This seasons EAS-1 season has definitely been tough to call, lots of good games and other wild starts have been occurring left right and centre. Who would think the main foreign unknown team would be leading the pack effectively. Who would think there would be this many draws? After all aren’t they just a myth that happens occasionally at LAN?
Let’s start with GLG. They are a side which has been around for a good few years in the TPlay incarnate. But now they are sponsored by a fairly known MGO and have been attending lots of events. I managed to catch up with Tony “Gom8z” Oldfield to find out what this years EAS-1 means to them.
If Carlsberg did gamers, they would probably be these guys…
Firstly let’s try to set the record straight. Are you happy to be here, and do you feel like you are one of the better teams in the league. With a UK top 10 rankings feature looming at QuickScope, which is set to turn into a regular monthly column. Many teams are already quoting you as being…
“Easily top5, it’s blatantly obvious” Or even other remarks which must make you stand and observe such as “Better than Toxic who have only been together two weeks.”
What’s your take on the whole situation?
Well GLG have always been a fun side really.. although nobody likes losing so there is definitely a good amount of competition in here its just when the game is over you remember these are your mates and you don’t play just to win.
So when it comes to rankings i don’t really care to much… If someone wants to say there better than me I just say ok fella thats fine but you’ll always be way uglier than me.
Seedings on the other hand is a bit different.. whether a team is better in writing, I see seedings like tennis so if a team hasn’t achieved anything and just come together then at the next big event I don’t think they should just be chucked in someone high because who they are. If they are that good they can come through un-seeded and prove it like Justin Henin in the Australian Open.
You have been doing quite good this season, knowing that you are perhaps not out of your depth in EPS do you feel hard done by considering what happened last season with the whole Challenger fiasco. Would you mind developing on that and what exactly happened?
Basically it’s not ESL’s fault just bad timing I guess the sponsors are taking there time with the money which meant EPS had to be delayed and just our luck the one time the delay happens we are top of the qualifying ladder by about 200 points. We’ve now won the first season of the EAS 1st division league and are currently top of this second league but have been informed the 3rd season will be the one which decides if you go up or not, so fingers crossed the bad luck doesn’t keep up.
You only have a couple of games left, are you looking to win them and get some momentum just before season’s end when EDCSSL will be in full swing. Do you feel you’re adept on all the maps that Enemydown will present you with, paying particular attention perhaps to de_strike on week 2?
Well we don’t know Strike that well enough to say we are adept but we love every map and its fun playing them so yeh you can tell all the mofo’s running into us on edcssl it won’t matter what map its on… the Hurt Locker be coming for them!
To try and keep this brief can you give me your one moment to watch out for in the coming 2 weeks. It can be literally anything, although try not to include rants about delayed articles on a certain coverage site!
Well come March 6th… If your in Birmingham and you find yourself in the Oceana club in the cheesy disco rooms, you might find a super fine Gom8z, shaking his hips and giving people the guns!! YEAH BABY!
Rasta-Gaming, now I know what you’re thinking, where are the Locks!
I managed to catch up with Holl1s from Rasta-Gaming for an interview about his ESL-1 chances; as well as get a feel for what he thinks will be happening for the rest of the season.
Holl1s’ side are currently sitting mid table after a spout of inactivity and will be looking to push home in the last 2 or so weeks of match play.
Can you start by introducing the readers to your team, who does what in game, and whether you’re ready to start racking up the wins in this ESL-1 season?
Ok well, I’m Holl1s. I’m Captain and caller for Rasta. Our line up is Myself, foolio, crimson, surreal and Rass, we’ve just come back from our Christmas break just before the new EAS season and then had to delays our first 2 games due to snow taking out my connection, we’ve just started playing again and looking to take 6 points in our two games on Monday.
From the sounds of things lots of teams would find this easier to manage than gaming.
Comparing your side to the others in the league, you seem a bit of an unknown quantity. With the others boasting more experience as sides, do you think you will struggle to stay up this year? With promotion likely to be on the cards next year; what are your plans for this/next season?
We feel quite comfortable in the league this season, with no real prizes for winning it this season top 3 is what we are aiming at, we know we can beat all teams in the league on our day as we have before in the past.
