Stung by a RattlesnK

87 maps in a row. That’s the legendary streak achieved by Ninjas in Pyjamas’ lineup shortly after they switched to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a run that has been etched into esports history. From September 2012 to March 2013 the all-Swedish lineup was untouchable. And yet at Dreamhack Winter 2012, a British team took them to 30 rounds – twice – before the Swedes had even banked half of their legendary run.

It sounds far-fetched, but for a brief time in the early days of CS:GO, when teams were still making the switch to the game that would carry Counter-Strike esports for another decade, a UK team were competing up there with the very best.

Birmingham Salvo

Speaking of things that sound ridiculous in hindsight, from 2006-2008 there was a franchised esports league called the Champion Gaming Series, or the CGS for short. Launched by DirecTV, BSkyB and STAR TV, teams from around the world fielded teams in FIFA, Dead or Alive, a racing game (Project Gotham Racing / Forza Motorsport) and, most crucially for our purposes, Counter-Strike: Source. The format was a long way from the games most of us would be used to, but the key was there were two UK teams: London Mint, featuring a young Henry “HenryG” Greer, and Birmingham Salvo, who drafted the UK champion roster of Team Dignitas ahead of the 2007 season. 

Initial results for the Midlands side were… not spectacular. They lost to London Mint in the UK Finals and watched their fellow UK side win Insomnia 32 from the sidelines after losing to Fnatic. But at the CGS World Championship, things clicked for the side anchored by Sam “RattlesnK” Gwan and Pete “pt” Wright. They finished 4th, losing to eventual champions Chicago Chimera in the semi-finals.

After Elliott “wEZ” Welsh and James “wilzOOOO” Wilson joined in early 2008, the Birmingham Salvo lived up to their name and launched an all-out assault on Counter-Strike. First, they won Insomnia 33 unbeaten, defeating their nemeses from London in the final. Then they won the CGS EU/UK Combine, beating fellow UK boys Guns4Hire in the semis and Fnatic, then fielding a Dutch roster, in the final. Subsequently, they then took home the CGS World Championship – with a tidy $250k prize pool – with a 22-17 victory over Mohamad “m0E” Assad’s San Francisco Optx in the grand finals.

After winning Insomnia 34 and PCGamer Showdown 2008, Birmingham Salvo received some bad news: the CGS folded, taking all of its teams with it. The roster initially returned to Dignitas, but the instability of the scene caused by the demise of the CGS meant they would end up shuffling between teams for the next few years.

One key moment came as RattlesnK chose to team up with a newcomer, James “Mx” Smale. The duo would compete together representing the likes of Power Gaming, Epsilon Esports, and more, while pt would take time away from the game. wEZ and wilzOOOO parted ways with the team after that Dignitas stint failed to yield trophies, but continued to compete in Source, with wilzOOOO finding success with mTw in the latter days of the game’s lifespan.

In July 2011 the duo of RattlesnK and Mx would sign with mousesports, then fielding a majority-German team, but the organisation parted ways with the Germans later in the year. Instead, they added pt and newcomers Lewis “Hughsy” Hughes and Daniel “RE1EASE” Mullan to form a UK lineup. That team would go on to win Copenhagen Games’ Source competition in 2012, continuing the UK’s strength in that game, before switching to the unknown world of Global Offensive.

Mousesports and Peak Success

There were multiple competing Counter-Strike games in 2012, and it still wasn’t clear if one game would emerge as the “true” Counter-Strike esport. mousesports were still fielding a 1.6 lineup with Fatih “gob b” Dayik and Danny “zonic” Sorensen, among others, until April of that year; they then signed a different German roster that, unsuccessfully, competed in the Dreamhack Winter 2012 qualifiers. Instead, it was the British squad who earned an invite to ESL’s event, but they were not well-fancied heading in.

“Last and in my opinion least is the British mousesports squad” began Tomi “Lurppis“ Kovanen’s preview of the event for HLTV.org, as he predicted them to finish comfortably last in the group. To give him credit, there were warning signs ahead of the event. The team lost to fm.TOXIC in the UK qualifier for the Esports World Cup 2012, and opted to bring in Norwegians Lasse “stingeR” Midtstue and Preben “prb” Gammelsæter ahead of the event in Sweden. With little else to go on, and the mighty NiP and Poland’s legendary “Golden Five” (playing at this point for ESC Gaming) amongst their opponents, it seemed a safe bet the Brits would be sent home.

First, they took down the Poles 16-6, and then faced the Ninjas on Mirage. Though the Swedes took charge of the game, leading 11-4 after a dominant T-half and having 6 match points, the British squad fought back to almost level the game at 15-14. Alas, two missed shots by RattlesnK in a 3v3 retake on A site proved costly and NiP closed out the game 16-14.

“It was a lot of crazy rounds… with a bit of luck, we could have won that game” the AWPer would admit in his post-match interview. The Brits went into their final group game against Fnatic knowing that it would decide the final playoff spot. With it all to do, Mx and RattlesnK topped the scoreboard to send their more notable opponents home, a team that included Finn “karrigan” Andersen.

