The final Insomnia LAN of the year has come to a close with the CS:GO Tournament taking centre stage at the NEC this weekend. With £7,500 prize money up for grabs, it was always going to be a thrilling encounter as insomnia61 came to round the year off.
The Group stages have concluded, and now it’s time for the Elimination Bracket. For the first time, in a very very long time at an iSeries event, we have finally got a big wish where 31 teams square up to each other and play in the Elimination Bracket. That means the top two from each group get promoted and one of the UK Masters Finalists get placed into the bracket.
Always the fun part of LAN for some of the worst teams in the scene, and the boring part for some of the better teams, it is the group stage. The groups kicked off a few hours ago after a series of delays due to an issue with the networking side of the tournament platform they had brought in for this event. This meant a lot of confusion and issues, and debates on whether to move back to Battlefy.
Multiplay have today announced that they have been forced to drop plans for their usual third LAN of the year and cancel insomnia62 for this year. In a big move, they have cited that costs at the National Exhibition Centre had become an issue for their smallest LAN of the year.
The UK Masters Summer Season has just been announced. Returning for its fourth instalment, the UK Masters is back again with another £15k prize pool for both Counter-Strike:Global Offensive, and League of Legends.
It’s that time of year again when gamers from all over the UK, and the occasional European, descend upon the Birmingham NEC for Multiplay’s Insomnia Gaming Festival. Now on its sixtieth event, i60 is moments away from having its first group stages take place. The CSGO tournament had a last minute sponsor addition with TeasmSpeak coming on board, the voice communication service which has been used by most gamers until the recent rise of Discord. However, this addition sees no change in the prize pool which remains at £7,500 but makes CSGO the second highest prize pool of the weekend, with Rocket League in first place boasting a £10,000 prize pool.
i60 is kicking off at the Birmingham NEC
The event shows significant growth over the event this time last year where 56 teams took part. This event sees 87 teams signed up with 70 confirmed, and 17 unconfirmed at the point of registration closing.
As always there will be complaints and queries surrounding the seeds, like any event, but below is a table of all the seeds for the group stages of i60. FM-eSports will reclaim the 1st seeded spot after group stages as they qualified for the UK Masters finals. Full rosters for each team can be found on the Insomnia Gaming Festival Battlefy page.
| 1 | Infused |
| 2 | CEX |
| 3 | XENEX |
| 4 | Radix |
| 5 | Bmagic’s Day Care |
| 6 | Dog Gaming |
| 7 | TLR |
| 8 | Crident |
| 9 | Reason Gaming |
| 10 | The Goose House |
| 11 | London Lynx |
| 12 | Barrage |
| 13 | Impulse Gaming |
| 14 | IGI |
| 15 | Dragon eSports |
| 16 | CEX, Pugs and spray control |
| 17 | Descend |
| 18 | VBA |
| 19 | M’ster |
| 20 | Osterity |
| 21 | Yeetamix |
| 22 | Nuclear Storm |
| 23 | Baby Face |
| 24 | Mediocre |
| 25 | LSU |
| 26 | Wizard |
| 27 | Chop |
| 28 | Quids |
| 29 | Intrision |
| 30 | WGT |
After a long UK Masters season, the final two teams heading for Insomnia are confirmed. With there being four teams heading into the play-offs, only two could survive for the i60 showdown.
As we all know, the PGL Krakow major is coming up soon and teams from around the world will be battling it out for places in the Minors in order to earn their shot at glory in Poland.
Valve, however, have thrown a spanner in the works, sympathetic with the state of UK Counter Strike, they have offered one team a chance to compete in Poland by partnering with us for the UK Minor.
The UK Minor will see sixty-four teams compete at a BYOC LAN tournament hosted by our friends at Multiplay in a dark hall in the middle of the historic National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. We can also reveal the schedule for this historic event in the UK Counter Strike scene:
Day 1 –
Day 2 –
Day 3 –
There’s also a significant prize pool for this event, a stunning £5,000 will be split across the top 4 teams with £2500 going to first place.
Home of many empty subway bags and average Counter Strike games
A VALVe Spokesperson had a few things to say about this first-time event.
We’ve been watching the UK Counter Strike scene change and grow since the early 1.6 days, We’ve been inspired by teams like Mousesports UK, Birmingham Salvo, Reason Gaming, London Mint and many more. While the scene has dropped off significantly since the release of Global Offensive, we believe that British Esports can come back fighting which is why we chose to run this Minor. We can’t wait to see the mix team that wins this and then splits just before the Main Qualifier.
