Team XENEX recently announced through their twitter account that they have picked up the team formerly known as DOG Gaming. DOG Gaming for those who have been out of the scene for a while are a team who managed to finish second at the recent insomnia60 event. Prior to that they had results of finishing within the Top 3 of epic.LAN events and some mediocre results at other iSeries events.
The DOG Gaming team had been contacted by multiple organisations in the wake of their outstanding LAN performance where they had beaten Team Infused, Crident, and Reason Gaming. That meant they ended up coming second behind a rather lackluster fm-eSports at the time. Some of the organisations courting DOG Gaming were The Last Resort who were trying to secure a proper team in the process. However it seems like the guys have come to their senses and moved to a more suitable home for them which is Team XENEX.
Team XENEX in action at insomnia60 (Credit: Multiplay Flickr)
The former DOG guys have been competing for quite a while, with Ashley “ashhh” Battye already wearing the Team XENEX tags back in 2015 in the ESL Premiership where they ended 3rd/4th in that particular Summer Season then. Players such as Tom “quiver” Giffths and Chris “debaser” Flynn have also seen the years go by them in the UK Scene, and have represented teams such as BBoMM, Rasta.Xd, The Last Resort, Perilous Fury/Rage.
The other player in Harry “Yoshi” Witt was originally picked up by Team uFrag back in the day when Adam “adamxoxo” Rotherham was rebuilding his team, and was a particular player that Adam believed would “topple” the UK scene and become the best in the domestic scene. The final part of the jigsaw is William “mezii[F]” Merriman who joined the team after Joe “Luster” Asquith stepped down from the roster due to lack of time and commitments. Mezii was arguably one of the standout players from insomnia60 and managed to go pretty hard on many different teams throughout the tournament. His former teams include The Penguin Overlords, where he was an undiscovered talent of the future for the UK Scene.
Team XENEX managed to controversially pick up the former SKUM Gaming lineup midway through the UK Masters league stage, with a change up in roster there. They eventually finished the season drawing most of their games. However, at insomnia60, they really struggled to pick up some of their online and previous epic.20 form and ended up finishing 7th/8th. Shortly after LAN finished up, the team somehow lost a couple of key players and the players that were left basically decided to fold and try again elsewhere. This left XENEX wanting a new lineup to support, and considering how stable the DOG Gaming guys have been only making one change to their roster in well over a year, they were the obvious choice for XENEX who wanted to avoid the potential LAN shuffles.
Chris “Debaser” Flynn had this to say exclusively to UKCSGO about their move:
After a good result at Insomnia60 we have been on the lookout for an organisation to represent and are continuing the grind to qualify for UK masters in the next few weeks. Unfortunately due to bad timing we will not be attending the next epic.LAN so our next event will be insomnia61 in August. Big thanks to Gizmo and everyone at XENEX! Rip the dogs
Team XENEX will be competing at insomnia61, hoping to qualify for ESL Premiership, UK Masters, and will continue to compete in ESEA Season 25. We will cover their endeavors as much as we can over the coming months.
Team XENEX are now as follows:
Tom “quiver” Griffths
Chris “Debaser” Flynn
Ashley “ashhh” Battye
Harry “Yoshi” Witt
William “mezii[F]” Merriman
We will continue to cover the UK team shuffles as much as possible, so make sure you stay tuned to UKCSGO for all the latest information regarding the scene. Make sure you follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook so you are truly up to date.
