’m now starting to debate whether I should be taking those roles anymore though. Me, Rhys and ReegaN all have a bit of a clash with the roles we like to do and maybe it’s time I step back and let them do what they want to do. At the end of the day, the thing I love to do is run in first and get a kill and I think that will still be possible, but maybe I have to take a step back on some of the CT positions I like to play. I would say I’m a good fragging IGL, I think that’s a good term for it.

You have mentioned ReegaN, he’s one of your young riflers he won insomnia, he’s known for not having the best temperament and it’s something that’s been mentioned in the past that he’s trying to work on. Have you seen a notable change in that attitude at all?

Absolutely. I think he has been more positive than me at times. He seems really happy, really comfortable and confident the only thing is he sometimes gets frustrated with himself. He’s not letting it out as much as he had done previously.

What’s it like playing with Frazehh, obviously he is also an IGL, have you had any conflict when you are trying to call, are you learning from each other what’s that experience been like?

I’m learning quite a lot from him, we were starting to have a conflict between the calling styles so for the remainder of the event I think I will just step back and let him call. When you are out of the game for three weeks even just like, thinking and processing things isn’t as natural as when you have been playing constantly. So I think, for now, Frazehh will keep calling. I think the reason we have taken some of these rough losses is purely that me and him would have conflict over a call and that would confuse everybody. So now I’m just going to let him call and pick up on what he has because he’s a lot more experienced than me, he’s played at a really high level so I’m learning a lot from him.

What do you think your team needs to take the next step, to reach your goals of Advanced and LAN finals etc?

Prac time. I think we need to start working in the same direction like I want to play one way, Rhys wants to play another, and Klay wants to play another we just need to come together and make that leap into how we want to play. I think we also need to take dry prac more seriously, how we react to certain plays and all of that needs to be more cohesive. I think we also need to enjoy playing more outside of team prac. I would say a lot of people have not been enjoying the game as much and therefore haven’t been playing as much. That’s a shame and like obviously I have come into the LAN on five hours past three weeks.

26 February 2023 0 comment

All News epicLAN Interview

Gumpster on the UK scene: “We’re sort of carving ourselves in to the upper echelons of Counter-Strike.”

by Dafydd 28 October 2022

written by Dafydd

In the lead-up to EPIC 37, UKCSGO had the opportunity to talk to Tom “Gumpster” Gumbleton. In the interview, he discussed in length the growth of EPIC, how the scene’s lack of faith in Iseries has impacted EPIC, and the general state of UK CS. For those who don’t know Gumpster, he’s been a part of the UK scene for years and has been working with EPIC since 2013. With that experience, he has been able to get a unique view of the scene from a tournament organiser’s perspective.

Epic 37 is the third biggest EPIC.LAN to date. So for people who are new to the event, myself included, how would you describe your role in the tournament?

So, my role at EPIC.LAN is League Ops Manager and I basically oversee all the tournaments that run at EPIC.LAN events. I make sure we have admins to run the tournaments, casters to commentate the games, and [I] generally keep the wheels moving where possible. What I’d like to say is I generally have a hands-off approach to the tournaments, admins come to learn at EPIC.LAN, and we provide that teaching [by] letting the admins have the creative decisions behind their tournaments. I don’t pretend to know what every community wants from a tournament, so [I] allow my admins to put forward their ideas of how to run the tournaments effectively for the communities they represent.

If things go wrong, I will always take the blame as ultimately I have the final say in how we run these tournaments and we work with the feedback to devise better tournaments going forward. So for example, Finn was worried we may breach 32 teams for EPIC37, we all sat down and discussed format ideas [for] if we went over 32, and we left it to Finn to think about what we had said, and he then came back with the idea.

[Editor’s note: EPIC37’s current format is pot seeded]

Once we were happy with the idea and how it was communicated, I asked him to test the waters by submitting it to the seeding panelists for review so they would be able to give constructive feedback and we could change things based on that rather than getting to the event, telling everyone there and then and for everyone to get angry as they hadn’t processed the information properly.

For those not in the know, the seeding panelists are those that submit forms to us, we tend to choose 8 individuals not on the same team to give their informed opinions on the teams attending the event which gives some of the community some added investment into how the tournament runs. So, that is basically what I do, and how I do it for each event. I tend to feel like we have helped a lot of people through our doors go and get into various parts of the industry whilst continuing to bring in people who help the respective communities.

Going back to the point of this being one of the biggest EPIC LANs ever, what do you think has driven people to attend the event, perhaps even for the first time?

If you look back to the early days, we didn’t really have much of a community for Counter-Strike. It was kind of a top-players-only kind of club, so the top players would come to EPIC and they would support the event. But the community never really got behind us as such, [though] that all changed at EPIC 16. And I think… I don’t wanna put it as Iseries versus EPIC, because that’s not how we see it ourselves. I see it as the CS community often votes with their feet, and if they feel like they are being neglected by one side they go to the other side to come and enjoy the event. I think a load of cs players over the last few years have seen EPIC as the place they want to support most.

Gumpster elaborates why EPIC.LAN has continued to gain popularity since the covid-19 pandemic two years ago.

[It’s] because we ran the WANs during the pandemic. We didn’t stop running events during the pandemic, we kept [them] going so people had something to play for during the pandemic. We often tried to support the CS community as best as we can. We teamed up with Grosvenor before the pandemic to try and put the Grosvenor grassroots community championship out there, and I think a lot of teams have noticed that over the years and that’s why they keep coming back to us. That’s why they keep supporting us and we honestly try to take all of their feedback on board.

Whatever feedback we do get, and this is more of a reminder for teams: esports makes the bulk of our tickets but it also makes very little to our feedback, so the more feedback they send in after the event is really critical, as that feedback we can look at we can change for future events, and we do try and honour that feedback looking forward. Obviously, logistics and costs and things like that factor into those decisions, but having that feedback there is something we can look towards.

With the increased interest in the tournament, are there any plans to increase the range of sponsors, and the prize pool with it?

That’s more of a John question, but what I will say out of this is that: yes, the costs currently are something that we’re monitoring so, to sort of give everyone an indication: obviously, you know we launched our ticket prices and we launched the tickets at the end of our last event and we had to make a decision midway through selling those tickets to increase the price of the tickets. This is because the cost of electricity just suddenly went up at our head office. Despite there being a price cap for consumers, there is no such thing for businesses, so business costs have gone up tenfold [due to] the electricity crisis that’s happening in the country and that’s obviously affected us as well. Not only that, but just after we’d raised the ticket prices, we got hit by a fresh set of costs that came from the venue, as they realised they had to raise their costs, which we then had to factor into this event, which makes it incredibly difficult.