In this interview, he goes on to say that he was so impressed with our flawless execution of UKGT, that they wanted us to run and produce the tournament during i60. In response to this, Jon Kelly from Multiplay, a man who has dedicated most of his adult life to putting up with admining BYOC tournaments said:
I mean, it’s kinda bulls**t…Why assume teams that have paid top dollar to fight through hoards of Minecraft kiddies and cosplayers actually want to play in a serious competiton? Everyone knows its not what the Insomnia Series is about. The scheduling is way off too…I mean, 35 minutes between finding them smoking and the first defaults being attemtped? Are you crazy? That should be at least another two hours. And as for this “flawless exectuion” of UKGT, let me tell you………..
Bizarrely, all recording equipment stopped working at this stage and the rest of the interview was lost.
We hope you’ll join us in Birmingham for this exciting event in 2 weeks time. We’ll provide more details as the time closes in.
After two weeks of pulsating action, we now move to the third week of Multiplay’s UK Masters Spring Season. Eight teams go head to head in a Best-Of-Two series each week to determine who will be the four teams heading to the playoff stage before finding out which two teams head to the Finals at insomnia60 at Easter. Each of the teams get rewarded for the map wins they attain throughout the season, with the largest share of the £15,000 prize pool being determined at the NEC at insomnia60.
Last week we saw some incredible action take place with once again, ex-SKUM Gaming being the team that everyone seems to find difficult to actually beat. They came away with two more draws to add to their tally, as both Infused and Imperial struggled to break down the resilient defense by NK and co. Meanwhile, fish123 managed to overcome Team CeX in a very close encounter, whilst Endpoint managed to grab two more wins to get back into contention. The former exceL eSports lineup, which we understand has now since folded, struggled to make any impact on Week 2’s standings, and now they are currently residing in 6th place.
The exceL dream is now dead in the water.
With all the shuffling of rosters outside of any potential locks, and the league still in play currently, it leaves our panel scratching their heads on how they can possibly predict the matches going forward, but they will certainly try. Here is all the information you need including rosters (that we know currently), last week’s results, current standings and our panel’s results. You can read the previous prediction articles in the following links.
UK Masters Spring Season: Week 1 Predictions
UK Masters Spring Season: Week 2 Predictions
fm-eSports: nEiLZiNHo, weber, fre1, Puls3, stan1ey
Team Endpoint: Immi, Esio, MightyMax, Luzuh, HudzG
Team CeX: resu, BrodyC, LS, Astroo, JDD
ex-SKUM Gaming: NK, FiLLeR, DUKK, Hawkins, MMuffin
Imperial: Jakem, conoR, Whindanski, Boaster, REAZN
fish123: keita, Sliggy, robiin, batham, tsack
Team Infused: SHEEKEY, shaney , Lumji , Ozzy , Snakey
exceL eSports: Jenko, Mole, Kryptix, Smooya, Jesp
Team CeX 0:2 fish123 (16:19 de_train & 14:16 de_mirage)
Team Infused 1:1 ex-SKUM Gaming (16:6 de_cbble & 8:16 de_mirage)
Imperial 1:1 ex-SKUM Gaming (23:25 de_overpass & 16:8 de_mirage)
Team Endpoint 2:0 exceL eSports (19:16 de_mirage & 19:17 de_overpass)
Team Endpoint 2:0 Team CeX (16:8 de_overpass & 16:8 de_mirage)
fm-eSports 2:0 fish123 (16:12 de_mirage & 16:5 de_cache)
Michael “Duck” Moriarty – UKCSGO JournalistMichael is one of our journalists here at UKCSGO, he has written for many different organisation websites including Team Acer, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Reason Gaming. He currently writes for ESL with some IEM posts he has done over the last few months. His CS knowledge is relatively restricted to recent times as he has no prior knowledge or playtime in the UK Scene from either CS: Source or 1.6 and therefore his opinion should be treated as a relatively new to the scene. However he is starting to build on his awareness of the UK Scene in CS:GO and has valid ideas of what teams should be doing what. Michael will be taking on Tuesday night matches in UK Masters.
Ryan is one of the UK’s leading stars when it comes to commentating. Having started at epic.LAN last year for epic.SEVENTEEN, as an admin, he ended up going to Dreamhack Summer last June on behalf of CAZ eSports, then shortly after that he dived into casting, and got to cast events such as UK Premiership, UK Masters, Starladder, and WESG. He has an in depth knowledge around the UK Esports scene, and continues to thrive on casting events. Ryan will be taking on Wednesday night matches in UK Masters.
