ALASKA has ruled the UK scene over the last year and they continued this dominion at EPIC.LAN 44 as they defeated 8Sins in the Grand Finals 2-1. It was not smooth sailing this time around as ALASKA dropped a map to Belfast Storm and even lost in the Upper Bracket Finals to 8Sins on their way to the Grand Finals. After beating out CTRL ALT DEFEAT in the Lower Bracket Finals they were still tested by 8Sins in the stage. Coming down to the wire on map three ALASKA avoided overtime and defeated 8Sins 13-11 as their experience prevailed.
This now means the core of ALASKA has not only won seven EPIC.LAN titles, but three in a row. In the broader picture, they also have won seven UK titles in succession. Alongside that, Matas “Extinct” Strumila hits double-digit EPIC.LAN wins.
After the Grand Finals, UKCSGO sat down with arTisT to talk about their hard-fought victory, what their future looks like as a team without an organisation, and the recent addition of Jamie “Tree60” Callan.
Congratulations on winning three EPIC.LANs in a row. How does it feel to win this final after being pushed to the limit?
It’s way more rewarding winning a final that is actually competitive. The majority of the time we play mixes. You come out of it feeling better because it was so intense. Extinct won it for us, In those last few rounds on B he was completely composed and destroyed, props to him.
arTisT playing in the Grand Finals of EPIC.LAN 44
In this event in general you have been tested more. Dropping a map against Belfast Storm and losing to 8Sins in the Upper Bracket Finals. Was it a wake-up call to be tested?
We always do drop a few maps. And to be fair we got owned by Belfast Storm on Ancient. In some games you don’t know what to expect and some teams play at a high level, but a low level very well. It is up, down, left, right and everywhere.
Coming into the event I did say we would drop a few maps, especially for Jamie [Tree60] who hasn’t done it as long as us to stay composed. Even if we do go down a map we are better than everyone else here. We have lost a few maps but we ended up winning.
The veto in the Grand Finals was changed up a big by 8Sins. They banned Nuke and you had to change your map pick. Were you expecting this change?
Yeah, I fully expected the vetos. We expected the veto to have those three maps.
We thought we made decent adjustments on Inferno but we failed in the actual crossfire and hitting our shots. The setups were fine but we failed in hitting our shots and sometimes that happens.
What is the general plan for the future and has it changed that you do not have an organisation?
We definitely need some financial backing from an org. It is not just financial backing but that added support, it definitely improves the morale of the team. We don’t know how long we can continue doing this. This event shows we are the number one team in the UK and we have been all of last year. We even beat Endpoint the only time we played them to qualify for the BLAST qualifier. Someone needs to come along, a few years ago it was ITB but we all know what happened with them. Hopefully, a new organisation does come around and supports the UK scene.
There is a wealth of talent here and that is what my team is designed for. Bringing in a few new talents and training them. Look at Jamie, in a year he is going to be an excellent talent. Mason [Vacancy] from Sprout Academy is an excellent talent. Girafffe no one ever looks at but is 100% #1 player in the UK in my eyes. We are asking for a good org, a good relationship and the future is bright for us.
You mentioned Jamie there. Combining two questions in one how has it been picking up Jamie and how has it been for you to return to AWPing?
It has taken me a lot longer to get back into the AWP. CS2 AWPing is so different to CS:GO, so it has taken me a lot longer than expected. Jamie from GamerLegion Academy is an absolute talent and he has a very bright future ahead of him.
Tree60 lifting his first EPIC.LAN trophy
The post arTisT: “It’s way more rewarding winning a final that is actually competitive” appeared first on UKCSGO.