And, if John was here with me right now, I think he would say that the next six months will be absolutely crucial to the business, as we’ll have to look at our current ticket prices and think: “is this sustainable for the next six months?” and there is no easy answer about that. Even the government obviously with itself imploding right now, they haven’t been quite upfront with businesses and how they’re going to support businesses right now in terms of whether prices are going to be kept low for the business side. So, it is a difficult thing.

Yes, we are always looking out for more sponsors to be involved in the event, which is what we’ve done gradually. So, obviously, we’ve had Intel sponsor the event which has made a big difference to our events. We’ve obviously got Overclockers and we’ve got Logitech. Logitech provides the MVP prizes for the tournaments, which means a player will walk away with a headset. And then there are other sorts of smaller deals that have happened as well, so we’ve also had MSI come to the last event and they’ve provided 320Hz [monitors] or something like that, top-of-the-range monitors for the stage now, and all our streaming setups as well, so there are all of these things happening behind the scenes. But its just kind of difficult because everyone in the UK currently is fighting for the same space and amount of sponsors, so when we don’t have the footfall compared to Iseries for example, or any other big events — like you know your ESL premierships that obviously have bigger partnerships in place — then you’re always not going to get that slice of the pie that everyone else does. So, its a little bit more challenging for us to get sponsors, but we are always consistently trying to look for new sponsors for the tournaments and for the event in general, just to make sure we are secure going forward.

Yeah, you can only do so much, some of it’s out of your control.

It is yeah, it’s a little bit difficult to factor everything, especially now with energy costs rising for all businesses, not just our own obviously. It’s becoming incredibly difficult to even think about the next six months and I imagine John is in that position where you know with the external events that we do on behalf of the business we then have to factor in all of our costs and prices for all of that, and those costs go up for everyone. So, like, fuel is another one that has risen in recent times and makes it all difficult for us at this point.

A very broad one to finish us off: what do you think of the state of the UK CS scene at the moment?

As I’ve been ingrained in it for many many years and it’s like part of my passion, what I will say is fundamentally, you’ll never see the likes of what we had with Counter-Strike: Source [come] back with Counter-Strike Global Offensive. I think esports has kind of eroded away the kind of community side of things. Back in Counter-Strike Source, we had lots of big community teams. there would be like 20 or 30, 40 different communities that would have, you know, massive amounts of teams, they’d bring like eight teams to LAN and you’d have another community that would have 10 teams.

But these days you’re not doing this for fun anymore, you’re doing this to actually get somewhere and that’s an admirable thing, I can totally get behind that. It kind of eroded my fun out of actually playing Counter-Strike sometimes. Like, I used to love playing Counter-Strike with friends and stuff like that because you would be able to have a laugh, but I can see why certain players would want to have ambitions that are a lot more than just wanting to have a laugh with your friends. There are dollar signs and I think regardless of how people feel, I think the UKCS scene is in a much better place than it was in the past. We’ve gone through the stormy times and I think we’re now in a place where there are 10 to 15 different teams that are now challenging each other.

Yes, there’s obviously Endpoint who have won God knows how many ESL premiership titles now in a row. But I feel the scene below them is certainly a lot better, and I think we’re sort of carving ourselves into the upper echelons of Counter-Strike as a whole, with players going to majors and being able to get that stepping stone now. So, I definitely feel that the scene is in a lot better state.

Unfortunately, going into EPIC 37, we’ve had so many different roster changes happening, even one that is happening today, which doesn’t really sell that confidence to people who look at the scene from outside. So, sometimes when players make these decisions, it kind of doesn’t help from an outsider’s perspective when they see all of these teams capitulate a couple of days before LAN. Like, it’s not sustainable. You want a sustainable amount of core line-ups.

I don’t think there’s any particular laziness or anything like that, I think there are a lot of players who are completely passionate in the scene, and now that UKCSGO is back, hopefully, that will help bring the scene to another level. Because that was the one thing that was sort of holding back the scene: there was no one writing about the scene, there was no way to know about what was going on in the scene because no one was covering it, and now that we’ve got you guys and the group of editors and newswriters that are writing now, there’s now a little bit of hope that can translate into better coverage for the scene, better teams coming out of it, better players being picked up by better organisations out there and better salaries happening and that kind of thing.

My only advice for the scene is to weather your expectations. I get that the cost of living crisis is happening but sometimes there are a lot of people who have unrealistic salary expectations when you’re only a UK team and you’ve not made it at the top level CS yet. You’re going to end up alienating organisations who may not be able to look at their finances right now and say “yeah we can afford this UK team but they’re asking for obscene amounts of salary” sometimes that kind of thing, you just need to weather your expectations and perhaps look to using those organisations as a stepping stone to other organisations with different salary expectations.

28 October 2022 0 comment

All News Insomnia Interview

Shoobie on racism in CS: “You will get what’s coming to you if you act like that.”

by Dafydd 28 August 2022

written by Dafydd

After coming into this tournament as a dark horse, ONE HAG has been able to string together some great results whilst also giving us great content on their streams. UKCSGO’s Dafydd Gwynn caught Shuaib “shoobie” Saddique after his team’s first playoff match-up to talk about his ONE HAG mix, the benefits of attending LANs and the prevalence of racism in Counter-Strike. To give context to those who might not be aware, shoobie was subjected to a racist remark by a Counter-Strike player which he shared via twitter right before this interview.

You guys have had quite a good run, what were your expectations coming into the LAN?

Coming in to the event bes had always joked that were going to the win LAN, which I don’t know if that’s happening. I think our mix is a funny one where we’re kind of dark horses, you don’t look at our mix and go “yeah they are top two” or whatever but we are playing decent CS, we are performing well like nobody is majorly slumping or anything. So anything is possible at a LAN.

You weren’t able to go to EPIC, does it feel good to be back on LAN?

Yeah, I mean it’s the main reason I came to this one, to be honest. I’m not sure 100% but it may be one of the last LANs I’ll come too as a player, so I was thinking I wanted to go to the last EPIC as that so I thought I might as well come to this one. It’s close to me because I’m from Birmingham, so it’s just around the corner from me.