Callum has been working himself through the ranks over the last year, having won epic.NINETEEN back in October last year, he has the insight to help the panel come to some better conclusions on what should happen in the matches from week to week. Callum currently plays for Chrome Gaming who narrowly missed out in UK Masters and didn’t quite make it to the ESL Premiership either, but he knows how competitive the scene really is. Callum will be taking on Thursday night matches in UK Masters.
Team CeX Vs fish123 – Prediction: 0:2 Actual: 0:2
Team Infused Vs ex-SKUM Gaming – Prediction: 1:1 Actual: 1:1
Result: 2/2 (100%)
Imperial Vs ex-SKUM Gaming – Prediction: 2:0 Actual: 1:1
Team Endpoint Vs exceL eSports – Prediction: 1:1 Actual: 2:0
Result: 0/2 (0%)
Team Endpoint Vs Team CeX – Prediction: 1:1 Actual: 2:0
fm-eSports Vs fish123 – Prediction: 1:1 Actual: 2:0
Result: 0/2 (0%)
Probably the most interesting match up in Week 3 is this particular one. Two very strong teams going head to head across two maps. Imperial ended up getting a draw last week whilst fm-eSports managed to win, so both of these sides have an interesting challenge ahead of them. Both of these sides currently reside in the Top 4 which means if all goes well, they’d end up making the playoffs however this match may make or break either of these teams actual league seasons here.
fm-eSports are still considered the strongest of UK sides to many, so they’ll have the edge over their rivals here. However, Imperial have been slowly hitting a bit more a stride despite their draw last week to ex-SKUM Gaming. It should be interesting to note that both these sides have managed to struggle against ex-SKUM Gaming this season which makes this particular tie a little more interesting at the base level.
Whatever happens though, it will be a very very close match between the two sides tonight.
Prediction: A very close 1:1 between the two.
This match is probably the hardest to call, both sides are now effectively mix teams considering exceL eSports has folded in the last week, whilst fish123 have always been a glorified mix team. Major roster moves have meant that no one can accurately predict who will be playing for exceL eSports tonight, and that we are completely unaware if the actual proper roster will make an appearance tonight. This means that tactics or form books can be ruled out of this match up and means I am in the dark as to who will really win.
However, we all do know one thing that is key to a win for exceL eSports which is Owen “smooya” Butterfield and his form, if he is playing incredibly well and wants to look like the decent player that people speak highly of, then a win will be on the cards for exceL eSports here. However if Owen is playing poorly, then fish123 will be able to manage to scrape the win. It’s all about the key players in these matchups, and likewise Robin “robiin” Sjögren will be a key factor for fish123 in this match.
However, I will be sticking to the air of caution and going with a 1 all entertaining draw.
Prediction: Another 1:1 on the cards here.
Last night, Team Endpoint took the scene by storm with an impressive victory over Team Flipsid3 Tactics 16:12 on mirage in ESEA Premier. If Team Endpoint maintain that display and Infused continue to look like they are struggling, then I see no other winner here bar Immi and the lads. I personally have been impressed by Alex “Snodz” Byfield who seems to be bringing some good mental fortitude to the lineup.
Infused aren’t a weak team by any means, but I do feel yesterdays match for Endpoint may of turned the tide in their UK Masters season thus far. Looking at the likes of 16:9 across the two maps, but Endpoint will take it I feel.
Prediction: Team Endpoint to win 2:0 over Infused.
This match should in theory be a match that Team CeX finally win one and get off the bottom spot of the UK Masters table. If they play sensibly and manage to reignite some of their LAN form from epic20 back in February, then they should see this being a 2:0 over ex-SKUM who continue to trouble various teams in the league.
Saying that, ex-SKUM have played incredibly well despite their disadvantages of being inexperienced at the top flight of UK Counter-Strike. They have only lost one match up and that was to Team Endpoint who did come second last season. They’ve had a hard path currently, playing against some of the biggest names thus far, Imperial/fm-eSports and of course Endpoint. This may well be their biggest chance yet to take a surprise victory and maneuver into a position for the playoffs.
It will certainly be tough though, so I will stick with a 1:1 draw here between the two sides, but it could be explosive as both sides really need a win at this point.
Prediction: Close and tough match to call, but 1:1 draw.
