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UK coach Ashley ‘ash’ Battye (aka ashhh) has taken GamerLegion to their fourth consecutive Counter-Strike major, joining some other UK talent at the Perfect World Shanghai Major.
‘This is the most I’ve ever wanted to make a major’ – ash qualifies for Shanghai Major with GamerLegion
Darragh Harbinson looks at how the team qualified after the changes they’ve been through
After qualifying for the last three majors, many suspected that GamerLegion’s major run would come to an end in the Shanghai qualifiers.
In a tumultuous year, the roster has seen several iterations and it continually lost players to transfer or were forced to bench players due to poor form.
However, Ashley ‘ash’ Battye and his Polish assistant Adrian ‘imd’ Pieper oversaw a frenetic rebuild that has once again given them a place at the major following an exhilarating 2-1 victory over BetBoom in the Shanghai EU RMRs. The achievement has drawn wide praise from the Counter-Strike community.
When asked for comment, ash told Esports News UK what the achievement meant to him.
“I think it’s the most I’ve ever wanted to make a major,” he said.
“The hard work and sacrifice both myself and my assistant IMD have put in has been worth every second. Now we can start to believe in ourselves and this gives us the platform to go to the next level through the next year.”
GamerLegion became better-known in Counter-Strike after reaching the Grand Final of the Blast Paris Major in 2023. However, none of the players who made the final of CSGO’s last major remain on the team now, after various organisations swooped in to take the team’s talents.
The immediate aftermath of the major saw Mihal ‘iM’ Ivan join Natus Vincere as the star rifler for their international rebuild, while Kamil ‘siuhy’ Szkaradek returned to Mouz where he had played in a highly successful Mouz Nxt stint.
The remaining parts of the Paris major core were initially joined by Sanzhar ‘neaLaN’ Iskhakov and Romanian-Brit Sebastian ‘volt’ Maloș, but after an unpromising start neaLaN was quickly released and Polish legend Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski was brought in to lead GamerLegion’s roster at the tail end of 2023.
“The hard work and sacrifice both myself and my assistant IMD have put in has been worth every second. Now we can start to believe in ourselves and this gives us the platform to go to the next level through the next year.”
ash, GamerLegion
In truth, the team never played their best Counter-Strike under Snax’s leadership. This was reflected by GamerLegion’s showing at the Copenhagen RMR where they initially failed to qualify for the major. After recording a 2-3 record at the RMR, they had another opportunity in the Last Chance Qualifier which they lost to 9Pandas. However, GamerLegion were saved by circumstance as 9Pandas were unable to attend due to visa issues.
As the year continued, it became clear that GamerLegion’s Paris heroes were not regaining the necessary form, precipitating in the benching of Nicolas ‘Keoz’ Dgus and Frederik ‘acoR’ Gyldstrand in favour of academy graduate Andreas ‘aNdu’ Maasing and Endpoint AWPer Henrich ‘sl3nd’ Hevesi. However just as the team sought to rebuild in the summer, it was hit with the blow losing two of its players as isak joined NiP and Snax went to G2.
Whereas GamerLegion quickly recovered from isak’s departure through the signing of Timur ‘FL4MUS’ Marev, Snax’s departure was a tougher blow. It was particularly ill-timed as it came only weeks before the closed qualifiers for Shanghai. ash turned to Erik ‘ztr’ Gustafsson, who had recently been controversially benched in Metizport. The signing has proven to be extremely astute, massively improving GamerLegion’s T-sides especially.
Having survived the Closed Qualifier, all eyes turned to the RMR. In September, it was determined that in order to qualify, the team would have to make yet another change. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place as GamerLegion signed Sebastian ‘Tauson’ Tauson Lindelof in favour of aNdu.
All of those decisions received the ultimate vindication in a late-night thriller on in Shanghai, as GamerLegion took the final spot of Europe RMR A with victory over BetBoom. After losing so many players through no fault of his own, and having to rebuild time and time again, it is no wonder that the Counter-Strike community is putting so much emphasis on the man behind GamerLegion as the organisation qualified for the Shanghai Counter-Strike major.