Are you retiring?

No not 100% but it’s more like I’m focused on other things. I’ve been working on an app that is CS-related, so I’m a software editor by day and I’ve been working on an app which I’m willing to put more time into than CS. Which is why I’m not sure playing-wise if I’m going to carry on or not.

So obviously you were meant to go to EPIC with the ITB sponsorship, has that now transferred across to this?

It should do, I actually have forgotten to message them about it but they did, to be fair to them, reach out whilst everything was happening during EPIC they said “look whatever the next event is that you are going to, let us know and we’ll sort you out still.” I’m assuming it will still carry over I just haven’t really chatted to them yet (laughs).

Obviously, we have been asking people about cost of LAN, it can cost a lot of money to go to LAN. How important is it that ITB are doing that sort of thing?

Hugely. I’m not trying to sound big-headed but thankfully I’m in a place where money isn’t too much of an issue for me, I’ve got a stable job and everything like that right? But for players who are coming up in the scene, a lot of them are students, maybe they’re in college still or they are in University and you know how Uni life is, you don’t really have much money for extra stuff other than drinking (laughs). For players like that this sponsorship opportunity is a major major help.

Would you say it’s worth going to LAN for those players?

Um yeah I think in general I think going to LAN full-stop is good. I think that players that are on the rise, or not even on the rise. I think LAN CS is so much more fun, I enjoy it so much more. You have the atmosphere the screaming and shouting. The higher stakes, even though its just a UK LAN, the pressure. If you are a player looking to move up in the scene, these LANs are how you build networks. You can be the most talented player in the world but if you don’t network and don’t know people you wont get anywhere. If you play really good you will get noticed.

You have been in the scene a while now, are their any players that have caught your eye like that?

The obvious answers are like AZUWU and that so I don’t want to say any of them. I mean somebody I have been saying to a few people, from my mix is Karrar. Because he’s a really raw player, he’s very inexperienced and makes some mistakes but in raw aim he’s really talented and like he has good attitude, he has a lot of positives. It will take a while but if he keeps grinding and had somebody like an proper IGL or coach that could teach him, he could be on the rise. AZUWU is the obvious name, ReegaN has become kind of stagnant something about him, he just needs to gain consistency if he can get consistent he will take the next step up.

Speaking of your mix, something that has been a main narrative in the scene for a while is the lack of AWPers, you are playing with wfn who’s considered the best AWPing talent in the scene. What do you think his ceiling is?

He’s very, very good. Like I rated him before this LAN but playing with him I’ve got even more of a appreciation for him. He has good skill and awareness and the thing that surprised me the most about him is he has great composure. He is more inexperienced than a lot of other players but he’s so calm and that surprised me.

Something that I just want to kind of end on, is this racism encounter that you tweeted about this morning. Did you want to speak about that?

So for context because I have seen a lot of people ask if it was that a LAN, was that at LAN it wasn’t on LAN, I doubt someone like that would have the confidence to do say that on LAN. To be fair, well I shouldn’t say to be fair to the guy I don’t know, he has tried to apologise to me privately. His mates still kind of putting sarcastic replies to my tweets so I don’t know how genuine that apology is. The thing is its not the first time, like for me and other people have their experiences but i have had it multiple times. Like I have literally tweeted about someone else doing basically the same thing, and it like happens again and again. It’s surprising to me because you think in this day and age, not even from a being offended point of view but from like a brand point of view. You would think people would be more clued up and realise something like that will destroy your image and you will get no opportunities and you will get what’s coming to you if you act like that.

Would you say there’s prevalent racism in CS?

Oh 100 percent.

And in UKCS?

I don’t know about UKCS, I haven’t experienced it from UKCS ill say that. I will say to be fair there is, actually in recent times it has changed, there has been a underrepresentation. The player are has been majority white, which isn’t a negative or positive its just a statement but as of recently it has changed. I think UKCS and the UK in general, like there is racism in the UK but I think the younger generation we are more open and mixed and I think that bleeds into CS.

Is there anything else you want to mention?

Not really I guess on iseries they really need to fix up. Like I will say this admin John he has been better communication wise, but even small things like yesterday waiting for the playoff bracket. He’s gone to a pub quiz before generating the bracket that people could go look at, the bracket was up at 3am. Like I understand they are here for a good time as well, I’ve admired a event before i know how. It is. You have to have a bit of, a bit of like decency and consideration for the players. The server issues at that aren’t necessarily the greatest look.

Second thing to mention, I’m working on an app, so when I make that app I will be tweeting about it and if anyone is interested in a beta code let me know in my DM’s. Just saying that now ahead of time (laughs).

28 August 2022 0 comment

All News Insomnia Interview

GodkU on seiren: “In-game I need to keep him on a leash.”

by arnie 27 August 2022

written by arnie

UKCSGO’s Dafydd Gwynn caught up with Arctic Raptors’ new IGL godkU, who is attending i69 with Horus esport. In the interview he explained the transition to his new role, the changes the Raptors have made and their less than ideal start to the season.

You are now transitioning to an IGL role within Arctic Raptors what has that change been like?

It’s quite interesting to be honest, I have been an IGL the whole time I have played. At the end of TT9 which is like Dagthepimple and those guys, we brought in relux. He’s been an IGL but we brought him in as a player and it wasn’t working so we switched him to IGL, it still wasn’t really working so I decided to leave. Then I had a trial with Legates and it went super well, just as a player and it just happened that I hadn’t called in a while. But I have traditionally always been a IGL.

You’ve recently made changes, can you break down why those were made?

We struggled to find a role with xey quite a lot. There were discussions last season, before I even joined, about removing him. He was putting in work and trying but it just wasn’t really working, he wanted to play the more banging spots like outside on Nuke but he wasn’t having enough impact. As well we had someone waiting like C60 who said he really wanted to play for us, so it just worked out.

Who on your squad has the final decision on removing players?

Its kind of awkward because it was xey’s ESEA spot but Zach, seiren, is a big personality so he has a lot of sway but it was a mutual thing. Trouto has his input but he’s just like a quiet guy.

What’s it like to play with a big personality like seiren?

Its interesting, like in-game I need to keep him on a leash sometimes and pull him back but when you let him off sometimes its really good. Like on Nuke we play really slow and structured and then one round I will tell him to do what he wants and he will swing back red and kill three with their nades out. It works well.

