smooya shines on the BiG stage at ESL One Cologne

Last Sunday, British CSGO player Owen “smooya“ Butterfield and his German team Berlin International Gaming (BiG) shook the Counter-Strike scene by finishing second at ESL One Cologne.
Jamie Wootton looks back on smooya’s performance.
Dubbed ‘the Cathedral of Counter-Strike’, every year ESL One Cologne hosts the world’s best teams and, as they are the best German team, BiG received a direct invite to the tournament.
However, the announcement was not received well by some within the community, as they believed BiG would have otherwise failed to make the cut if forced to qualify like the vast majority of other professional teams. Despite the criticism, BiG turned up to the LAN and put on an absolute show for the native German crowd.

This major LAN event is one of the most prestigious events of year. It was one of smooya’s first few LAN events of this scale, and some some believed that the 18-year-old Brit – who joined BiG earlier this year – would struggle to perform on the big stage.
Yet this turned out not to be the case. When it came to the games, smooya turned up massively and, although he didn’t post up huge numbers across the board, his AWPing prowess lead to him clutching out many 1vX situations and having an immense impact.

When you win a 1v2 vs people you’ve been fans of for years on the biggest stage of your life ???? pic.twitter.com/CQMlJFG0do

— Owen Butterfield (@smooyacs) July 7, 2018

In fact, on HLTV’s Player of the Week tab, smooya can be found leading with the most AWP kills, clutches won and opening kills in the global professional scene.
Although BiG benefitted from the support of the home crowd, it cannot be disputed that smooya’s quality AWPing contributed massively to their success at the premier tournament.

Look at this guy. The entire arena ampty; Everyone has left and @smooyacs is still here signing jerseys. The lad has put UKCS on the map… pic.twitter.com/9npSAgU7QF

— Declan (@EsportsMurphy) July 8, 2018

Whilst the German team were the crowd favourites all along, their odds to progress deep into the tournament were not favoured.
BiG, previously ranked 25th in the world prior to ESL One Cologne, were pitted against a barrage of tough teams in their opening games and had to face the likes of Team Liquid, MIBr and FaZe, just to name a few, before reaching their final match-up with the God-like Natus Vincere.
Seeing just how masterful smooya can be with the legendary AWP and to what extent he is loved by the fans – so much so that they were even chanting his name after the British player’s side lost the final in disappointing fashion – I believe it’s likely we’ll now be seeing a lot more of smooya.
In recent years it seemed that finding UK talent that could play at the highest level in CSGO was near impossible, and so I, along with many others, find it extremely refreshing to be watching some good old fashioned UKCS. GGWP smooya.

SMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYA!@smooyacs #ESLOne pic.twitter.com/qQK5RyHJ97

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 8, 2018

Image source: Nathan “Lexo” Cooper/ESL

Jamie Wootton

Jamie has been following competitive Counter-Strike for roughly four years and has fallen in love with esports ever since, slowly branching out into other titles and learning more about the industry. He has recently started an esports degree in London.

“I started playing CSGO when I first got my own PC and haven’t really stopped ever since," he said. "After playing more competitively I opened my eyes to esports and have been doing my best to learn as much as possible about both the competitive side within CSGO and the business side across the industry as a whole.

"Much of my work so far has consisted of interviews, however I hope to branch out in the future and write more content about Counter-Strike."