Ireland is in the top five most under-represented regions in CSGO, but with its Lotus LAN that recently took place, hopefully that can help put the Irish scene back on the map a bit.
In our next interview conducted by Tom ‘Sneaky’ Taylor at the PGL Antwerp Major, following this interview with Frankie Ward on balancing parenthood with esports, Tom asks two members of the Irish Challenger League (ICL) – Ronan and Connor – about the Irish scene.
What’s your mission here with the flags and the advertisements, other than growing the Irish scene?
Ronan: Well, I think it’s just good after covid to come out and have a bit of fun and get people together. A lot of us will have met online like myself and Connor here, we went to university together and we’re part of our esports society there and are always playing online over Discord or whatever.
So it’s nice to go to these events in person and see so many people enjoying Counter-Strike in such a big arena.
Do you think the Irish university esports scene is being backed enough by the schools that represent them?
Connor: I think it’s on the right track. I think with Legion Collegiate coming out recently, it’s definitely on the up. For us, we’re from Queens in Belfast so we have a really good side. I think we’re the biggest in Ireland in terms of number of teams
Ronan: I’m a bit biased because I’m involved in Legion Collegiate. We got involved as it sort of came out of the ashes of the previous Irish Collegiate Esports when it shut down. Some of the students just came together, formed it and got in contact with Legion media group and got this set up.
I think we’ve seen a big increase in numbers and people got excited – hopefully that spills over then into the wider scene as a result.
So, is it student run?
Ronan: The admins are students. We do get some help from Legion media but we do take a lot of input from the students and we have a player council and things like that, so if there are any issues they are brought up and discussed.
I think it’s important when the scene is so small you can’t turn away from people, otherwise you’re just going to lose them and they’ll go elsewhere. That’s the most important thing.
“I think we’ve seen a big increase in numbers [in Irish university esports] and people got excited – hopefully that spills over then into the wider scene as a result.”
How does your university scene compare to the UK scene?
Connor: Well, the biggest difference is that Ireland is a heck of a lot smaller. When you’re looking at the UK they’re hosting two main tournaments, NSE and NUEL, and they’re massive – maybe 200+ teams, and we’re hitting maybe high 20s?
But on the other hand, you also get to know people really well. Just meeting [people] at the major and running into so many people [from the scene] means everybody knows each other because it’s much more tight-knit. But [playing against them] is still competitive and the LANs we’re having are really good.
What’s the goal for Irish CSGO esports by the end of this year, and going forwards in the next five?
Ronan: I think at this stage it’s about growth. There are still a lot of people who are not even completely in the scene yet and may want to get involved a bit more first. Starting these grassroots projects are good for getting more people involved and the goal for the future is to just expand these projects and hopefully develop some talent from that.
There is talent out there and we know that ourselves, it’s just about getting them out there.
And to wrap things up, who are some players to look out of in the Irish scene?
Connor: I mean I’m playing ESEA Open, but other players to look out for are AdamJC, Flash, Extinct, Artist…
Ronan: And there are some guys that are there and they play in a lot of pugs, but they might not play in teams. If they did, they could go far.
Alright, now shoutout anything you want to do with ICL
Ronan: Queue ICL!
