UK CSGO talent Owen “smooya” Butterfield could be playing in the FaceIT London Major this year.
He’s set to join German org Berlin International Gaming (aka BIG Clan), according to this post on Dbltap, and confirmed by various sources to Esports News UK.
An official announcement is due next week, likely Monday April 16th.
BIG is one of the orgs in the New Challengers stage of the FaceIT London Major, meaning that if smooya makes the move, he could be playing in the UK’s first CSGO Major which takes place at London’s SSE Arena in Wembley from September 20th to 23rd.
Last summer, smooya moved from UK esports org Team EndPoint to European esports giants Epsilon.
It’s not been plain sailing at Epsilon for the UK player, who was benched at times and went through some contract issues.
German BIG player Niels “luckeRRR” Jasiek recently revealed he’s leaving the team, and it’s thought that smooya will replace him.
In a Twitlonger post, luckeRRR said his confidence had been shot: “I started to get very unhappy and unconfident playing for this team. The criticism in-game often sounded inappropriate to me and really destroyed a lot of my confidence.
“I also couldn’t feel the team spirit which is a very important factor to me, because it felt like I was on a lower level than the others and that they look down to me. I think it was not a fair way to treat a newcomer like that.”
This could be the new start for smooya that he needs. Keep an eye on Twitter next week for concrete details.
Esports News UK interviewed smooya last year on his time in the Gfinity Elite Series and how UK CSGO could be improved.
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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.
