Smooya and Dobbo on winning their first Insomnia CSGO LAN with Into the Breach amidst server problems, Smooya also extends contract

Insomnia esports coverage powered by AGON by AOC

UK esports organisation Into the Breach won the Insomnia Gaming Festival 68 CSGO BYOC Open tournament this afternoon at the Birmingham NEC.

Their all-UK roster – featuring former Endpoint player Thomas at LAN – defeated Fambit 3-2 in the grand final, after winning three maps to Fambit’s one.

Fambit had actually beaten Into the Breach in that upper bracket final, giving them a one-map advantage in the grand final. Into the Breach took game one in the final 16-10, before a close-fought second map saw Into the Breach come back from 7-2 down to eventually lose 16-13.

A more dominant map two and three for Into the Breach saw them win those 16-8 and 16-10 to claim the victory.

It was the first Insomnia CSGO LAN in almost three years since the start of the pandemic, and was nice to hear smooya’s dolphin screeches echoing across the hall.

Into the Breach player Dobbo, who started playing Counter-Strike at 13 years old and is currently the youngest on the team at 18, was largely recognised as the series MVP thanks to his impressive clutch plays and 1v1s.

It was also smooya’s very first tournament win at Insomnia, adding to his other UK LAN wins.

Brit smooya, who joined Into the Breach on a one-month trial last month, has also now extended his contract with the organisation until mid-June.

smooya told Esports News UK in an interview after the win: “I believe my contract been extended until June 12th. I’d like to extend it [further] but business is business so we’ll see what happens. I like seeing an org grow and players grow, if I can help them and they can help me, it’s mutually beneficial.

“There’s good people behind Into the Breach, very good sponsors… it’s a good org with good players. I think I’ve found my home with Into the Breach, but we’ll have to see what happens over the next few months.

“Dobbo gets the MVP today, he gets the cheque, he’s very good looking and he has a very good Conor McGregor billy strut.”

This was Dobbo’s first time playing on stage. He commented: “At my previous two LANs I was 15 and 16 so I was inexperienced, but I felt good up there [on stage today]. Knowing I was better than the other team made it a lot easier.”

Thomas also joined the interview to say he would not be playing Insomnia again – he later clarified the reasoning behind this to Esports News UK, citing a lack of investment and reach from organisers, as well as more expensive ticket prices.

Into the Breach received £1,750 for winning the tournament.

Into the Breach’s roster today was CYPHER, dobbo, adam9130, smooya and Thomas, while Fambit’s was arTisT, Ping, volt, Girafffe and Extinct.

CSGO players and teams hit by server problems at i68

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the teams that took part at LAN – which included T4, Temperate, Eko, The Last Resort and others – as they were hit by server problems, rescheduled matches and long waiting times between matches.

It was particularly difficult on the first two days of the tournament, before organisers managed to find a better solution. We’ll have a separate article on this, featuring an explanation from organisers, later in the week.

Dobbo said: “It was pretty horrendous to be honest. The first two days of LAN were just terrible, I just wanted to go home if I’m honest. But as the games got shorter and we got higher into the event, it got easier to control and after that was smooth. But the start was disappointing.”

Smooya added: “We’re not here to bash anybody. There were some rocky moments, it was people’s first time doing it, they’re gonna make mistakes. What they need to do is hire a team that they bring to each LAN, so that they can learn from their mistakes instead of having a beginner each time. They need to figure out the system beforehand and run tests. But the second and third day were all good, so I can’t complain, I’m happy.”

Insomnia esports coverage powered by AGON by AOC – see the AGON League of Legends monitor here and more i68 esports news here

Dom Sacco

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.