UK CSGO players Andrew ‘Wolfie’ Allan and Cole ‘FredFishoil’ Hardy of team ThrowPogChamp have won the 2v2 Red Bull Flick UK CSGO final.
The duo were crowned champions at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Shoreditch, London, yesterday.
The final saw five of the UK’s top CSGO pairs go head-to-head across eight curated Red Bull maps, including Digital Archives, Control Room, City Palace, Sky Platform and Orbital Station Wi-ING:5. Each map was designed from the ground up.
In Red Bull Flick, duos faced off and fought for capture points around the new custom Red Bull Flick maps in a best-of-three format. Wolfie and FredFishoil formed a formidable partnership throughout the finals, with the pair working seamlessly together from the get-go in the group stages, before putting on a stunning performance in the afternoon’s knockout rounds.
The final saw favourites ThrowPogChamp face second place Golira featuring Euan and Sam ‘Cooki3’ Seacole, who provided a strong early challenge. However, as the rounds went on, Wolfie (who also plays for Endpoint’s ROG Academy) and FredFishoil were able to assert their dominance, eventually battling to a 2-0 victory.
‘grats to ThrowPogChamp, your #RedBullFlick UK Champions.
— Red Bull UK (@RedBullUK) September 12, 2021
well deserved @XpWolfie @fredfishoil 👏
next stop ➡️ international play-offs for the chance to go to the Helsinki Invitational pic.twitter.com/dAEkPOQFyD
Alongside the bespoke maps, the Red Bull Gaming Sphere itself was transformed for the UK final, creating a futuristic environment inspired by CSGO maps. The 10 finalists, paired up as duos, had battled through a field of 102 amateur players through Red Bull Flick qualifying rounds in August, two hosted online as well as a third offline round at the Pixel Bar in Leeds.
The UK final also featured commentary from UK CSGO personalities James Bardolph and Jack ‘Jacky’ Peters.
“It feels really amazing to have won,” said ThrowPogChamp on becoming Red Bull Flick UK Champions. “The whole weekend was an incredible experience. Everything was amazing, from the bootcamp to the computers to the venue, everything was top spec. Nothing compares to this win.
“Red Bull Flick has given us great experience, including the online qualifier, all of it has shown us what it’s like to be on LAN.”
“It feels really amazing to have won. Red Bull Flick has given us great experience, including the online qualifier, all of it has shown us what it’s like to be on LAN.”
ThrowPogChamp
Over 30 national qualifiers are happening across the globe, with the UK champions Wolfie and FredFishoil having earned an opportunity to play at the international online playoffs. There, they will battle for the opportunity to challenge their CSGO idols in the official pro-am competition, the Red Bull Flick Helsinki Invitational, in November.
Last year’s 2020 Red Bull Flick Pro EU Invitational saw players taking part from Team Vitality, BIG Clan, ENCE and G2, with Team Germany emerging victorious over the likes of Kévin ‘misutaaa’ Rabier and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.
Related article: The next chapter for UK CSGO: Is there a brighter future ahead?
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.
