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There’s been a few UK-related Counter-Strike 2 esports event announcements recently, including broadcast talent at the Elisa Masters Espoo 2024, IEM Rio and more.
Elisa Masters Espoo 2024 talent line-up
This $200,000 event is taking place at the Espoo Metro Arena in Finland from October 16th to 20th 2024, and its broadcast talent has been revealed.
The line-up includes Brits James Banks (stage host), Richard Lewis (desk host), Thorin (analyst) and casters Ne0kai, Vince and Jacky.
Mauisnake (US, analyst) and Anders (Denmark, caster) are also part of the broadcast, as are Finnish casters RobuJohnson and Toivo.
Thorin and Richard last worked together at the same event at the PGL Major 2021, and Richard also worked at the PGL Copenhagen Major earlier this year.
Richard Lewis spoke more about working at the Elisa Masters in this video.
“I always said if I got a chance to work with Duncan (Thorin) at a CS event again, I would do that, and if I got to work with some of the cool Dota talent, I would do that,” Richard said. “So, two announcements on the same day!”
Richard also joked (ahead of James Banks stepping away) that the talent line-up is “like the f***ing Legion of Doom of broadcast talent!”
Richard Lewis is also a part of the separate Dota 2 event PGL Wallachia, which is taking place in Bucharest right now (October 4th to 13th 2024). He joins other Dota talent including Sheever, and Brits like ODPixel and Teaguvnor.
Veracity added to Elisa Masters Espoo 2024 talent line-up
Update (October 17th 2024): UK host Veracity is standing in for James Banks, who has stepped away from working at the event due to health reasons.
Veracity said: “Alright Espoo, I’m gonna need you all to bring your A game. Gimme hype, energy, and some good fucking CS Let’s have some fun!”
James Banks added: “Feels awful to let Elisa down, was going for the three-year-streak for an event I love so much! Sadly in Brazil I came down with a fever which first took out my throat and the doctors diagnosed me with viral pneumonia. Nothing but non-stop rest for now – especially with my weakened immune system as a diabetic. I never skip events, I always try to push through but I can’t even walk up stairs without my lungs feeling like I’ve ran a marathon, it’s awful.
“Big love to Jasmine for stepping in for me last minute!”
IEM Rio 2024 underway, supercomputer predicts winner, broadcast talent announced
Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Rio 2024 started today, with Furia being the first team to make it to the playoffs.
And Navi are set to overcome Team Vitality in the final of Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024 according to the CSDB.gg CS2 Tournament SuperComputer.
A total of $250,000 in prize money and a spot at IEM Katowice 2025 are at stake for the winning side.
However, take the prediction with a chunk of salt – the supercomputer said Furia would have a 20.9% chance of making playoffs, and the team have become the first to do so.
You can see the predictions for IEM Rio here:
How was the supercomputer created? The CSDB.gg CS2 Tournament SuperComputer is a predictive model created using world ranking points, team quality ratings and performance trends. An element of randomness is also included in the model to avoid the best teams and players always winning, to reflect the fact that upsets can happen.
Every tournament is simulated 1,000 times, with the results aggregated into a percentage rating of the chances teams or players have to achieve the predicted result.
The IEM Rio 2024 broadcast talent consists of: Desk hosts Stunna (US) and Freya (UK), sideline and stage hosts James Banks (UK) and Nyvi Estephan (Brazil), analysts steel (Canada), YNk (Serbia) and Pimp (Denmark), plus casters Spunj (Australia) and Machine (UK), Moses (US) and Dinko (UK), Ne0kai (UK) and Trav (UK), LucyLuce (Australia) and BDog (UK).
Related event: Intel is hosting an IEM Rio 2024 watch party at Pixel Bar Manchester this weekend, with Esports News UK’s 9th birthday (October 12th and 13th 2024). Last chance to get tickets here.
Mezii to miss Blast Premier World Final 2024 due to becoming a parent
UK CS player Mezii will not be competing with Team Vitality at the Blast Premier World Final 2024.
He made an announcement on Twitter this evening, saying it’s because he’s due to become a parent!
Standing in for Mezii at the tournament will be French player JACKZ.
The $1m Blast event will take place at Singapore’s Resorts World Convention Centre.
Vitality are one of eight teams taking part, with the others being Team Spirit, G2, Navi, Faze Clan, Mouz, Astralis and Team Liquid.
Last year, Vitality won the Blast Premier World Final 2023 and the Fall Final. A few months ago, Vitality won IEM Cologne 2024, with Mezii becoming the first UK CS2 player to lift the Intel Extreme Masters trophy.
Related article: Mezii and Vitality beat Navi in GG.BET’s ‘Match of LeGGends: Double Down’ showmatch 2024
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.
