‘We need the next five UK CS players to come together, be hungry, make some massive sacrifices and grind and prove themselves’ – IEM Katowice interview with James Banks on the the state of the UK CS scene and Epic.LAN ‘being the last good thing we’ve got’

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James Banks is a popular figure at the Spodek Arena, with people approaching him for a photo and a chat with one of Counter-Strike’s best known broadcast talent from the UK. James has time for everyone, taking the time to ask people how they are enjoying the event, who they support and so on.

Esports News UK managed to catch Banks for a conversation at IEM Katowice 2025. Although he’s been working events at the pinnacle of Counter-Strike for over a decade, he still has a palpable passion for the UK Counter-Strike scene, and shared with Esports News UK what he believes needs to happen in order for the UK to better compete once again.

Hi James. I’ve noticed that every time I’ve seen you so far, you’ve been surrounded by fans. How does it make you feel? 

It’s always very strange because I’m still a fan of the game myself and so when you have people that want photos, I often say: ‘Why do you want photos? I’m just I’m just someone doing the job I like’.

It’s nice when you hear the good words like they enjoy what work you do and stuff.

Someone came up to me today and said: ‘Oh, I’m so happy I could meet you.’

And if that means something good for him, then I’m always happy to just take a photo and talk a bit as well. It’s nice this event because I’m not doing anything like on the show. I’m done already. So I’m just here kind of relaxing and enjoying myself, so I get to spend a lot more time with fans.

You won the Talent of the Year at the HLTV Awards. I know you said you were surprised by that, but have you reflected on why people love you so much on broadcast?

I think the difference between me and other talent is that I’m seen more than the other English talent because of my position. 

So what people might not realise from English-speaking channels is, when I do interviews, my interviews go to a thing called the world feed. So the analysts and the English commentators are often not taken on to a Brazilian broadcast or a Chinese broadcast. 

But what happens is when I do the interview, because these people don’t have someone doing an interview, my interview gets taken and then they translate over it or give it to their audience on the world feed. 

So what I realised, I went to Brazil for the first time and everyone knew me and I’m like: ‘What the f**k? I’ve never been here. How do they all know me?’

And it’s because they see all the interviews. And then the same thing happened in China.

Then I started to understand, ‘Oh, it’s because my interviews go to all languages, all around the world.’ So then, I guess more people see it and that’s how they know me a bit more than other people. I’m very lucky to be in that situation and I guess if people enjoy it, that’s a good thing for me. It keeps me in a job. 

Well, that’s a very humble answer. You’re not saying, ‘it’s because I’m the best.’ 

No, no. I don’t think you can say anyone’s the best. Maybe like I have my own favourite commentators who I think are the best. Like I think Scrawny and Launders are the best duo right now, but someone else could easily say Machine and SPUNJ. I think it’s it’s all personal preference. 

Everyone is so good at Counter-Strike work and talent work that it’s impossible to say, ‘this person’s the best at something’ because we have such a wide variety of skills and personalities that do it. And what you might like might not be what I like, and everyone can have a different opinion.

There’s nothing wrong with that, it’d be terrible if we all just had one commentator, one interviewer, one everything to do all of it and there wasn’t a mix of people doing it. So I think it’s a beautiful position for us in Counter-Strike to be in, that we truly have some of the very best talent.

You mentioned being a fan, and personally, I think one of the reasons why people like you is they see that enthusiasm and sense of just loving CS coming through in your broadcast, you know? As a fan you mentioned liking Navi in the past. How did that come about?

So back in 2011, we were in Korea for a CS 1.6 event, and it was called e-Stars Seoul. At the same time, the very first Dota 2 International was going on that Navi went on to win.

Now, I was actually in a bar, in Korea, we were just chilling. And by this point, I was never on camera. I was just doing written interviews, for example, and I was sitting in the bar with ZeroGravity, who at the time was the owner and manager of Navi.

It was a small organisation, but I was watching these guys who play Counter-Strike, cheer and support the Dota team because they just wanted to see their own countrymen and friends, and guys they knew from the same organisation succeed, and I just got speaking to them. 

At the time, by the way, most of their English was not good. Like it’s not good at all. ZeroGravity was always very good at it, but I like I really felt their passion towards their countrymen and towards like what they’re trying to achieve and I thought, ‘this is awesome.’

Because remember it [TI] was a different time zone. It was Seattle, and we were in Korea. So we’re all staying up late, watching it, and I guess I just got talking to him. I was like, ‘okay these are some really cool guys.’ 