Resu will be looking for the first win of the season this week.
I believe Infused vs Imperial will be a 1-1 scoreline, as far as I know the infused roster is currently incomplete after a change which could hinder their performance, also both teams drew 1-1 vs skum gaming in week #2 so I think it’ll be a close matchup between Infused and Imperial
Prediction: A close but exciting 1:1 draw.
I’m not sure what to think about CeX vs Excel, I don’t even know who will be playing on Excel as their team has folded so I don’t know if they’re mixing or what, CeX have been struggling lately alot though therefore I predict another 1-1 scoreline, I think CeX will be able to take a map of the mix if not both, however playing vs mixes is always difficult as a team as they’re very unpredictable and it’s not really what you practice to play against, therefore I expect the Excel mix (assuming it’s a mix) to take a map of CeX.
Prediction: Another interesting 1:1 draw here.
Don’t forget you can visit the UK Masters hub to keep an eye on all fixtures and live tables of the event on a weekly basis, which you can find over at Multiplay’s mini website, by clicking on this relevant link.
We will have more coverage of the UK Masters over the coming weeks, including statistical breakdowns of all the major players in the league, interviews, and more prediction articles on a weekly basis. Make sure you keep yourselves posted to UKCSGO as we continue to cover the top tier of UK Counter-Strike. You can follow us on Twitter and like our page on Facebook for further updates so you never miss a beat in the UK Scene.
After a first week full of action and surprise, we turn our attentions to the second week of Multiplay’s UK Masters League. The league is formed of eight teams who play each other over three week days and play in a Best-Of-Two series. The league has £15,000 up for grabs and will see two teams head to Multiplay’s insomnia series to compete in a Best-Of-Five Finals on the Friday of the event.
Week one’s action saw some surprising results from the fm-eSports camp. Despite our panelist predictions being spot on for the fm/exceL match up, fm-eSports ended up going up against a resiliant SKUM Gaming the following day. The interesting thing to note though, was that fm’s map win against exceL was on the same map they played SKUM and lost. Both of those maps went to overtime too as well. With that said, fm-eSports do come away with two draws in the two series they have played, and thus haven’t really been beaten yet. The more surprising of results came from Endpoint who managed to win against SKUM but then lose against the talented lineup of fish123. It did mar their results in Week 1 somewhat, and leaves fish123 as the early leaders in the league thus far.
fm-eSports first week results don’t give the greatest of confidence (Source: Multiplay Flickr)
fm-eSports: nEiLZiNHo, weber, fre1, Puls3, stan1ey
Team Endpoint: Immi, Esio, MightyMax, Luzuh, HudzG
Team CeX: resu, BrodyC, LS, Astroo, JDD
(ex) SKUM Gaming: NK, FiLLeR, DUKK, Hawkins, MMuffin
Imperial: Jakem, conoR, Whindanski, Boaster, REAZN
fish123: keita, Sliggy, robiin, batham, tsack
Team Infused: SHEEKEY, shaney , Lumji , Ozzy , Snakey
exceL eSports: Jenko, Mole, Kryptix, Smooya, Jesp
Imperial 2:0 Team CeX (16:12 de_nuke & 16:13 de_train)
Team Endpoint 2:0 SKUM Gaming (16:12 de_cbble & 16:5 de_overpass)
Team Infused 0:2 fish123 (16:19 de_cbble & 12:16 de_inferno)
fm-eSports 1:1 exceL eSports (10:16 de_cache & 19:16 de_mirage)
fm-eSports 1:1 SKUM Gaming (16:19 de_mirage & 16:13 de_cbble)
Team Endpoint 0:2 fish123 (10:16 de_overpass & 6:16 de_inferno)
Michael “Duck” Moriarty – UKCSGO JournalistMichael is one of our journalists here at UKCSGO, he has written for many different organisation websites including Team Acer, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Reason Gaming. He currently writes for ESL with some IEM posts he has done over the last few months. His CS knowledge is relatively restricted to recent times as he has no prior knowledge or playtime in the UK Scene from either CS: Source or 1.6 and therefore his opinion should be treated as a relatively new to the scene. However he is starting to build on his awareness of the UK Scene in CS:GO and has valid ideas of what teams should be doing what. Michael will be taking on Tuesday night matches in UK Masters.