As a caller how important is it to have those loose cannon type players?

Yeah I think it is quite important, like I have been in teams before that have got so used to me giving input every round that when I don’t call they are just sat waiting for stuff to be said. Which can get pretty bad where like, I can only help in one part of the map so I need people to be able to do their own thing. Something that has helped me a lot in this team, is I give people a lot of space. So like on Nuke for example, the door player I can tell them to search, and they will go and do their own thing try and find a pick.

You had a bit of a slow start to the ESEA season, you went 0-3 and now you are 2-3, what are your expectations for the season?

I have really good expectations, I think we can do really well. It started off a bit rough because we had seiren on holiday for two weeks. So we pracced for two weeks and then Zach went away. So we played one without Zach with a stand-in and one without Trouto as well, so at the time our two best players were away. It was hard to call in that environment with no practice stand-ins. Then as soon as we got our full five we played LowlandLions on Nuke which is their best map and we were basically mixing it with no practice so it was really hard. Now it’s going good, though.

Just about EJR he is on trial, what is the story behind that?

We hadn’t originally planned to kick Naoh it was his decision himself, like he’s really good friends with xey and we just let him decide if he wanted to stay. It could have gone either way and he mulled over the decision for a while but decided to leave which is fair play. EJR was discussed like if Naoh leaves we can get him in and trial him. He made the decision Sunday night and we had a ESEA game on the Monday, so we were like I’ll bring you in right now. Like usually you want to trial a few people and get to know them but because it was so quick we said we will bring him in and play him for our ESEA games and make a decision at the end of the week.

Now talking about the LAN, you are here with Horus, so a basic question: why attend LAN as a mix?

For me we couldn’t attend with my team, it was quite last minute, like with my team they are not that happy to go to Insomnia compared to EPIC. Like with all the issues they would rather go to EPIC in October.

What would you say you get out of playing with your current teammates here with Horus, like how is it playing with them?

I’m good friends with a few of them; sorex, I met him at my first Insomnia and I’ve been friends with Alex for ages. I’m enjoying playing with them and it’s good fun outside of the server though, like chilling at the Airbnb and stuff like that.

What would you say your expectations are at this tournament?

I would say we are really inconsistent, like we have players who on one map can drop 30 and then maps where people just aren’t in the server. I think on our day we can beat any team, like we almost beat jackB’s team and they beat EKO. We were 12-10 up and they had Deagles, a force buy, and we lost to that, then lost 13-16. If we don’t lose to pistols there we beat jackB’s team who is the best team here.

Speaking of a mix doing really well, do you think its a positive or negative?

I really think the mix vs team thing is downplayed on LAN. There is so much more pressure and like less sound on LAN that even if you come with a team you are more mixing it, you don’t really want to do set plays and stuff. It can be a lot harder on LAN. So I don’t think its that bad especially when you have mixes with really good players in.

We are trying to establish how sustainable these LANs are in the UK and if you don’t mind answering how much did it cost you to attend this LAN?

I’m quite lucky because this LAN was funded by Heartless and Horus so I didn’t have to pay for anything, so that’s a special situation. I think if it wasn’t funded I don’t think I would be here.

Finally, what player on your mix has the highest potential?

I think prime for sure. He’s really good, there’s a few players who are really good that I play with. With prime he can be passive aggressive sometimes but he’s never wrong so you just got to be like fair play my bad with it.

27 August 2022 0 comment

All News Interview

Dweg on his career take-off: “We took [COVID] by the helm and worked with it”

by GrimyRannarr 8 August 2022

written by GrimyRannarr

British-Australian commentator Joshua “Dweg” Nathan is an up-and-coming name in the UK CS:GO sphere. He recently worked his first event in front of a crowd at the Pinnacle Cup Championship and was able to sit down with UKCSGO’s Freddie “GrimyRannarr” Pritchard on the second day of gameplay and chat about the Pinnacle Event as a whole, the next FNATIC roster, his own unexpected beginning in casting, his career so far, and the rise of casters and players within the regional scene.

Firstly, what are your thoughts on William “mezii” Merriman picking up the leadership role in FNATIC?

He has been a part of the organisation for a long time, they obviously have faith in him, if he had came within the first week and immediately transitioned to the IGL then you would have questions, but the fact he has been there for a while, and they obviously see leadership qualities, personally I thought Aaron “AZR” Ward would be a good option until I heard mezii was calling. Now that AZR was not an option you have to look elsewhere, and I think they have a very solid core of 4.

mezii has said that he was a second voice before he picked up that IGL role, now do you think because there might not be a strong second voice there might be some trouble for this roster immediately with the little practice they have had?

No, because I feel like they had a lot of freedom to play with because normally we see fresh lineups can do quite well in these scenarios. I think for mezii it will be a personal step up for him, and will be a challenge to the team, hopefully he can get some of the guidance from Jamie “Keita” Hall as well, a very good UK coach working together with a UK IGL can create some good synergy.

Looking at you as an individual, how did you get into casting? Was there a CS:GO background?

Growing up in high school, a lot of guys I was friendly with in my year all played CS:GO, so we just played MM a lot, went to the LAN cafes, mostly just had a bit of a laugh. The main thing that got me into casting was this event actually called EB Exo 2016 which is similar to E3. We had it in Sydney and we got tickets as a group. Our idea was to check out the new games, the new consoles. Realistically, I was into consoles in my younger years rather than PC, so we just wanted to see the new games and the first door I went into was a CS:GO event. The four best Australian teams where playing a LAN, and I sat down to maybe watch a few rounds of CS:GO and watched for the whole day. [I] ended up taking to guys such as Kevin “KaRath“Zhu, Jordan “Elfishguy” Mays, Iaian “SnypeR” Turner, some of the Aussie commentators, and they gave me a bit of a helping. KaRath especially, telling me how to get involved, recording VODs and getting it up on YouTube, getting it up on Twitter and that was sort of my leg in. It did take a while. The first 9 months of casting I was only doing local low division Australian CS before moving to the European side of things. At the end of 2018, when I finished school, I moved overseas to England.

It is interesting you had a CS:GO background, but by large did you then get into CS:GO through casting?

Yeah, we played a few open qualifiers and some FACEIT cash cups back in the days alongside MM, but I never tried to take it seriously. It was more all my mates getting together and having a laugh. Yeah that defo was my way into CS:GO.

