Wales will be competing in the upcoming online qualifiers for the IESF World Esports Championship 2024. The roster containing Javier “Ping” Griffiths will try their hand at securing their place in one of the six available spots in the main event for a $240,000 prize pool.
This will be another opportunity for the Welsh side as a majority of the players return from last years unfortunately unsuccessful qualification attempt. The rotating squad of seven players has a slightly changed roster from last year’s qualifiers, four of the players who competed in 2023 will be doing the same this year, with the remaining three slots being filled by newcomers.
The previously mentioned Welsh representative Ping is well-known for playing under the likes of Viperio and Coalesce, with the latter having won the SiGMA Esports Cup Malta in 2021 and finishing the event with a 1.09 rating. The Welshman finds himself a free agent coming into the qualifier. He is joined by the returning force of Kieran “kyzer” Thompson, Ryan “Trouzzy” Trouse and Ryan “Walli” Walters.
The new additions to the roster include James “eLoW” Barnett and Morgan “m0g” Butler both of which attended EPIC41 on a roster that also contained another one of his Welsh compatriots in the form of Walli. Together they made top 16 losing out to Souls Land in the first round of playoffs. Finally the last new addition comes by way of Emyr “eMy” Green who will be a familiar face to those who keep up with the UK scene as he has done the rounds at many UK LAN events.
The CEO and Team Manager of Esports Wales, John “SlayerJohn” Jackson, had this to say about the seven man team preparation they had done ahead of the qualifiers stating that:
The selection was tough this year with players like Zryx, Ollie just missing the cut. It shows how the scene has developed over the last few years with a few more players coming through. The team has been working hard with multiple national friendlies to get used to playing together on that international stage.
He goes on to say that there were “some really promising moments” in said friendlies and that they “showed we can do some damage to these big teams.” Finally he acknowledges the challenges of European Counter-Strike:
As you know Europe is one of the stronger regions for CS2 and it’s going to be tough, but we are going in looking to cause some upsets, and showing what Wales can do!
The roster that Esports Wales will be submitting looks as follows:
Javier “Ping” Griffiths
Emyr “eMy” Green
Morgan “m0g” Butler
Kieran “kyzer” Thompson
Ryan “Trouzzyy” Trouse
Ryan “Walli” Walters
James “eLoW” Barnett