An obvious question to ask would be what are your predictions for the season, however due to the staggered nature of this season(GLG already almost finishing their set of games, do you think playing your games later on adds a different dimension to the league, ultimately creating more pressure?
It will add extra pressure to games we think we should be winning, but at the same time we can use that pressure to drive forward our preparation, we know that if we get a good string of wins under our belt, we’ll be only a point behind GLG when we take them on in the last match week, so it works both ways, makes us more serious in our preparation but more pressured in the game to deliver our expected results.
During this season we have seen new-comers instincts boast a good record, a healthy win and a draw against league favourites (In most eyes) GLG. Do you think they will be a tough game when you play them?
All depends on our mindset, I’ve played instincts a lot and no offence to them they haven’t really troubled me much, but with the new addition of fury and the good results there having they have a lot of potential, I think it will be a tough game, but will all depend on who’s had the best preparation before hand.
I said earlier it would be too obvious to predict the division, however something the more prudent sides who are planning ahead do, (such as instincts as I said earlier) is find out their likely opponents next year. Do you think Rasta.THC are going to take a shoe in to next season, and do who do you think will be joining them if so?
Being in Rasta, I’ve had good first hand experience of playing against THC a few times, they have the potential, they just need to apply it across all maps and then they have a very good chance. You have to look at who could come up, but you also have to look at who will be going down, because most teams in the league could easily keep themselves up with wins in the play offs.
Do you think the staggering of the divisions like this is a realisation that there are sides which can now be called high skilled or mid+ skilled, with a solid backup to prove it. I.e. the level below paid gamers?
I don’t think anyone can label them self a skill level, its all a big grey area, I mean you look on IRC and play against teams who say high and they can be worse than more modest teams who advertise as mid skill. All the leagues do is help give you a good idea how good a team is but there are teams such as MINISTRY who aren’t high up in EAS but are a very skilled outfit so looks can be deceiving.
Does this then serve to aid gamers in the progression up the ladder if they want to, in your eyes? Or does it merely increase the problems and act as a deterrent?
Everyone should be aiming to get higher in the ladder, it should be every css player’s focus to be the best that they can be, and getting higher up the EAS and potentially into EPS is the best indicator atm of how good teams are, ED has taken a battering of late with the whole TNWA saga and there aren’t many leagues the calibre of teams that ESL boast, so you have to argue that the whole system is a good motivation for players looking to take their game up a level.
With this season now getting back on track, are you hopeful that there is a quick turn around so you can get playing for EPS spots. Or are you happy playing at a level where most weeks are challenging, yet enjoyable games?
EPS would be nice, its great playing against the big boys, we had a good game with reason at i37 where we lost 16 – 13 since then reason have played us in pcws and we’ve been given advice, so as I said earlier EPS is the dream, its the next level its where my team want to be, and we’ll improve to get there, but the EAS is a great way of doing it, as shown by some results its very close and tense, and its very enjoyable atm, but next season I am aiming for EPS.
A lot of sides that bandy around in this category often have friendly matching partners. Have you made any concessions to change this in case sides you are likely to be regularly matching get akin to your strats in game?
We play most the sides in the league in pcws. We played MTG recently on train before there instincts games and we’ve played them a lot, along with infernal gamers and GSG, what you have to look at is not what you might lose but the experience you will get for playing good teams on maps, strats change, if we were to play MTG on train next season I don’t think previous pcw results matter, as we’ll use new strats and change our way of playing, most teams will agree pcws are for testing ideas but officials are where you put them into practice.
Give me your one “thing” to watch out for in this season, be it a result, a roster change, a shock decision or anything you feel will be noteworthy!
GLG v MTG on nuke, will be a great game, could be watching a potential upset I know MTG have a good history against GLG.
Thanks a lot to Holl1s for this interview and we now turn our focus to Infernal Gamers to find out just who they are and what their aims are for the next 6-12months of playing. These guys have come together and created more of an unknown based line-up and it looks like it has yet to bear fruit. Some may consider them unlucky, but I spoke to “jagg” to get the low-down.