Did you struggle a little bit at the beginning with the knowledge of CS:GO, did you go straight into being a colour?

So to start off I was not a colour, when I started casting I was a hybrid, dipping my toes in and out of both styles. I was mainly doing PBP in the first few years, it wasn’t really only until I moved overseas to dive into colour a little bit more. I then obviously took it more full time, and when I was back in Australia I was still in school, working EU events online with the time difference. I didn’t have much spare time, so was it difficult to gain that knowledge and to improve because of the schedule and how it was back then.

Did you then meet your duo EternalJay when you came to England or before?

Well, kind of, we worked together in 2017. There was a portion of time when I worked for E-frag and we were swapping with changing working with Jay, Flakes, Dinko, Hawka, Dean, Skriv…the list continues on for a while. Me and Jay casted maybe 10 or 15 games with each other when I was in Australia, so we knew each other. But when I moved over to the UK we actually casted Epic 26 together which was in early stages of 2019, only a few months after I moved over, I was still setting up and so still very fresh to the UK. We casted that event together but it wasn’t till the end of 2019 and the early stages of 2020 when we went into duo.

Even though you moved over in 2018, it took a while to get your footing into the EU scene, but then when it hit 2020 it looks like everything exploded for you. What was the cause for that?

You have to remember when I first moved over, I did not have many contacts so the work was quite limited, but then in the early and mid stages of 2019 I worked for BLAST in London. So I worked with them for about seven to eight months and when I was working with them I wasn’t casting. It was put forward I was working with BLAST and BLAST only. I did a couple events in early 2019 and then the mid to later stages of that year I didn’t do any casting because I was working at BLAST.

How did you get back into casting after BLAST?

I sat down with Jay and said that I want to get back into casting, I knew that he didn’t have a duo and that was sort of it. We both had some contacts and started working together and pressing it all. We did a couple events and worked a ESL LAN event but we worked remote for the Polish National Championships at the end of 2019 and then we started working with Grid in the early stages in 2020 for quite a while and that was our initial contacts getting into the the Home Sweet Home series.

Was all these COVID events then your first footprint in EU casting?

Maybe not the footprint, but it was definitely the road to where we are now. It was more frequent and more regular, it was constant month after month just doing so many of those online cups. We were doing 20/25 broadcast days every month for 9 months a year so it was a taste of what is to offer, and a taste to [what COVID was pushing] in the online department. We took it by the helm and worked with it.

Was your rise a gradual thing then?

Oh for sure. I started casting in 2016, Jay started in 2015, and I know Jay dipped in and out of a couple big names but by large we didn’t have that consistency, and it took a long time. [It] was not easy whatsoever, we had to grind and work hard to make a name for ourselves, we had to learn a lot ourselves. The hard work paid off when we saw that in the later parts of 2020 and 2021 doing a couple offline events and now here we are in Lund for 2022.

We had to fix and improve stuff by ourselves, it was not given to us on a silver platter.

You have casted for a while, are there any metas you disliked?

Meta wise, I would maybe put it a different way, different regions offer something else. Growing up in Oceania I was very close to the Australian and Asian scene, but nowadays I do not see as much of that being in Europe, but the meta in that sort of way has changed. Maybe the Kreig meta to an extent, but by large there has never been a time when I felt like it was boring. I love CS:GO, I will watch it any day of the week.

Talking about regions, are there any teams or individuals in the UK that you feel like could make that top 30?

That is a very tough one, I would of said the new EKO roster, maybe not top 30 but around that area, top 50 is more realistic. They got close to that and the hard thing about making top 30 is that you not only have to play well, but also have to have a brand to get invites to a lot of events and unfortunately aside from Endpoint who are not even UK anymore, not a lot of UK teams have that reach to constantly get on HLTV cups. I think that is somewhat the main issue.

Sebastian “Volt” Malos going to FNATIC rising is a great opportunity and that is a move that probably had to happen. The new look Fambit looks decent bringing in James “Mad” Debono and Jack “Gizmy” von Spreckelsen. It will take a little bit longer to reach the success we saw from them now. For ITB roster changes too have plagued them. I thought they were going to stick it out, and when you heard the behind the scenes chatter it doesn’t look ideal. A few new names coming in and if you are in the know you are in the know. Thomas “Thomas” Utting and Owen “smooya” Butterfield moving away is a shame. I am a big fan of Cai “Cypher” Watson and believe he has a lot to offer, and I think that realistically to make it in the top 30 and you are a UK player, your best chances are going European and to build a team to the top 30 is one of the hardest grinds. It has been attempted before and most certainly will be attempted again. I wish them the best of luck but you have to be realistic and do it one step at a time.

So looking at that issue of not having the big brands in the UK, how do you think we can start attaching those big names to the UK? Is it more LANs, more online events, or even content being produced?

That is a very good question, content is most definitely so important. I was at I-series for a couple of days, you have FAMBIT and ITB not really making any content, they are the two top teams, and I have said to Ciaran “Biscu” King and Tom “ArTisT” Clarke that you have to work hard and it is difficult so from our perspective we can see the media side of things. The players do not have that experience and knowledge to know how important the social brand really is. Content pieces are so important, personal streaming can be good and that seems to have disappeared. It is probably also an overall subject that a lot of people do not have answers for. Keep your head down and work as hard as you can, work on getting the HLTV ranking, and hopefully more opportunities will come from there.

Looking at the LAN side, do you think bringing back the more consistent LANs we had similar to the Grosvenor circuit will bump up the competitive side but also bring in a lot more eyes?

Yes, if the opportunity is there, then the opportunity should be taken. I worked at one of the Grosvenor events in Reading, and I also worked one in Cardiff and I really enjoyed them. Low-ticket events, not a BYOC so you didn’t have to bring your gear, 15/20 pounds a ticket and you had a whole day of playing CS:GO. It was a fantastic incentive to the UK scene but unfortunately when COVID started the plug was pulled which was a really big shame. That could have turned into something special. If anyone is looking to get back into something similar, I would give it everything they got and it would really benefit and really help out.

Looking at the UK scene now, would you say that we are in a better position than the past?

