CSGO team United Estonia’s (UE Smash) coach Alex says that UK Counter-Strike teams are a shade of what they once were, and that players must set aside egos to play in more European tournaments, in order for the UK CSGO eSports scene to improve.
Alex was speaking to eSports News UK after his team beat Team Infused in the ESLUK Premiership CSGO Season 2 Grand Final at MCM London Comic Con last weekend.
“UK eSports is a shade of what it was in comparison to the Counter-Strike: Source scene in the UK,” he said. “The UK had some great Source teams, we had players in international mTw teams, we had mouseesports who won Copenhagen Games 2012.
“Now it’s shrunk… I don’t know if egos have suppressed it, I don’t know.
“We’ve come here as an Estonian/UK mix. A lot of people were disappointed that the UK team (Infused) didn’t take the trophy home, because we’re UK by technicality. But we’ve come here, and people have kind of said ‘RIP UK scene’ because we’ve won LAN, but there’s still one team out there to beat in the UK – EZskins.
“I’d like to see the UK scene work together to play in Europe more, because the only way to get better is to play against better players. And those players are in Europe.
“So once the UK scene starts doing that, maybe working together and setting aside all the egos, then maybe they’ll win.”
UK CSGO team EZskins previously said they were embarrassed after their performance at DreamHack London in September.
Check out our full chat with Alex here:
ESL UK has predicted a world-class UK eSports team will emerge in the next two years.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
