Three months ago, UK CS history was made as a dripmen side toppled Tom “arTisT” Clarke’s dynasty with no organisational support.
Until the UKIC Masters Season 7 Finals, the core of Washington hadn’t lost a LAN finals in the UK since 2023. Despite being contested in both EPIC.LAN and UKIC finals, no one could edge past them. Specifically in UKIC, three separate teams had attempted, and even though Dreams To Legends, Belfast Storm, and 8Sins all pushed them to the distance, it was all for nought.
Heading into the Season 8 Finals in Endpoint’s HQ this Saturday, Washington will be out for revenge, and 8Sins want to cement themselves into the annals of UK CS.
The best-of-five grand finals will start at 14:00 GMT on Saturday, 6th December, and you can watch it on the UKIC official broadcast.
ICYMI: dripmen dethrone the kings of UK CS and find a home along the way
The favourites top the group stage
All teams had to requalify through the four separate open qualifiers to adhere to the Valve Tournament Rules. This wasn’t an issue for the newly signed 8Sins or Washington.
The regular season sorted the eight teams that qualified into two groups of four teams, where they would do battle in a GSL bracket.
To kick off the season, both 8Sins and Washington dominated their respective groups, winning both of their games in the group stage 2-0 to cruise into the playoffs.
8Sins yearn for their first organisational title
Glitchtech would have been the favourites to come out of Group A alongside Washington, especially considering their game versus Coalesce was after their top-six run at EPIC.LAN 46. But that wasn’t the case, as Coalesce bested LTH and co.
Joining 8Sins from Group B was a blast from the past ‘Wasted Talent’ roster, which saw a K10 reunion from when they won the inaugural UKIC Finals in 2023.
Washington barely qualifies for the LAN finals
Wasted Talent placed second in Group B, so played Washington, who topped Group A, and vice versa for Coalesce and 8Sins.
Once we entered the playoffs, Washington almost slipped up and were very lucky to even qualify for the Sheffield finals. We all know what K10 could do in 2023, but it didn’t seem feasible that at the start of the season they would come within a whisker of a third UKIC finals with this core.
zent1 proves to be worth his weight in gold
The main reason why this game went to a third map and was close was largely due to the inexperienced and young fragger Fuad “zent1” Al-Samarrai. In his first-ever HLTV game, he really showed up in the first two maps, but couldn’t sustain his performance in the third. It also didn’t help that on round 15 of map three, Zy ‘yz0‘ Esponilla had technical difficulties, and for the rest of the game, Wasted Talent had to play 4v5. This stroke of good luck is possibly the reason why Washington gets play in their fifth consecutive UKIC Finals.
8Sins weren’t exactly flawless, but secured a 2-0 win over Coalesce after an eyewatering performance from Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom and Michael “Prime” John Fury. Despite Coalesce having a 12-8 lead on Nuke, the second map, they couldn’t convert their lead as the aforementioned dynamic duo went on to win eight rounds flawlessly in their hunt for a second UKIC trophy.
What is going on with Washington?
As mentioned previously, the core of arTisT, Matas “Extinct” Strumila, and Mason “Vacancy” Haines have been the undertakers of UK CS over the last two years. But, recently, the scene hasn’t felt their presence as much.
This is because, after having no sustainable organisational support since they departed Verdant at the start of the year, Washington is not putting as much time into Counter-Strike as they once did. This is reflected in their results, with them ending 5-7 in the ESEA Advanced Season 55 regular season, and losing 10 out of 11 games on HLTV against European opposition in the last month. Alongside this, Washington was a no-show at EPIC.LAN 46.
Unicorn with the GamerFest Fall 2023 Finals trophy
Washington reunited with longstanding teammate Callum “Girafffe” Jones for the previous UKIC Finals, but has now since moved on from him and Jakub “nestee” Lempart to bring in UKIC winner James “bevve” Slinn and fellow Irishman Nathan “Unicorn” Dowd.
Unicorn might not be a known name to UK readers, but he has represented his country at the EEF European Esports Championship 2025 in Kosovo and has won back-to-back Gamerfest titles in Ireland. He is LAN-tested, but largely very green.
One side effect of bringing in Unicorn is that Washington becomes an Irish core, marking them the first Irish core to compete in a UKIC Finals.
Because of the uncertainty within the Washington camp, this is an excellent opportunity for 8Sins to win their first title as an organisation, and for the team to cement themselves as the best team in the region.