Also, the come-up story of the Counter-Strike 1.6 guys from Navi. They came out, they grinded up where they didn’t have the salaries and the sponsors of other teams, and they went on to win huge world championships and make legendary legacies like markeloff, Zeus, starix, Edward, those guys. It was a crazy time. 

I guess from that point, I was like, ‘cool, this is my team’. Then it was very rough and during a lot of CSGO when you supported them, it wasn’t a good time. But obviously there was a good roster in 2021.

Now, I know loads of people inside the organisation, from the CEO to the COO, and some of the media guys. Obviously, they’re based in Ukraine as well where I live, so it’s like, it just became like my home team, like if it’s football. 

People always say to me, ‘it makes you more biased.’

But if you look at my Navi interviews it’s probably less biased and harder, because I know them so well that I know I can ask more – I can push more.

You’re always more critical on your own team.

Yeah. Definitely, right? If you have a football team and they’re really having a bad season then you’re gonna be pinpointing what they’re doing wrong.

When they’re winning, it’s like, ‘okay, this is good’, but when they’re doing bad you’re like, ‘what’s going on here?’ 

I wanted to ask the big question. Do you miss Epic.LAN?

Oh my God, Epic.LAN. I love the people. I love Jon [Winkle] behind Epic.LAN. He’s been through so many ups and downs and survived all of it, but it’s the last good thing we’ve got. It’s the last good thing the UK has, which is obviously in a very bad state if you look at all the recent things that have happened.

It’s such a fun event because you just don’t do an interview or some of the hosting, you also sit down and play as well. So those kinds of events I think will always be special to me. 

I started back at i-series way before Epic.LAN even existed, I think it was, i27 was my first ever one and I have a lot of love for those LAN centres, that LAN feeling of where you come together, it’s a big BYOC. It wasn’t even just competing. It was like the people and the community.

I think that’s one thing that Epic.LAN still has which they can be very proud of and I hope it goes on forever, because we’re still always going to need that within the scene to see people come up. 

I still see people, friends of mine, they tweet out they go to Epic every year. They’re putting a mixed team together. They’re having some fun. So, I hope that it keeps going. I haven’t been for so long because it’s always on the same date where I’m at something else. That’s the problem with the schedule. 

You’ve touched on, the UK scene. There’s been the Into The Breach collapse, and Endpoint announcing a CS hiatus. Do you have kind of any opinions on that, because the last Epic.LAN broke records for having the most teams. So there’s kind of this disconnect between how much enthusiasm there is in the scene, versus what’s going on in terms of the pro level.

So I think there are a lot of people who are more informed about the UK scene than I am. Well, I stopped competing in 1.6 in 2007. So that’s a long, long time ago now. Probably some people reading this were not born when I was still competing, but it’s like I always said, this about the UK. 

We have a higher quality and standard of living [compared to] even when we had good teams. The salary paid to them teams, they could earn more working at like a shopping centre, not even having that good of a job, and we always suffered from that.

I think where we have to go back, personally, is a team that is willing to come together, super motivated, and hungry that can take some massive sacrifices, which you shouldn’t have to do if you’re trying to be a professional player. 

But, I know from looking at FaceIt numbers that we have some skilled players, but it’s about getting them together on the same team and wanting to do it. To be friends in that sense, right? 

Our country is quite expensive. It’s not a fun country to live in, doing that as well. So if you don’t live with your parents, how long can you make that sacrifice? There are so many things that you have to factor into it. 

I think Pete [Thompson] from Endpoint, I didn’t watch the full video so I apologise if I get it wrong, but I think he spoke about the UK government and their involvement. Our UK government is terrible. They’re never good at doing absolutely anything, esports or not. So relying on them is a waste of time as well. 

We need someone to come in, have a vision, and try and execute it that way themselves. Even if it’s just players or a small team and a manager, not maybe a big organisation. I’d love to see a UK team make it. I’m just happy we have some UK players making it. It’s a very small number sadly, but we do have the skill. 

I just I hope we get out of this ship because it’s like we’ve gone back to towards the end of Source, the beginning of CSGO kind of thing. Even worse than then, because even at the beginning of CSGO we still had a good amount of teams.

But the good thing is from what you’re saying, you have teams. There are people playing. We just need them to be able to take a step forward. Obviously VRS (Valve Regional Standings) does change things in terms of what they can qualify for and how far they can go, but I wouldn’t say it’s impossible. And if there are young players coming up, we need these young players to be able to do it as well, right?

We need some like 14 and 15-year-olds coming up who are super skilled and are grinding, but then if they do get super skilled, they might get picked away from a UK team and go to an international team and then we lose out on that as well.

It’s rough, man. I wish I had the answers…

Darragh Harbinson

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.