Another Danish side beckoned in the quarters – Copenhagen Wolves, featuring the legendary Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and the infamous Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen. The Danes kept things respectable on Mirage, helped by a strong performance by Danni ‘smF‘ Dyg, but collapsed on Nuke, losing 16-3 to the UK boys with Mx boasting a 2.08 HLTV rating, setting up a rematch with NiP in the semi-finals.

Map 1, the pick of mousesports, went the full distance again. However, after securing 30 rounds with a win due to time in round 28, a great T-side offensive from the Swedes fractured the economy, and they duly converted the map point. On Nuke, there would be no repeat of the quarter-final heroics, as Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and company marched to a 16-5 win. For anyone unsure of how dominant NIP was at the time, in the final, they would concede just 10 rounds across both maps.

Mousesports’ UK roster were tipped to find success. They were ranked 4th in HLTV’s ranking at the end of the month, behind NiP, VeryGames and US team Area 51. “mousesports has thrown a strong signal to the current top 2, that they will be a dangerous challenger in the future” wrote HLTV’s reaqk. 

So why didn’t that bright future materialise?

The downfall

After Dreamhack Winter 2012, the UK lineup were due to compete in ESL Major Series Winter however the team were disqualified from the online tournament after not showing up for two matches. RattlesnK would elaborate in an HLTV comment, saying that the team opted not to play the event as they did not think they would be competitive, and criticising ESL over the extremely late payment of prize money. It would be the last time the team would be listed under the German organisation, as MOUZ decided to focus on their German lineup instead. Though it was very timely, there’s no indication that the controversy around EMS played a part in the decision.

When HLTV stopped doing their monthly team rankings in March 2013, the team had fallen from their peak, but RattlesnK and crew were a respectable #10. After signing with Anexis eSports they even had a full UK lineup again, with Brandon “weber” Weber replacing stingeR, and Hughsy came back on the team in place of prb. They notched up another narrow defeat to NiP by, you guessed it, 14-16 in an online qualifier for RaidCall EMS One Spring Finals. The squad would qualify at a later attempt, but struggled to find impact, losing in the quarter-finals of that Cologne event and not qualifying for the Summer Finals.

The UK team likely struggled to keep up as the scene grew stronger. RattlesnK was juggling university alongside a playing career at a time when others were full-time salaried professionals. The same theme plagued UK Counter-Strike in the early days as it does now, an absence of funding. As the rest of the Counter-Strike scene joined Global Offensive, including all the legends from the early games, the advantage the UK boys had through being “early adopters” quickly vanished.

Mousesports’ decision to focus on their domestic lineup was vindicated as their German side began to dominate ESL’s competitions in the country, while the UK lineup would never reach the same heights again. The team added another Insomnia to their trophy cabinet at i48, but otherwise had only a 3rd place at a minor event ‘District Prague Challenge’ before they were released by Anexis in July, not helped by roster instability.

After parting ways with Anexis, Mx retired and pt disappeared for a number of years, mainly making stand-in appearances after his release. Most prominently, he made 10 appearances with Endpoint in 2017. He did later reunite with RattlesnK and RE1EASE on Orgles5 in 2016, but the team disbanded when they failed to find an organisation. Hughsy had a spell with RattlesnK on fm-esports, as did RE1EASE (though never together). With that, those early UK sparks faded into obscurity.

RattlesnK was the exception, continuing to compete across teams such as Team XENEX, EZSKINS.com, and Reason Gaming as well as fm-esports. He won his final Insomnia title in 2015 at Insomnia 55, won the first-ever ESL Premiership with XENEX, and qualified for WESG 2016 with the fish123 mix – though he was replaced by future VALORANT star Jake “Boaster” Howlett in the main event due to work commitments – before finally hanging up the mouse in 2017 aged 27.

It’s no surprise that RattlesnK is considered by many to be the greatest UK player of all time, with Thomas “Thomas” Utting joking that he finally bested him after Into the Breach qualified for the Major quarter-finals.

That in and of itself goes to show how hard it was for UK teams to make a dent in the Counter-Strike scene. A few UK teams dipped in and out of the top 50 and competed in ESEA Mountain Dew League, but none were considered serious threats; the UK’s reputation in tier one staked more on talented individuals such as Alex “ALEX” McMeekin, Owen “smooya” Butterfield and most notably William “mezii” Merriman whose Vitality roster consistently competes for tier one trophies.

A UK core would not return to HLTV’s top 30 until April 2021, when Endpoint signed Thomas and mezii (that squad peaked at #22). We would not see another UK team in the top 20 until the very last days of CS:GO when Into the Breach’s remarkable run to the quarter-finals of the BLAST Paris Major saw them peak at #15 – still some 11 places shy of what mousesports achieved at the end of 2012.

That MOUZ team show that a new game does not have to be an ending, but a new opportunity. With youngsters like Oscar “AZUWU” Bell, Jack “Gizmy” von Spreckleson and Jamie “Tree60” Callan knocking on the door of tier one, maybe we will see another UK team take their chance in the new game – just as one team did 12 years ago.

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