Mason “Vacancy” Haines has just claimed his fourth UKIC Division 1 title in a row. Competing with NXT, the longstanding core of himself, Tom “arTisT” Clarke, and Matas “Extinct” Strumila has continued their streak of domestic dominance, starting all the way back in 2024. Even a revolving door of players in the other two slots over the last six months couldn’t stop the reign of terror this trio has been laying down.
Vacancy put on a stellar performance in the finals, dropping a 1.34 HLTV rating across both maps; he certainly helped NXT secure the win. Furthermore, finding an organisation to back them at the UKIC finals and EPIC.LAN 45 is a big boost to the team’s morale for the events and helps the best team in the UK continue to prove why they’re the best.
Chatting to UKCSGO, Vacancy talks about the team’s preparation for matches versus 8Sins, who they expected to face in the finals, and looks ahead to the future of EPIC.LAN 45 and what it means for the UK scene.
NXT lifting the UKIC Seaosn 6 Division 1 trophy
Congratulations on winning another UKIC title. This is your fourth one in a row now. How does it feel?
It feels great. We’ve been on a pretty dominant run since 2014. 2014? Oops, I mean 2024, yeah, it’s nice to see it paying off.
Inferno, compared to ancient, was quite an easy win. Did you feel pressured by them at all, or was it smooth sailing right to the end?
I think we all came into it quite confident. Obviously, we respected them still, but I think we all came into the game feeling pretty confident.
How was the composure on Ancient after Dexie’s 1v3?
It just got a bit hectic in the comms, that was all. It was just miss-comms thinking he was somewhere else, it was just a simple mistake. That one round loss led to overtime and making the game longer, but we stayed pretty composed after that.
.@dexieCS REFUSES TO LET 28AVGAGE FALL 🔥
1v3 TO KEEP THEM ALIVE‼️‼️@UKICircuit #UKIC #CS2 pic.twitter.com/c5Uh2Z2SI8
— 🇬🇧 UKCSGO (@ukcsgo) June 17, 2025
How did it feel, coming into this game, knowing you had played and lost to these guys during the regular season?
We were still feeling pretty confident. We kind of just thought we had a bit of an off day that day. We also probably didn’t respect them enough during the game. Probably thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was. One bad thing led to another, and it just kept piling up.
Speaking of regular-season losses. Was it ever in doubt you were gonna win the whole event, or did you always think you were going to cruise right through and win the title?
We expected to play BOXEDGG in the final this time, smooya’s team. We didn’t think it was going to be completely free, but when they got upset, we thought that it was going to be a lot easier than it would have been.
Obviously, there was a lot of trash talk between the two teams during that game, especially from Tree60. Do you enjoy partaking in the trash talk against each other?
Yeah, yeah, I enjoy it. We’re all friends, we’ve known each other for years now, so it’s a good bit of fun playing against your friends and stuff, so it always leads to trash talk.
Any of the trash talk from the 28AvgAge guys, did it get in your head at all, or was that a bit of fun with friends too?
Nah, it was a bit of fun, really, nothing too serious.
Vacancy after knifing finui at UKIC Season 6 Division 1 Finals
I know you’ve mentioned BOXED before, but a lot of people consider 8Sins to be your main competitors at the moment. How did you feel coming into the final knowing you’d already beaten 8Sins in the semis?
We kind of struggled against them in some series recently, but we kind of put that down to us having bad preparation. I think it shows in our last series, we closed it out easily and the only map we did lose was our insta-ban, which we weren’t really expecting to win anyway, because we don’t prac it, we don’t play it. I think it will be a lot easier now that we’ve understood them a bit more.
Did you expect to be playing a mix team like 28AvgAge in the finals? I know you mentioned BOXED, but did you think there would be any other competition coming through?
It could have been BOXED, 8Sins, and then I would have put these guys next, so it’s quite impressive that they did the upset win against smooya and that. It would have been just those other two teams I would have expected.
Recently, you’ve been signed to NXT on a short-term basis. Are you glad to be having some form of backing again for the first time in about six months?
It’s been quite rough. We’ve been looking for an organisation since about January, when Verdant let go of us. The organisation space at the moment is really rough; it just seems like there’s a lack of investment in the scene at the moment. It’s not even just the UK scene, it’s esports in general at the moment, teams are struggling to find their financial backing, so yeah, it’s a nice change to actually have someone helping us out now.
Looking forward to EPIC.LAN with a lot of EU teams in attendance. Do you think it’s good for the scene for them to come to Kettering?
Yeah, I think it’s great! I think it’s something that the UK LANs have needed for a long time; it just brings the whole ecosystem up in general. Playing harder opponents and learning from those teams and stuff like that. I think it will be quite fun this time around as well, with there being international teams. I also think they’re going to be for a bit of a shock, though, with UK LANs. With the hot rooms and people screaming at them, and people screaming all around in different matches. I think it will be hard for them to adapt.
Are you nervous then, about defending your EPIC.LAN title against the European competition, or do you think you can maintain your win streak?
I’m not nervous, I’m excited. I’m looking forward to playing some international teams at EPIC.LAN. It will be the most competitive EPIC.LAN, there probably has been for a long time now. I think it’s going to be good fun