Ryan is one of the UK’s leading stars when it comes to commentating. Having started at epic.LAN last year for epic.SEVENTEEN, as an admin, he ended up going to Dreamhack Summer last June on behalf of CAZ eSports, then shortly after that he dived into casting, and got to cast events such as UK Premiership, UK Masters, Starladder, and WESG. He has an in depth knowledge around the UK Esports scene, and continues to thrive on casting events. Ryan will be taking on Wednesday night matches in UK Masters.
Callum has been working himself through the ranks over the last year, having won epic.NINETEEN back in October last year, he has the insight to help the panel come to some better conclusions on what should happen in the matches from week to week. Callum currently plays for Chrome Gaming who narrowly missed out in UK Masters and didn’t quite make it to the ESL Premiership either, but he knows how competitive the scene really is. Callum will be taking on Thursday night matches in UK Masters.
Imperial Vs Team CeX – Prediction: 1:1 Actual: 2:0
Team Endpoint Vs SKUM Gaming – Prediction: 2:0 Actual: 2:0
Result: 1/2 (50%)
Infused Vs fish123 – Prediction: 0:2 Actual: 0:2
fm-eSports Vs exceL eSports – Prediction: 1:1 Actual: 1:1
Result: 2/2 (100%)
fm-eSports Vs SKUM Gaming – Prediction: 2:0 Actual: 1:1
Team Endpoint Vs fish123 – Prediction: 1:1 Actual: 0:2
Result: 0/2 (0%)
Fish are bouyant once again after qualifying for ESL Premiership Finals, even if it was after a loss to FM. After taking two wins in last week’s games they’re looking to be near the top of this league as well. CeX haven’t been able to impress as much as they did at epic. With fish123 showing a lot of skill coming into this week, and CeX not really hitting their groove still, there’s a lot of work to go on that night.
Prediction: 2:0 fish123 (Two close games, however)
A battle of two (sorta) unknowns. With both teams going close against other sides last week, this’ll be the match-up that decides the mid-table scrap. Infused are looking to keep strong and return to the heights of CS that both the org and the players once knew. ex-SKUM are now trying to reclaim their names and show they mean business. With these two sides both looking to perform strong, it’ll be a close head to head.
Prediction: A close series on our hands here, so 1:1
Imperial showed us last week that they can be a side that can be reckoned with in this league, despite only playing once last week, they managed to navigate past a side who came off the back of a second placed finish at the first LAN event of the year, and that has to be saying something. SKUM meanwhile disappointed us against Endpoint, but showed what they were capable of by taking a map off current champions fm-eSports. I think Imperial should take it 2-0, providing we don’t see any of that magic spark from SKUM that gets them flying high with some crazy talent.
Prediction: Imperial win 2:0
This will be an incredibly close match series, with both sides looking to prove a point. Despite Team Endpoint’s recent changes in roster, they certainly are capable of putting a shift in against an exceL side which struggled yesterday evening against a team they should have simply beaten. I’d like to see Endpoint win over Excel as they seem to be self imploding currently. However it really depends on maps and who steps up on either side, a 1:1 could be likely or a close 2:0 either way. Should be a good match to watch though!
Prediction: Tough to call, but 1:1 on maps (or close 2:0 either way)
Team Endpoint will be looking for answers this week. Tough matches ahead (Source: Multiplay Flickr)
I predict 1-1 for Endpoint v CeX – When CeX are turning up and hitting their shots they look very strong so I feel as if they’ll be able to catch Endpoint off and get a point, also Endpoint are currently going through roster changes which I feel will effect their performance as they won’t be fully focused / motivated. I think the scorelines are going to be really close on both maps however and any team can easily take the 2-0 depending on who turns up.
Prediction: Close match here, but 1:1 on maps (or 2:0 either way)
I predict this to go 1-1, however I believe fm-eSports could easily take the 2-0 if they’re performing well. I can’t imagine fm losing 2-0 however Fish123 do have very strong players who can easily turn up and cause upset purely with their skill if fm weren’t playing well. I’ve seen fm-eSports playing very sick recently and they have the edge as they’re a team who have been practising together for some time where as fish123 are still a mix so a 2-0 fm could be likely.
Prediction: Another close match here, 1:1 on maps.
We will have more coverage of the UK Masters over the coming weeks, including statistical breakdowns of all the major players in the league, interviews, and more prediction articles on a weekly basis. Make sure you keep yourselves posted to UKCSGO as we continue to cover the top tier of UK Counter-Strike. You can follow us on Twitter and like our page on Facebook for further updates so you never miss a beat in the UK Scene.
