Update (April 18th 2022): Smooya has extended his contract with Into the Breach until mid-June 2022. The news came as smooya won Insomnia 68 with Into the Breach.
Original article:
UK esports organisation Into the Breach have signed UK CSGO pro player Owen ‘smooya’ Butterfield on a one-month contract.
The org made the announcement on Twitter earlier today and said they would be announcing their permanent CSGO roster in due course.
We reached out to the org for a bit more info on the deal.
Sam Cook, Into the Breach founder, told Esports News UK: “So essentially, Smoo is joining on a one-month trial to see how it fits and works for him with the rest of the guys. If it works well, it may become long-term alongside another high-calibre 5th.
“As an org, our objective is still the same: elevate UK CSGO and do whatever we can to support the scene in a productive way. We’re still operating as a non-profit with the management team taking nothing, so all our partnership income is going into this – alongside some upcoming UK initiatives to support the grassroot scene.
“It’s all a bit TBD but we’re super excited about the future and hope our supporters are, too.”
The news comes one month after smooya was benched by his former team – Fnatic – who said he “wasn’t the right fit” for their main CSGO roster.
smooya joined London-based organisation Fnatic on a three-month trial back in October 2021, after being released from Movistar Riders. He ended up being with the org for around four months.
smooya will be playing in the ESL UK & Ireland CSGO Premiership, and commented on this in the following tweet:
Into the Breach have been busy over the past year. Earlier this year, Into the Breach reached the ESL Challenger League, moved into Valorant, extended roster contracts and announced new tournaments.
From this signing, Into the Breach have made a statement of intent. Along with other UK orgs like Endpoint and Coalesce, it’s clear they want to help raise UK CSGO esports and be a major player in the scene.
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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.