Before COVID we had Vexed and London Gaming, but the way I look at it now is that the tier two scene years ago was not as competitive back then then it is now. If you are even somewhat competitive now then you are probably doing something right, and it is more impressive to do it now than a few years ago for instance. The likes of FAMBIT and ITB have reached heights that have surpassed previous years and just honestly need to keep consistency. It is not just them too, there are some other names in the picture, BLVKHVND have just made roster changes and they looked impressive. Making ECL right now for the UK teams is so vital, there are few in Advanced and further when you go down the ranks. That one jump too ECL is so crucial. ITB did it for one season then unfortunately went right back down.

Are you looking at any UK prospects that are not CYPHER and not on formidable rosters already?

It is honestly quite difficult for me, I am not a outsider, I would say, but I tend to keep up with the top teams. I don’t have the time to be watching main teams and inters teams. I have seen some really good signs from Oscar “Azuwu” Bell and other than him, excluding the top end teams, I think the only other player would be Mad, who was on the old EKO roster, who is maybe not a known player, but is a very strong rifler and will find some good success in the new EKO roster.

Talents and commentators within the UK scene: is there anyone that you could see joining you at some of the events in the future?

That is a tough one because there are so many commentators right now. I think back to when Jay started getting into casting back in 2015/2016 the sample size was a fraction of what it is now. There were not many casters in the scene, not many from the UK either. Nowadays is a different ball part. We can loosely throw Pavlos “ExWarrior” Georgious in the mix even though he is kind of UK. He has made some super impressive strides recently and is now at the Pinnacle event in Lund. Overall, the gap is very close. As an example, Zerpherr, Retr00, Neokai and TravCS are all starting to make the opportunities for themselves and are so close nit, but no clue who I think will make the next further jump. I do not watch or listen to enough of the other casters in the UK scene to get a better vibe.

Would you also agree there is more CS:GO to be casted?

Yea I guess there is. I do not know though if that is an attribute to there being more casters. We obviously saw a lot of casters come in the online scene. A lot of people were bored and didn’t have their normal lives, so they thought “I play CS:GO for fun, why not go into casting or observing or whatever it may be.” You can make the sentiment that because CS:GO has increased, the caster pool has increased, but I would also say COVID brought in the majority of the new casters.

Do you find that with all these new casters it creates a healthy environment or an unhealthy level of competition?

I would 100% say that any competition is good competition. What it means to the individuals is that you have to make yourself strike better and more so than others, so that is going to pull the stronger talent forward and the weaker talent behind. You have to remember there are only a certain number of talent spots to go around, and a bloody lot of casters right now.

I think that the next 6 or 12 months will show who is working the hardest, and the main attribute to success is just grinding, whether you are a player or a caster.

To round it off, what message would you give to the casters out there?

Realise that success does not come tomorrow. The sentiment that I started in 2016, Jay started in 2015 and we are working our first LAN with a crowd, my second LAN in general, at an actual venue and I have been casting for six years. Yes, maybe things were different back then, I was still at school, working for BLAST and all these other attributes, but you’re not going to go from casting online CS:GO to LAN in a few months. You may get lucky here and there, but it is a slow and gradual grind and you have to just keep up with it, dig down, and stick it out. It will come but it will not come soon.

8 August 2022 0 comment

All News Interview

EternalJay: “We are back to being a bit of a joke in the international scene”

by GrimyRannarr 21 July 2022

written by GrimyRannarr

Jamie “EternalJay” Martin is a caster that you’ve almost certainly heard of. Heralded as a Jesus impersonator by some, and a heavy metal enthusiast by others, many can agree on him being one of the brightest and best casters in the CS:GO scene right now. EternalJay sat down with Freddie “GrimyRannarr” Pritchard to chat about the Pinnacle Cup Championships, his first event in front of a crowd, but to also chat about his gradual rise to success, and the state of the UK Counter-Strike scene.

Firstly looking at this event, how are you finding this so far?

It has been great, everyone has been so accommodating to us, the staff has made it a really smooth time. A few technical hiccups here and there but nothing that has affected my job specifically. From a casting perspective, it has worked so well, the stage looks brilliant, sad that the audience hasn’t been filled out, but not every event will. We still have a very passionate crowd here and I cannot complain overall. I have some good matches, and I cannot be happier with my first arena LAN.

The people you have around you at this event are very experienced, have they been helpful to you?

The whole talent team has been super accommodated. There is a description of a lot of Counter-strike talent that the camaraderie is dead because the old guard has moved on, but I do not feel that here. Harry and Hugo have been wonderful, I have known Hugo for years and it is my first time meeting JustHarry. Someone like ExWarrior is alongside us as he is experiencing his first event in front of a crowd too, so we have been going through the motions together. All of these guys have made a solid sort of unit that is friendly and we all know what we are doing, we share advice when we see appropriate.

I haven’t been asking specifically for advice in that sense, they trust me to do our thing. There was one drunken moment over the course of the week where we all congratulated each other but the good nature of these guys do come out naturally and it is one of my ideal talent teams honestly.

Looking at yourself now, how did you even get into casting?

So I started playing League of Legends in 2012, I was no good at it but even before that I was playing Counter-Strike: Source in 2009. I wasn’t really a competitor but I did have a gaming background. I was not fully aware of the esports scene but I knew there was competition. LCS was the first big esports event I found, I sucked at League of Legends so I just thought that esports was not the thing for me.

I then realised that LCS was not the only esports and in 2015 I found CS:GO through ESL One Cologne, I was going to university at the time, and I figured out why not try casting as a hobby. A lot of my work didn’t start till the end of the education year. So I used that as an opportunity to fill up my Thursday evenings, I signed up for a couple of different volunteer roles back in the day, the old UKCSGO recaps and the country cups which I am still waiting to return.

But then from there, I did more things. I got recognised and I took the opportunities as they came. I eventually had an opportunity to work with ECS when I won their caster challenge, then I went on to go full-time, and here I am today, seven years down the pipeline and I am doing my first crowd event.

I am guessing then that you never expected this to happen?

Not that I didn’t expect it, it was more the case that I was cautiously optimistic. I was already studying broadcasting, I already knew what I was doing to an extent. I was normally on the production side of it, and not the one on camera, but I always understood the concept and what I was doing. I applied that and used that, it was tough and I always knew it wasn’t going to be a breeze, I thought it was possible, but as cliché as it sounds, I always thought there was a chance, even though it was slim.

Was there ever a time when everything hit you like “wow this is happening”?

