After 5 months of the CCT tour, West Europe #1 will finally commence on the 25th of January sporting three UK representatives in the Closed Qualifier Stage.
Representing UKCS are Coalesce, Viperio and Dripmen as part of the 16 teams competing for four places in the main event. Both Dripmen and Viperio are in Group A, and are joined by ENCE Academy and Mixfits who came from the open qualifier. Coalesce will be fighting in Group B alongside Nexus, NtK and Epic Dudes, who similarly to Mixfits, earned their spot through the open qualifier.
Taking a look at these teams individually, the young squad which have newly signed with Coalesce were without organisational support for 10 months while under the banner of 1PIN. Now with their new organisation and additional support, they look to use this to push themselves to a higher calibre in 2023, utilizing the Western Europe invite as a great chance to show their ability internationally.
Viperio, who recently added James “bevve” Slinn, have already made their HLTV debut this year in Season 5 of European Pro League. Sadly, they couldn’t make it out of their group, placing third. Viperio opened up strong with a victory against Invictus International, however, subsequently fell to Monte and iNation. bevve has already proved valuable to the squad with impressive showings, shaping up to be a seriously valuable asset for the squad.
The final team from the UK, Dripmen, are fresh off a win against Coalesce in the UKIC Beyond Winter Invitational, silencing those who doubted their capabilities as a team. After adding Kirk “Tadpole” Stephens and Matas “Extinct” Strumilla towards the end of last year, they have seemingly settled in nicely. Tadpole claimed the MVP award for the Beyond Invitational after his impressive 1.15 HLTV rating across the tournament, a testament to the potential that this newly refined team holds.
As mentioned before, teams can qualify through an open qualifier, and we almost had more UK representation from this venue. The newly formed K10 and Vitalize Esports lost in the RO16, and 7AM lost in the RO8 against EPIC DUDES – a match which if won would have netted them a place in the main tournament.
Viperio CSGO to take part in CCT West Season 1 following a direct invite to the Play-ins Stage.@FragsterEN | @CCTour_gg #CCT https://t.co/5OUADJKymO
— Viperio (@viperioesports) January 22, 2023
Schedule
The opening games for both Group A and B start early the 25th, and the UK teams play as follows:
13:30 GMT: Dripmen vs Viperio (Group A opener 2)
14:30 GMT: Coalesce vs NtK (Group B opener 2)
