EPIC.LAN has announced that EPIC.40 will be played on CS2, the first LAN in the UK to use the new game. The upcoming LAN, which also sees EPIC return home, to the Kettering Conference Centre.
The game was released last Wednesday after months of speculation. The next day EPIC.LAN’s Esports Operations Assistant George “Geo” Peters posted a list of criteria that would need to be met for the upcoming tournament to switch to CS:GO, with several technical aspects that were not yet met, mostly relating to dedicated server capacity.
Current title criteria. There are ways to host CS2 without the dedicated servers or community support. We’ll be conducting load usage and stability tests soon.
We want to use the new title pending improvements and further testing, but right now it wouldn’t be suitable. https://t.co/BL0PKTunQr pic.twitter.com/6SrkawrOM5
— Geo (@GP66_) September 28, 2023
Following last Wednesday’s release, opinions have been divided on its readiness for professional play. Some players argue that the switch to CS2 should happen as soon as possible, while others have criticised the standard of the gameplay and the potential for technical issues. Regardless, ESL FACEIT Group ran the open qualifier for ESL Challenger Jönköping on CS2 this week, becoming the first official CS2 matches played on HLTV alongside the remaining of the ESL Impact Season 4 season.
EPIC.LAN’s Counter-Strike tournament has been run on Global Offensive at every edition since EPIC10 in early 2013, the first event since the release of the game. Before that EPIC.LAN ran Counter-Strike tournaments on Source, then the most recent game in the series. The announcement follows on the heels of fellow organiser Being Esports announcing a UK qualifier this weekend for a LAN in Turkey, which will be run in CS2.