Towards the beginning of my career, I was doing Rocket League as well as Counter-Strike. I was able to go to Switzerland a couple of times working with a company called TCS. They were super accommodating, granted a small project, but it’s more the fact I am in Switzerland because of esports, doing what I love, and being able to travel places because of commentating. It was one of those moments when I realised it was legit and in a sense an eye opener for mostly the people around me more than myself. I always believed in esports, the first time I came across it I knew that this was going to be a big deal even if I am not part of it. If I get the chance to be a part of it then lovely, regardless, it is always going to be a solid industry. That realisation that I am a part of it didn’t come after a number of years but then it hit me, I realised how real this was.

Looking at the UK scene, are there any teams or players we could see at events such as this?

JamieG should be on OG Academy, that is all I am going to say, that Kid is nuts. When I first saw him in the EPIC.LAN I knew he was going to be a player to be reckoned with. I feel like he has a massive amount of room to develop and is the guy I look at to keep a look at. Discounting the recent call-ups to these academy rosters and other international rosters, looking at domestic leagues only, JamieG is my guy.

Would you see then JamieG making it within a UK team or do you think he has to go international?

There are some circumstances that I have heard but I do not want to talk about because I am not sure if it is true, but this does inform my opinion to a certain extent as I know what is going on behind closed doors, I do feel like he is a guy that can reach those heights, he can be winning ESL Premierships, he can definitely be winning Insomnia depending on what his dexterity is like playing at BYOC. He has a lot of talent and I cannot wait to see what he can do.

Do you think within the UK we have a problem with developing teams and players?

Oh yes.

How do you feel like this can be dealt with?

That is a very loaded question. It is really tough because I feel like everyone is in it for themselves, this is no disrespect to anyone out there, there are some people that might be tilted as something like this but this is true. Everyone wants a ticket to a LAN so they can go to the bar. Everyone wants to play in leagues or tournaments so they can feel good about themselves, and don’t want to go further. There are some people that want to make it pro, but they don’t have the discipline to go through the practice regiments, stick with a consistent team and do the things that you have to do to make it pro.

The veterans that were around in Counter-Strike: Source were not there to give the younger guys the knowledge and that for me has been a massive problem over the course of the years. It felt like it would get better, but it has only gotten worse since that point. We are back to being a bit of a joke in the international scene, our best team Endpoint do not even field full UK rosters during international events. During ESL Premiership they field UK rosters, but when they go to big EU events they field EU players, what does that say about our scene? That I think in its own right says it all, the talent is not there, the disciple is a joke at some times even for some of the top-end teams. This is a deep-rooted problem that has been around for years, and unfortunately, I do not think there is a solution. As a famous journalist once said, you have to nuke the scene from orbit and start again, and It is easier said than done.

Do you think a problem is the money situation and a lack of orgs?

FAMBIT in particular, the money is a case of are we deserving of the money. I am not saying that FAMBIT are not, it would be nice if every team had a home. But this is the reality of business, is it worth it? [This interview was conducted before it was announced that EKO Esports signed FAMBIT]

The level I have seen from UK Counter-Strike and then look at the salaries that pro players get these days if I was an org owner I would not want to splash out for these guys.

The answer then to your question, is no. There is a bigger passion behind this, we have pro players making 20 grand a month. They see that money to be a compensation for their time and to have the understanding that when your career is over you are going to be okay. The real driving force for a lot of players is the trophy and the win, this is something I do not think UK players have, we do not have players like this.

Do you see room for development, you mentioned there were glimpses and to get back to that level what do we need to do?

Honestly a question beyond my knowledge, there are so many problems and they are all so deep-rooted. I am not certain there is an easy answer to that, it is a long-term thing that everyone has to go to work on, tournament organisers, sponsors, players, orgs, and talent even. We all have to do something to change the scene, it is going to take a long time.

Talking about talent, looking at the UK, do you think there is a reason why we produce so many talents but not players?

From a broadcasting perspective, we need a lot of English-speaking people because we run a lot of English broadcasts across the whole of esports, and as a result, the best people to go to for the EU tournament organisers is the British. It is our mother tongue, we can do word play and they are super impressed by this, someone who does not speak English as a first language will find this more difficult. There are naturally exceptions, look at CS. We have Anders, Maniac, and yNk, all as English as a second language, they are still incredible at what they do. They have that opportunity as they are not proficient at English but just simply good at their job. For casters alone, it is really easy to get an English person to do some casting because they know the language so well, and therefore we have an advantage.

So looking at this English talent, who do you see as the big up-and-coming talents?

That is a loaded question, Freddie it is you (laughs).

The problem is, I am not certain how some talent will react to this, a lot of people get bruised egos very quickly in the talent space. I do not want to be that guy, I am going to plead the fifth. What I will say is that there is some real potential there, the reason why I stopped doing Counter-strike at EPIC.LAN was to give more room for someone else to rise up the ranks and do what I did five or six years ago. To then join me in this space, there are some people I have been very impressed with, those people you will have your time and moment, for now, the door is open, you have the baby of EPIC.LAN broadcast, take it, and run with it. Basically, just fucking kill it.

21 July 2022 1 comment

All News General News Interview

Farlig on EG: “If it was only two rosters, it would be healthy…”

by GrimyRannarr 9 June 2022

written by GrimyRannarr

We caught up with Asger “farlig” Jensen after his Astralis side trampled MiBR 16-6 in their second game of the Pinnacle group stage.

Firstly how are you feeling after that MiBR game?

I mean it is a Best of 1, so I think these games can get more complicated if you lose pistols rounds and anti ecos, or just one unlucky round – so I am happy we closed it out convincingly.

Looking at the EG line-up from yesterdays match, did you know that you were going to be playing this version of EG?

No we only found out yesterday evening.

I think there are a lot of players in North America who have potential, but I think it is really tough for them to develop.

How do you find these new players, do they have any potential?

Yes I definitely think they have potential, I think there are a lot of players in North America who have potential, but I think it is really tough for them to develop. The quality of the scrims and everything like that can be really tough. I am not sure how it works now as they have signed with EG, if they can participate in tournaments where the other teams are playing. So if they cannot, and only one EG roster can play in one NA tournament I think it might be really tough for them to get chances to present themselves and show their skills as players.

Do you think these different rosters create tension between the 3 teams?

If it was only two rosters, it would be healthy, but as they have signed 3 rosters it is a lot. I don’t know how you can feasibly keep track all the time of which team is the best and who to send to which tournament. This team is the Party Astronauts team right, how do they decide to send them over Carpe Diem?

