15th - Siruostak - Half Natty Head Tappers
Half natty head tappers have been a staple of University CS over the past few years, consistently being one of the top teams. At Lancaster there has been a change in the top performers with Siruostak now the new best performer.
Siruostak switches between extremities for HNHT’s , flipping between HNHT’s entry and their baiter, depending on the team they were playing. When asked how he thought the season went he thought that HNHT didn’t go great and was a step backwards from last season. Last season , HNHT ranked 5th in the NUSELO rankings and have taken a small step back to 7th. However it wasn't a season without success, with the team securing impressive wins over UoN Archers, Portsmouth Paladins, aimbridge, Durham Defenders and Supercali. Unfortunately, Half Natty would meet podbots and KCL Lions in NSE and NUEL respectively, which would end their season early. While this would lead to a lower placement than previous seasons, it was a harder bracket run so still a good season overall.
Siruostak commented that their favourite match of the season was their streamed game against Supercali in NUEL, with an impressive performance from Siruostak dropping 33 kills. On the other hand, the worst experience of the season was any time playing podbots with Siruostak commenting: “anytime we play podbots… …their slow style is the perfect counter to our 5 men running around”.
Looking to the future, Siroustak views Ps1d4k as an exciting upcoming star. This has been Ps1d4k’s first academic year in University CS, who sported a 1.19 rating in their debut season. Siruostak hopes for better success for HNHT in the future, and has high hopes as he believes that all of his team have a lot of potential, so hopefully that potential can be realised. When asked what he would like to see changed, he hopes for increased prizes and exposure for the university scene.
Overall a very impressive season for Siruostak and team, having improved from a 1.18 rating in winter to a 1.22 rating in Spring, also having one of the highest KAST% in won rounds in the top 20 teams , at 92.05%.
16th - Fr1ght - aimbridge
Fr1ght has a lot of experience in the University CS scene, having competed for 3 years and over 100 matches. This season was an incredible step up from aimbridge, rising from 40th in the NUSELO Winter rankings to 3rd in Spring.
Fr1ght is aimbridge’s Lurker, a.k.a the glorified baiter. He modestly thinks they did quite well, considering how little the 5 play together which is an understatement for aimbridge’s success this season. He considers their toughest match in the season to be a 2-0 loss to Back Six in the Lower Bracket of NSE Divison 1 Finals, unfortunately for aimbridge they came up against Conzor in incredible form.
I asked Fr1ght about what he thinks Cambridge does well in CS at a society level. He speaks highly of the active cs community there, with regular 10 mans and a wide variety in skill, making it enjoyable for all. Cambridge’s CS community definitely has to be commended, which I’ve always found to be bustling with activity and friendly.
Fr1ght has had an exceptional season, always performing at a very high level, achieving a 1.18 rating across this season, crucial impact in tough games and having the highest HS% in the top 20. Aimbridge’s success can also be attributed to some ridiculous performances from ixfrw, who also features in the top 20, and Fr1ght believes ixfrw to be aimbridge best rising talent.
After 3 years at the top of cambridge cs, this will be Fr1ght’s last season. He leaves with the wish “there was a league for teams of alumni students, and even mixes of different unis, this would be something exciting to play in. I would love to play with beN1yaZ, instead of having to face him on repeat each week… …I think it would be nice to keep up a community of uni CS players even after we graduate.”
While a legendary player is departing, it seems aimbridge are well set up for future success.
17th - Bilbo Swaggins - StratherS
Bilbo is the captain and IGL of StratherS. StratherS secured a 6th place finish this season, rising 24 places in the NUSELO ranking which is a great improvement. Bilbo brought in two new first years, which was a risk, but he managed to help them reach their potential , really helped greatly improve the team chemistry from the previous season and has helped set StratherS on an upward trajectory.