Which teams have qualified for the Shanghai Major so far?
By Dom Sacco
GamerLegion join a few other teams with UK links.
London-headquartered org Fnatic have reached the Major, with UK coach keita, following a 2-1 win over Eclot in the RMR.
Fnatic Swedish CS player Krimz said: “Obviously very happy and relieved [to qualify]. It was an emotional rollercoaster in the game, sorry for ageing all the fans watching, but very happy we made it and thanks for believing in us.
“In overtime, we knew we should’ve won earlier. It’s tough when you’re competing in esports, mentally it was tough at moments. I’ll eat some cheesecake to celebrate [qualifying].”
Elsewhere, UK player Mezii, loaded with his ‘new dad’ buff, has helped Vitality make their way through the European RMR to the Shanghai Major elimination stage.
“We are thrilled to compete at the Shanghai Major and showcase the team’s hard work against the best teams globally,” said Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide, Chairman and Co-founder of Team Vitality. “Growing our global presence and supporting both players and our worldwide community remains a top priority. We’re especially excited for zywOo to deliver a stellar performance in front of our Chinese fans. I am incredibly proud of the team and can’t wait to see them on the big stage with our fans in China!”
Team Vitality players will also debut a special edition of their newly released alternate jersey on the stage, created exclusively for the Shanghai Major.
Other qualified teams for the elimination stage so far include Mouz, Navi and Faze.
For the opening stage, there’s Furia, Cloud9, Team Liquid, Complexity, Fnatic, The Mongolz, Pain Gaming, MIBR, GamerLegion, Imperial, Rare Atom, Wildcard and FlyQuest.
M80 with UK coach dephh almost qualified – they were one place away from reaching the opening stage of the Shanghai Major.
Darragh Harbinson added some more context here: “The Americas RMR saw heartbreak for M80’s British coach, Rory ‘dephh’ Jackson, as Furia took the 7/8th place decider series 2-0 to give veteran AWPing IGL Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo his 16th Major appearance.
“M80 have had a hugely successful breakout year which saw them reach the top 20 in the HLTV rankings despite losing Guatemalan rifling sensation, Mario ‘malbsMd’ Samayoa, along the way.
“However, that will be small comfort to a clearly despondent dephh who gave his honest assessment of M80’s run on the PGL broadcast.
Dephh said: “To be brutally honest, I just don’t think we were good enough this tournament. A lot went wrong and… It’s hard to put into words. We had such a good bootcamp but in these rooms here and in some of the matches we played we just weren’t good enough. And I’m sure all the players and the team would agree.”
We’ll aim to update this article with more teams as they qualify.
Shanghai Major broadcast talent line-up listed as CodyCasts laments loss of RMRs in the future
By Dom Sacco
There’s a host of UK broadcast talent at the major.
The PGL English broadcast will include desk host Richard Lewis, interviewers James Banks and Pala, and casters Machine, Dinko, Hugo and Harry.
These also join South African desk host Tech Girl, Chinese interviewer Dove, plus analysts YNk (Serbia), Bleh (India) and more.
Casters also include Australia’s SPUNJ, NA’s moses, as well as Canada’s Scrawny and Launders.
Other UK names in the RMRs include CodyCasts, Jacky, Vince, Dinko and more.
CodyCasts told Esports News UK: “It was an absolute pleasure to work on another RMR cycle. The storylines, the emotions, the games. The RMRs deliver on them all.
“Losing the RMRs after this Major cycle is a huge shame. It’s been a privilege to be part of the last three that we had, massive thanks to PGL and Blast for letting me lend my voice to those events.”
CodyCasts
“Shoutout Skriv for being my partner in crime this time round also to YouM3 and Teatime for being great to work with behind the scenes.
“Can’t wait to see who takes the first Asia-based major!”
Darragh Harbinson is a freelance writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK as well as the likes of UKCSGO, Dexerto and Rush B Media.