Going back to Astralis, you guys have recently spoken about struggling with defining roles, is that still a problem?

Yes we had a lot of conversations after the Major, then we had some more after we got knocked out of Dallas. It is an ongoing conversation and process, but I think now we might have reached a point that especially on the T side we feel better about the roles and we are reaching a point where we can have a common philosophy about the game. We have been a bit split about it up until this point.

Looking over at your performances from the Major and Dallas are you quite disappointed with those?

Yes, very.

And then is this a tournament where you want to start picking up the pieces?

Yeah, it is definitely something like that, especially after our last conversations we had in Dallas it might actually benefit the whole team, and the whole team might start playing better. I definitely feel like we are on the right track, but still very disappointed in the last two tournaments for sure.

Are there any teams you want to play against to maybe prove yourself?

Not necessarily what teams we are playing against, but I just want us to place well, and the bare minimum expectation is playoffs, but we definitely want more. We are still a roster that has yet to make that one good result so I think we as a roster are after that now, and not after any team specifically. It’s just proving that we can make a deeper run.

One last question, as the newest player in Astralis , did you find it nerve racking ?

No I did not think it was nerve racking, but I definitely feel like it was hard to situate myself in the team and adjusting myself to the team was harder than I imagined. Nothing wrong with them but it’s just that we played really differently to my old team FPX. It was definitely a fairly big adjusting period for me. However at this stage any adjusting period should be over for me now. There wasn’t any added pressure from the organization or anything like that.

Astralis next take on Imperial in their first BO3 of the event.

Farlig image with credit to PGL and Joao Ferreira.

9 June 2022 0 comment

All News epicLAN

epicLAN 27 – Interview with Jon “Winbar” Winkle

by Archive 17 June 2019

written by Archive

Over the weekend we sat down with Jon “Winbar” Winkle to talk about all things epicLAN. The last year has been an amazing year of growth and new experiences for Jon and his team so we thought it best to get all the information from the man himself. We also look into what epicLAN has planned for future events. Michael “DuckMoriarty” Moriarty conducted the interview.

17 June 2019 0 comment

All News Event News General News Insomnia Interview Scene News

Insomnia 63: A chat with CeX awper: Frayzehh

by Archive 24 August 2018

written by Archive

In our final interview in the run up to Insomnia we had a chat with Fraser ‘Frazehh’ Sollom to get his thoughts on his team, i63 and the UK scene as a whole. Frazehh is currently the main awp for CeX but has been playing for the vast majority of his life. Fraser began playing Counter Strike Source when he was 4 years old on his dad’s PC. He had an instant love for the game and played non-stop mostly on community mini game servers such as surf and jailbreak. When CS:GO was released, Fraser continued playing and got more of a passion for the core game. He started playing more competitively and honing his skills. When the UK Circuit was launched Fraser spent a lot of time playing in the UK Pro League. He became friends with his current teammates Resu and Liam and decided to make a team. The core of CeX was born. They added Nukeddog and Muffin to complete their squad and began competing.

The team saw strong results early on with a third place finish at i62. The team had a brief spell with Casa following Muffin’s departure and were runners up at Epic 24. JamesBT is the latest addition to the roster after Casa left the team and since he has joined the team seems to have gone from strength to strength on the run up to i63. The squad recently qualified for the epiclan, Grosvenor Casino LAN final as well as the OMENbyHP finals. In addition they got promoted to ESEA Advanced and are looking to qualify for the ESL Premiership when they play in the upcoming relegation tournament. As one of the stronger UK teams in the tournament they have potential to challenge for a top 8 finish or better at i63.

Can you talk me through the roles on your team?

So I’m the AWP player obviously, James is the entry fragger and just sick, Liam supports, Nukeddog lurks. Resu IGL’s and is super underrated in my opinion when he puts the time in. Sometimes our roles change from map to map like Liam lurks and stuff.

How are you feeling with the recent addition of JamesBT. Has he settled in well to your team?

We are all feeling super happy with this pickup, he’s so crisp and fits well for the entry fragger role which we needed. Also he is young and will improve a lot.

How do you fancy your chances at the event? Where are you realistically looking at placing?

I mean we’re not too sure who exactly is attending but I’m assuming there will be a good amount of EU teams, even with the prize distribution. I think we’re hoping for top 4/5.

What do you think about the Fierce Esports roster? Do you think they could cause you issues at the event?

We scrimmed them once and won pretty comfortably but they had only just picked up swaggy I believe. I’m not afraid of any UK team at the event.

Looking more generally at the event, do you like the 16 team prize distribution or would you prefer the normal 8 team pay out?

Definitely 8 team pay out.

Is that for selfish reasons or do you think a more exclusive prize pool could bring other benefits?

I just don’t think you deserve to be in the money for finishing almost last in the elimination stage. Also more rewards for winning teams.

With the increased prize pool what do you think about the state of the UK scene? Do you think the complaint “there’s not enough investment in the scene” is still justified?

I don’t think that is justified, I feel like if they reorganised the prize distribution it would definitely be more competitive.

If investment in the scene is no longer an issue, how do you think UK teams could improve to be competitive in EU?

I feel like a problem with some UK teams is they don’t play enough outside of prac (I know my team is the same). Other than that, spend time watching demos and focusing on themselves as well.

Any final shoutouts?

Shout to Revilo for being amazing and the best manager/owner, all my teammates for being the best as well as being some of my best friends, CeX obviously, and thanks for the interview 😀 See you at LAN <3

The CeX lineup is as follows:

Andrew “resu” Robson
Liam “LS” Scotter
James “JamesBT” Beattie
Harry “Nukeddog” Jenkins
Fraser “Frayzehh” Sollom

We will be covering the whole event throughtout the weekend so be sure to keep up to date with insomnia63 via our Facebook & Twitter pages.

24 August 2018 0 comment

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Insomnia63: A chat with Fierce’s newest addition: Swaggy

by Archive 20 August 2018

written by Archive

Following on from the previous interview with old timers CbYd, we’ve now looked to a younger team, with a mark to make on the event. We spoke to Kyle “Swaggy” Wilson, the newest member of the Fierce esports lineup. The roster he is now representing is no stranger to the scene, previously playing under the tag Royals in the highest level of UK competition.

20 August 2018 0 comment

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