Only six days after UKCSGO confirms Preasy’s attendance at EPIC.LAN 45, WildLotus lock in their tickets to the BYOC LAN, and six more Tier-2 European teams show interest in competing.
It has been very clear that teams will do anything in order to achieve VRS points and climb the European ladder, and what better way to gain points than LAN wins? The VRS includes an extra modifier which increases the value of LAN results, making them more important than online results. It was clear that EPIC.LAN could be an attractive target for Tier-2 European teams as it is the biggest BYOC LAN event in Europe. The question was, would anyone actually come?
Well, in February at EPIC.LAN 44, there were murmurs of NIP trying to come. This, astonishingly enough, was true. NIP was at this stage not hunting for a way to achieve VRS points, but just to get the games required to get a rank, which at that time was 10. The Swedish organisation were reportedly told by the Complexity GM Graham “messioso” Pitt that EPIC.LAN could be a great chance to not only get VRS games, but also valuable points. The issue was that they reached out five days before the event started.
Unsurprisingly enough, a fully packed EPIC.LAN wasn’t able to accommodate them, and that was the end of that chapter. Now for the summer EPIC.LAN, through word of mouth and various other factors, European Tier-2 teams are inquiring in their masses.
With Preasy, a full Danish team confirmed, WildLotus follow in pursuit as the unsigned squad will be looking to give themselves a much-needed boost going into the second season of the year.
WildLotus started the year off with a core of Owen “smooya” Butterfield, Hristiyan “REDSTAR” Pironkov, and Nicolas “Keoz” Dgus, who brought in the VRS points from their time in Into The Breach and moneyF. They were joined by Arek “Vegi” Nawojski and Thomas “birdfromsky” Due-Frederiksen.
This core only lasted four events, as smooya and REDSTAR departed the team, and WildLotus replaced the duo with Johannes “b0RUP” Borup and Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel. These five also didn’t last very long, as CRUC1AL only played three tournaments.
Heading into EPIC.LAN 45, Swedish AWPer Jonathan “b0denmaster” Bodenmalm has been confirmed as WildLotus’ secure fifth player and has already played two events with the team. The roster moves have been very messy for WildLotus, the bane of an unorged squad, but these names can seriously pack a punch. Most of the players have played at a Tier-1 level and made deep runs at events like IEM Cologne and the BLAST.tv Paris Major.
EPIC.LAN 45 will not be the first LAN that WildLotus has signed up for in an attempt to score some VRS points. The European squad has recently travelled to Sweden to compete in the Glitched Masters 2025 alongside the likes of NIP, fnatic, Passion UA and Metizport. WildLotus ended up placing 9 to 12th with a win over Sangal and losses to fnatic and TNL.
Keoz qualifying for the BLAST.tv Paris Major finals with GamerLegion
As previously mentioned, outside of WildLotus, six other international teams have all shown interest in attending EPIC.LAN 45, one way or another.
The teams that have shown interest are Alliance, Metizport, 9INE, kONO, UNITY and Minlate.
For teams like Minlate, it is understandable why they need to come to EPIC.LAN, as they sit outside the threshold of being invited to Tier-2 events with a Global VRS rank of #265. But it is very interesting to see teams like 9INE show interest, as they are sitting #46 in the world, as well as Metizport, who just played at the BLAST.tv Austin Major.
It is astounding that in recent history, Endpoint would never have come to EPIC.LAN because there wasn’t any value, and now top teams across Europe are actively seeking attendance. It is massively beneficial for the UK teams to have access and the opportunity to learn from these extremely experienced teams coming to Kettering to compete.
On face value, people might be nervous as it is understandably going to be very difficult to match up against them on the server. But this will be a prime opportunity to learn from some of the best. Go and talk to them, ask them questions about CS, sit behind these teams, watch them – this is where our scene will grow.
Currently, only Preasy and WildLotus are confirmed, but there are still 37 tickets left and 11 PC rentals available. EPIC.LAN 45 is only 27 days away, and there is still a very high chance that more European teams will sign up.