Bilbo enjoyed the games against Portsmouth Paladins the most. While on opposite sides of the country, he found them to be “very chatty” and greatly enjoyed beating them. Unfortunately for StratherS, their first game was against Into the Breach’s volt and the Major attendee absolutely dismantled them. While a massacre, they were able to recover well and had a great season.
Bilbo thinks the two new first years, Harry and Cal, have shown great potential and commitment this season. Harry and Cal between seasons have been promoted from StratherS B and put in some great work, even VOD reviews, for the team and have been constantly improving. Bilbo has also seen great growth at a society level , from its origination 2 years ago to now an active scene with a greatly improved mentality of the team has been great to see.
Bilbo has been a consistent performer over the past few years, often leading in stats and achieving a strong rating. This will be his last season and hopes StratherS can continue their results and trajectory with a new IGL. He hopes that the future players of StratherS can have as much fun as he did in the past few years.
18th - Shimshar - Swansea Storm
Shimshar is Swansea Storm’s anchor & lurk, sporting an impressive 1.22 rating, 9.27 RWS and a KAST of 92.27% in won rounds. Both shimshar and the team are really happy with how they did this season, qualifying for NUEL’s top division for their first time. In the past 4 years the highest level of CS they had reached was NSE’s 3rd division so this was an amazing season for them and a great accomplishment before graduating.
He considers their best game of the season to be their tiebreaker to qualify for NUEL Div 1 against Loughborough Lightning, securing a narrow 16-13 win. After the team realised they had a chance of making the top division they put a lot of work into preparing for it and this paid off spectacularly.
Shimshar views his new teammate, kongzai, to be the best rising talent in Swansea. Having joined Swansea this year, he's been an instrumental part of Swansea’s success and shimshar considers him to be “mechanically better than all of us with less than half the hours”.
Shimshar considers the best talent not as Southampton to be volt of KCL Lions (and Into the Breach). Pretty much every top team will have played KCL Lions this season and pretty much always been crushed, often at the hand of volt. While volt has left destruction in his wake, University CS seems to mostly be in awe of his achievements and shimshar absolutely recognises volt’s talent.
Unfortunately this peak will also spell the end , with a majority of the team graduating. The core will be moving into ESEA Open so it will be interesting to see how they do and the progress. Shimshar has “really enjoyed the university CS scene overall and I've met alot of good friends through it” and hopefully the cherry on top can be achieving 18th in his final season.
19th - Macky - UoN Archers
Macky is a returning entry to the top 20. While UoN Archers have taken a slight step back from last season, Macky has continued to perform at a high level, achieving a 1.27 rating and a crazy 11.0 RWS. Macky has continued to play as a jack of all trades, rotating from hard entering to support and sometimes secondary calling depending on what the round requires.
Macky considers the season to have been okay, it was a season hampered by out of game commitments, subs,and lack of players. All things considered it wasn't too bad a season, peaking with being in the top 4 for NUEL two weeks in a row. He thinks Maza is the best player at UoN, which goes without question really with Maza’s talent and accomplishments near ascending University CS. He also mentions retro as a potential star for the future, assuming he learns better utility.
Unfortunately this will be Macky’s last season for UoN as he is graduating. While he did not achieve major success, back to back seasons in the top 12 is definitely an accomplishment and he came in at a crucial time, helping stabilise UoN and helping improve the team with his experience. For a player that had effectively retired from cs before coming to University, it was a pretty successful endeavour into the university cs space.
20th - FAHUDEE - KCL Lions
FAHUDEE is a player that has managed to elude me for the past year any time I have tried to reach out for a comment. This lack of communication is rather reflective of KCL Lions’ exceptional performance over the past year. No drama and with no noise, suddenly bursting onto the scene and absolutely demolishing.
FAHUDEE has continued to put up strong numbers, achieving a 1.10 rating in a very deep run into the tournament, and has been one of the best Entry Fraggers in the tournament with 86.67% of his First Kills leading to KCL winning the round.
This has marked 2 years of University CS for FAHUDEE, achieving 3 championship trophies in that time. What will the future bring?
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