Team Ireland has qualified for the IESF European Esports Championship Counter-Strike tournament for the first time.
It comes at the third time of asking after Ireland failed to qualify for IESF events in 2023 and 2024 – despite coming close at their first attempt.
Ireland topped their group with three wins out of three to automatically qualify for the championship. If they had failed to finish top, they would have had to play in a second group stage and perhaps have to go through a last-chance qualifier bracket.
The IESF European Championship is to be held in Pristina, Kosovo, between July 9th and 13th.
How Ireland qualified for the IESF European Esports Championship
Ireland made relatively light work of their group to qualify for the IESF European Esports Championship.
The team Ireland originally fielded comprised Tom ‘arTisT’ Clarke, Matas ‘Extinct’ Strumila, Jamie ‘Tree60’ Callan, Nathan ‘N8′ Dowd and Jack’ Jackmon’ O’Donnell, with Jack ‘Zerpherr’ Kelly as the coach.
However, Jackmon was due to be out of the country during the qualifiers, so Zerpherr stepped in as player-coach.
This did not affect them despite a relatively tricky group that included Czechia, Albania and Malta. To qualify automatically, Ireland had to top their group.
After convincingly beating Malta 13-1, Ireland were given a tough test by Czechia the following day. Ireland though would ultimately prevail 13-8 after an impressive performance by arTisT.
Tree60 stole the spotlight in their final game against Albania as he delivered a 29-17 performance in a 13-11 victory to guarantee Ireland’s place in the IESF European Esports Championship 2025.
Team member arTisT celebrated their qualification by posting a mock-up image of his team on a plane heading for Kosovo.
UKCSGO report that Zerpherr will continue to play in the LAN at the IESF European Championship and Jackmon will coach.
Other teams who have qualified for the championship
Alongside the 14 other teams qualified alongside Ireland, Kosovo will automatically be fielding a team.
The 14 nations who made it out of the qualifiers alongside Ireland include Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine.
One team who didn’t qualify was Wales who struggled in a group that consisted of Ukraine, Serbia, Austria, and Iceland.
Wales finished fifth in their group and were eliminated from the qualifier.
The teams who will compete in Kosovo will fight for a €25,000 (£21,000) prize pool with €12,500 (£10,500) going to the winner.
Another Counter-Strike championship is to get underway this week. The Blast Austin Major runs from June 3rd to 17th.
There are several British talents on the broadcasting line-up, with top teams including G2 Esports, Team Liquid and Team Vitality taking part.
Kieran Lynch is an esports journalist who writes about several games including EA Sports FC 25, Call of Duty, Rainbox Six Siege, and more. He previously worked as a sports journalist for MailOnline.
