Radix Esports owner Michael “afro” Todner previews Insomnia63’s £30,000 CSGO UK Masters tournament, looking at some of the UK teams set to take part.
For what seems like forever, the UK CSGO scene has cried out for changes to be made to the Insomnia CSGO Open. After a steady decline in both turnout from the upper end of the scene as well as general popularity, it seems that GAME has listened to the public’s wishes.
In June it was announced that the UK Masters brand would handle the Open tournament. With this came a drastic overhaul to the long standing formula of the humble £7,500 prize pool and exclusively UK teams.
The new tournament would feature a very impressive £30,000 prize pool, as well as hosting online qualifiers for teams to gain funding to enter the tournament.
This heavily incentivised non-domestic teams to partake, but how will it all play out? This is something we can look at post-event, however in the meantime, let’s take a look at the UK hopefuls of note looking to take home the best part of the £30,000.
Team Endpoint
- Robiin
- MiGHTYMAX
- Thomas
- Luzuh
- Puls3
Team Endpoint is a name that has been cemented at the top of UK Counter Strike for the past two years now, with MiGHTYMAX playing for the team for the entirety of those two years.
The team has a lot to prove this LAN, while the core of Luzuh, Puls3 and MiGHTYMAX played at the Copenhagen Games tournament and achieved 5/8th in the B tournament, the overall line-up was very different with the additions of Jakem and Weber.
With the added firepower of Thomas and a hard fragging IGL in the form of Robiin, the new team has a lot of potential to perform well at i63. In terms of online performance, they have seen a win in the ESL UK Premiership finals, beating Fish123 in a convincing fashion as well as placing highly in numerous HLTV cups.
With the addition of the Endpoint gaming house and having the team bootcamp for several weeks prior to this event, it’ll be down to them to show how much the work has paid off. Depending on what other EU teams turn up, this is definitely a top 5 team with the potential place even higher.
Business 5
- Surreal
- Kryptix
- Kioshima
- Cruc1al
- Frei
- NeilM (coach)
While not a conventional team, this mix is definitely in contention for placing the highest of any UK team. This star-studded line-up is brought together by none other than NeilM who has a history of making winning mix teams.
This roster has a wealth of experience, from Surreal and his tenure playing in North America for Complexity, to a major winner in the form of Kioshima.
Cruc1al, while not being from the UK, has been a long standing member of the UK scene has seen a lot of success in his own right.
Rounding up the mix is Kryptix and Frei. Both of these players have also played at the top of the scene for years now. This will be one of the teams to watch this event and it wouldn’t surprise me to see them reach the top 3.
CeX
- Resu
- Nukedog
- Frazehh
- LS
- JamesBT
Having placed 2nd at epicLAN24 back in June, as well as qualified for the Omen UK Open and also the Grosvenor epicLAN finals, not to mention just placing 1st in ESEA’s UK Open, CeX should hope to do well at this upcoming event.
With the very experienced IGL, Resu, as well as talented players such as Nukedog, this team has got the ability to upset a few teams at this LAN.
Fierce Esports
- Kpiz
- HyPe
- Swaggyavi
- Em1n
- fzaN
This is a new org recently set up by system builder Fierce PC.
In terms of what to expect from this team, it’s a bit of a question mark. With not a lot to go off in terms of prior online results or LAN, it’s hard to gauge how they will do. They come off the back of a rough season in the ESL UK Premiership which saw them demoted.
The team is made up of two experienced players, Kpiz and Hype, with three relatively inexperienced, but that doesn’t take away from the fact these players pack a decent bit of skill.
Kpiz achieved 2nd place at the prior Insomnia event and 4th in the earlier ESL Premiership Spring split alongside Hype, who returned to the UK scene after a stint playing in the EU team Playing Ducks and seeing success there.
Having had time to work on teamplay and practice, they can hopefully place well at this event.
What else to expect
It’s worth noting there’s still time for other UK teams to sign up. With rumours of a mix featuring members of London Lynx and a couple other names in the UK scene, there is still hope this LAN will have a good turnout from the upper end of the scene.
However, it’s not looking entirely likely with the ex-Wind And Rain roster not turning up, with rumours of them disbanding, as well as Vexed missing out on the opportunity, but this could be down to roster issues.
This article will hopefully be added to over the coming week but in the meantime, we look forward to bringing you wide coverage of the event.
Michael “afro” Todner will be attending i63 on behalf of Esports News UK. Follow afro and ENUK on Twitter for the latest