Infernal Gamers. A Fairly new side, I’m sure that logo looks familiar 
Hey mate (: I think the reason we are considered an unknown team is because we formed from the remnants of Realism and the old Rasta Rhymes with Pasta line-ups only a week before the league started. We enjoy playing in this event very much because it’s ran very professionally and it gives you a taste of what’s to come if you achieve promotion to the EPS even if some of the rules are incredibly pointless.
We decided if we work hard for the rest of the season we could win enough games to avoid relegation. I don’t want to answer the last part of the question because we don’t see relegation as an option.
Do you feel like this system works well with slightly larger line-ups? A few teams so far have 6/7 players to rotate in case of reschedules and problems. Are you using your full allowance for this season or are you just playing the same five each week?
I’m not sure if it works out better for other teams but our team only has five players; symO, Disgrace, dirtymagic, orc & me. The reason we have seven players on our page is because we have my friend and former team mate batham acting as an emergency backup player and our old fifth that can’t leave the locked roster.
The first week one of our old players had a power cut two hours before the game and we weren’t able to reschedule without using a wild card, now we only have one wild card left so we thought it would be safer to have a backup on the page encase we was forced to use our last wild card (players can only play two games after being added) which is why we added him rather than just relying on the wild card.
Our large woolly friend. Like the name of the article and the size of the EAS pool!
So far you have been struggling, do you feel you have what it takes to stay up this season and if you are involved in a playoff battle, who do you think will be in the contention from the larger EAS pool?
We’ve been struggling because unlike the other teams we’d only been together a week before the season started, we got 13 rounds off league leaders MTG and quite a few one on ones went their way. However it was a great game. As for Rasta well they’re amazing guys and their teamwork shone through I have no excuses well played Aid and co.
I believe now we have made our roster change and had enough time, (4 weeks) to find out what works for us we will do a lot better in the remainder of our games. Looking at the teams in the ladder I think Auxilia & AlphaFrag are the only stand out teams and that I feel would give us close games; Moomin is a beast & I hear they’re playing with the infamous KaZ123 now. Oh I can’t forget the Twistedplay side I know they have lots of talented aimers especially relinquish and with some of their more recent results it would be a foolish mistake to under estimate them.
Are you looking forwards after EAS-1, if so, what other leagues / ladders are you looking to play in? Will we be seeing an appearance at i39 and if so do you think your roster has what it takes to last the long haul?
We are definitely looking forward and we’ll be participating in the ESL UK cup. We will also be entering ESEA when the next season starts. Our first LAN will be Wired Out although we will be using ^Renegade as a merc in-place of our Danish player Disgrace. Exactly four weeks after this event we will be attending I-39 as a full team and depending on turn out we’ll be aiming for an ambitious placing. I would love to say we’ll never fold and we will play together for years to come but only a handful of teams are fortunate enough to maintain this unity, we’re all really good friends and enjoy playing together but realistically I believe how well we get on with each other & perform at I-39 will be pivotal.
I’d like to thank shAdow for arranging accommodation for Wired Out and I-39 without the support of him and myinfernal.com we wouldn’t be able to finance both events.
Lastly if you could pick one moment or game to occur in the last 2 weeks of match play to watch out for, what would it be?
I suggest to anyone that wants to find out what MM1 is all about to watch Infernal Gamers v Amders in the penultimate week of play, there will be EPS ZOOL, there will be ORCL ON ANTI CHEAT; champions will be made… dreams will be broken… GAD DEM this game will be POFER <333. But seriously I suggest watching GLG v MTG this game looks to be one of the best this season.
Thanks go to Infernal Gamers, and all the teams who made time for this article. It goes to show that even a closely knit 7weeked season such as this can definitely have plenty of ups and downs. And with no side promised a 100% record it shows that the gap in that area of teams (Just below EPS) is definitely close.
What’s left to say is that the teams that are fighting for EPS need to keep going, next season I believe will only be better. Most of the teams in this season feel they have a shot at the big time but only some will get there. I will be following this piece up with the second part which covers Snipers-Alley, who are one of the sides in contention for a lengthy relegation battle near the end of the season, MTG who are one of the European stalwarts of the league, with plenty of UK talent thrown in for good measure, as well as rounding things off with an updated look at the league table and a little bit of predicting thrown in for good measure. Make sure to stay tuned for more coverage of this seasons’ EAS-1 only here, exclusively, at Quickscope.
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