With the second season of the Gfinity Elite Series CSGO tournament coming up this Saturday, the rosters for the UK-based competition have been released by the organisers. There have been some drastic changes to rosters in the build-up to this season, most surprisingly of which is last seasons winners, Epsilon, choosing to switch out their entire team despite a dominant season one. Epsilon’s roster is also missing three other players currently under contract, including Owen “smooya” Butterfield, who won’t be able to compete this season.

Last week, we revealed that Reason Gaming faced a suspension and possible ban after allegations of match fixing. As of 15th September, ESL UK have lifted the provisional suspension of Reason Gaming, allowing both them and Radix Esports to attend the LAN final.

The progress of the investigation, which was “expedited” due to the fast approaching LAN finals, discovered no malicious intent from the players of Reason Gaming. After finding preliminary evidence, ESIC felt it was “justified” to suspend Reason from the remainder of the season, and so be it the finals. Since further investigation determined their loss wasn’t intentional, the suspension was [...]

UPDATE: ESIC have lifted the provisional suspension and investigation into Reason Gaming, allowing them and Radix to compete in the upcoming finals. They have also dropped the investigation into CeX. Full update available here.

News breaking over Monday indicated that controversy was afoot. Owen “smooya” Butterfield kicked off with tweeting about Reason Gaming being banned from the ESL Premiership. This stemmed from an email sent by Ian Smith, Integrity Commissioner of ESIC, to the five players of Reason Gaming entitled “Notice of Charge, Plea Bargain and Provisional Suspension – Match manipulation ESL Premiership – Team Reason“.

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.