On the 9th April ESL posted their final decision on who would take the first of two invites through to the ESL UK Premiership Group Stages. This was their post:

ESL is excited to announce that exceL eSports will be joining the fray this April in the ESL UK Premiership Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Group Stages!

Playing under the former alias of Lime Goblins, exceL eSports put in a stellar performance throughout the three ESL UK Premiership qualification cups. Achieving two Quarter Final finishes, peaking with a Semi-Final finish during the second qualifier, they established themselves as a promising up-and-coming team within the United Kingdom’s esports scene.

Joel Holmes-Darby, Managing Director of exceL eSports commented stating:

“We are delighted to have been invited in to the ESL UK Premiership for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It is a testament to the dedication and skill of our players that they have been recognized as ranking among the UK’s best CSGO teams and we look forward to supporting them through this exciting opportunity.”

The side will be competing within one of two groups for the chance to win the biggest share of the season’s £6,000 prize pool. Show your support and tune in live to the action over on www.twitch.tv/esl_csgo_uk, starting on Monday 20th April.

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You probably have two questions regarding this, why did ESL wait until after the group qualifier tournament to invite teams and who are Lime Goblins/exceL eSports.

The first question seems like a lapse on the admins part, invites should have been given out before the qualifier so the best teams who would bring in the most amount of stream views/best games to watch would be in the tournament and wouldn’t have to beat everyone in the qualifiers to get to the final tournament. This is how literally every other tournament does it.

In terms of who Lime Goblins/exceL eSports are, the team on ESLs website consists of AndrewIsGod, GeordieBoiii, chron1c, cookeh and mvicK. Most of the old Animate lineup. Not really the top of the UK scene but definitely a solid top 12 finish at an iseries (they didn’t attend i54). They made it to the quarter finals in the first qualifier (knocked out by GLG), made it to the semi finals in the second qualifier (knocked out by KiNgZ) and made it to the quarter finals in the third qualifier (knocked out by Infused).

Teams already qualified

• MALIK
• Perilous RAGE
• Infused
• UnitedEstonia
• FM TOXIC
• XENEX

Note: There is one more invite place to be announced at this moment in time.

So who are we missing?

GLG

One of the oldest names in UK Counter Strike, Good Looking Gamers. This team was at the top of the UK CSS scene for quite some time and has been resurrected as it were for CS:GO, with their last LAN together being in August 2013. This set of players have been playing together for some time now and always perform well, always turn up on time and are generally a reliable team if you’re looking for someone to include in a tournament. GLG made it through to the semi finals in the first qualifier (knocked out by Perilous Rage), made it to last 16 in the second qualifier (knocked out by exceL) and made it to the semi final in the third qualifier (knocked out by Infused).

Players: arf, shig, req, maarc, stannly, ham

TLR

Again this lineup has been around forever it seems. It’s the same group of guys who have been playing together for years. Always finishing well, always seen at LAN. This year they have attended both Epic LAN and iseries finishing well at both, 4th and 5th/6th. The team attended i53, Epic14 and i54 changing only one player per event, the i53 lineup was gintx vertiGo alig paynt b3n, the Epic14 lineup was gintx vertiGo paynt b3n som and the i54 lineup was vertiGo paynt b3n alig steel. Again, like GLG if you’re looking for a reliable team who will bring in stream numbers and play out every game this is a great pick. In the second qualifier TLR reached the quarter finals getting knocked out by exceL, in the third qualifier TLR reached the last 16 getting knocked out by Shazandals.

Players: ALIG, b3n, gintx, paynt, s0m, vertiGo

CAZ eSports

The CAZ lineup have had the same four players for two ESEA seasons now in Joee, REAZN, SPuDZ and jakem who have all been at the top of UK CS for a long time. Arguably the strongest individual line-up that is up for this last invite spot. The team has performed well recently in ESEA Main reaching the semi finals and finishing 2nd in the regular season but definitely under performed in two qualifiers they played in, losing to the European mix teams ChromeStars in the 2nd qualifier and United Estonia in the 3rd qualifier.

Players: jakem, keita, mole, REAZN, SPUDZ, Joee

Bananaboat

In the second qualifier bananaboat were knocked out by FM TOXIC in the semi finals and in the third qualifier they reached the last 16 getting knocked out by Chromestars.

Players: adr’4, AlesKi, Blacky, dsjE, Kemistry, kozy, Murdy, phorest, Rain, RAMPAGE, Spike, spk, SteveoH, SYMPLE, zaK

ChromeStars

Again ChromeStars have a good lineup of players that have played at the top of the scene at some point. As well as this they have a vocal, well connected team mate in NeiL_M who has been sitting behind the Infused team as an ingame leader recently. AaroN recently subbed for Infused at the last iseries where they finished 4th. In the online qualifiers for the ESL UK Premiership ChromeStars made it to the quarter finals in the second qualifier getting knocked out by FM TOXIC and in the third qualifier they reached the semi finals getting knocked out by UnitedEstonia.

Players: AaroN, cpr, JAEDOR, Kalleh, kinder, luosrevo, MAJ3R, NeiL_M, pyth, REASTEN, TuGuX

Finally, who do you think will take the last spot? Will it be GLG, TLR, CAZ eSports, Bananaboat or ChromeStars?