Counter Strike Shakedown #7

Feature -- Forrest "var1ables" Campbell releases #7 of his Counter Strike 1.6 Shakedown.  This series will look at happenings in eSports the past week and his opinion on what's going on.

Note:  None of this is the opinion Insider eSports or its sponsor(s). This is just my no-named wannabe-journalist opinion.

H2K-Lions Contract Problems

H2K-Gaming lost their CS roster after a series of rumors and controversy with their players since the team hit the big time at Arbalet cup, beating a Sk-gaming roster which had just lost their star player Ramsus “GuX” Stahl to rival fnatic. They continue to be the third best team in the mecca of counter-strike, Sweden, after SK-gaming and Fnatic.

H2K-gaming had been rumored to have lost their roster since after that event, and  even some whispers since Bjorn “threat” Pers was released from fnatic and contracted by H2K-gaming.

The H2K-gaming organization, however flatly denied the claims for almost a month (I even apologized for stating they lost their players) but now it came out from the horse’s mouth: they players did not want to stay with the organization. Pers openly stated that he hates playing for the organization and that he never wants to play under the H2K tag ever again - why is not clear, but if it’s anything like what happens in the past it’s due to broken promises from the H2K organization.

The situation only gets crazier now. H2K won’t release players who don’t want to play for them, and will release players who don’t even play for the roster. They’ll keep the players who despise them.

I’m guessing they are holding out for the Lions eSports club, formerly the Oslo Lions, has been reported to have picked up the despondent team from the H2K organization, but it may be that - regardless of the team’s climate with the organization - the Lions and H2K are in negotiations and H2K is trying to play hardball with them, and failing at it.

Hopefully this gets sorted out and the team head by Pers will be able to go to the MSi BEAT IT finals in china - which features coL, EG, fnatic, wemade fox and many more - and actually get some amazing competition in to add to their currently ever increasing experience in the international ring.

What a Bad Evolution
So Loaded’s on-again off again fragger Scott “evolution” Cavellero told eseanews.com that:

“We talked after that Arbalet event about keeping the team together and possibly moving in together at some point...we all agreed....well then a few days later I got a phone call from jax[CDO of compLexity] telling me the news that Hero and dboorn would basically retire if they didn't get their way (picking up drew).”

Wow that’s quite a revelation. Cavellero was pushed out, and to make it worse, it was due to his teammate and not the compLexity organization and their drive to win, which many - including myself sadly - thought was the case.

In fact Cavellero goes on to state that “[My relationship with the coL management is] very good, I know they were put in a tough spot given the actions of some of the coL players and they treated me with nothing but respect in my decision to be released from the team. “

Well that was surprising. Here I was thinking that it was a mutual thing - well as mutual as pushing out a player can be - that after that really disappointing in the way that Cavellero told the story.

First, evo wasn’t the weak link, and from what we saw at the EG Masters Cup, given the chance he can frag with the best of them.

Second, you could at least talk to him, I'm sure he’d understand. He’s a big boy, he’s been around the block a few times, I'm sure he can handle it.

Third, threaten to retire? Really, dboorn and hero? Come on... You’re in game skill should transfer to real life decision making, out of all the ways to handle a roster change, you threaten to retire? WTF guys.

Well now we have really tangible rivalry’s here - Loaded vs. coL vs. EG. This competition should be great for the strength of north American eSports, as all three rosters have strong roster, all of which can compete with the best teams in the world... hopefully.

ENC Recap

European Nations Cup happened this weekend and the two favorites, Sweden as always and the newly strengthened Ukraine with Na’Vi’s players, made it all the way to the finals with little problem outside of their game in group stage where the Swedes narrowly bested the Ukrainians 2 - 1, and finished the group stage tied 4 - 1, where that match put Sweden in the bye round to round 2 and forcing Ukraine to fight through the first round of the brackets. Poland was the last team to advance with a 3 - 2 record overall.

Group B went as played with the exception of Germany, which could not make it out of group stage in their own tournament, as France, Denmark and Russia pushed through to the brackets with Russia winning the group 4 - 0 giving them the first round bye.

In the bracket stage Ukraine did not come off the group stage looking strong with a quick 16 - 3 on nuke to the french team, but closed it out in the next two rounds 16 - 12 on dust2 and 16 - 8 on Tuscan making the series score 2 - 1, allowing them to advance to the next round where they will play their eastern European counter parts, Russia. Denmark beat Poland in a stunning 2 - 0, 16 - 7 on train and 16 - 4 on nuke, throwing the primarily Frag eXecutors team out of the tournament in the first round despite their recent eStars win.

The second round Ukraine continued to struggle against Russia, winning narrowly 2 - 1 16 - 10 on nuke, losing 16 - 12 on dust2 and 16 - 11 on train, all close matches. However Sweden made short work of Denmark, beating them 2 - 0 16 - 14 on Tuscan and 16 - 12 on train, making the finals the now common Ukraine vs Sweden match up.

Sweden pull out ahead with their bigger talent pull with Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, Marcus "Delpan" Larsson, Niklas "niko" Johansson and Björn "threat" Pers quickly pulled ahead in the first map inferno 16 - 3, and demolished them on nuke 16 - 6, embarrassing the stars of PinG and Na’Vi in the finals taking home the title to their fifth overall title in ENC for males counter-strike. Denmark came out above Russia 2 - 1 for third.

So what’s a big deal about this? It proves that Sweden is still the best country in counter-strike and that they can embarrass just about anyone with just raw talent.