Vincent "Freekje" Vanloo

Vincent has been around the CS:S scene since it began and is a well known and established personality in the BENELUX scene.

Although effectively retired, Vincent utilises a lot of his time fulfilling his role as an admin for CS:S helping to run tournaments for E-sports Heaven and has been integral to the smooth running of all competitions so far.

"This month we had the Easter weekend packed with events around Europe,bringing most of the finest to the playground. In France we had the long awaited roccat vs verygames showdown, down in England we had TCM and FM!Toxic and up north the biggest treat : Reason,über geekz ( Imperial ),power-gaming and Alternate Attax.

The spectating options were not really up to par but that didn't stop us for watching some nice games with some outstanding performances: wantz took aTTax for a ride on de_train and .PhP wiped the dust2 of aTTax, poor aTTax. With the unfortunate date of Lan79 in May, we will have to sit tight until the summer to see action amongst the top but another fine game between Roccat and Verygames is almost guaranteed !"

Richard Lewis

Richard comes from a journalistic background and has covered e-sports in print, on radio and television having worked for such organisations as GotFrag and CGS. He is the current content manager of Cadred where he contributes a weekly e-sports column. He was last year’s captain of Team UK in the ClanBase Nations Cup, although now he retired from playing.

He now concentrates on writing and management. Over the years he worked for Zboard, xciteuk, Infused and 4kings. These days he chooses to solely focus on his writing within the gaming industry.

"Just when you think you can get a handle on something, it all changes again. Copenhagen Games and i39, as well as many other events, saw us finally presented with a clear picture of who ranked where. However, for reasons unknown, the scene seemed to go through one of its characteristic overhauls and while many of the new teams have yet to be announced, in most cases nothing is the same as it was. To say who is at the top of the scene now, when it should be clearer, got more difficult.

The Imperial deserve it for their stability alone, even if it is said they have removed a player, and their hard work and dedication shows what people need to do in order to succeed. Reason continue to work hard and aren't far behind. With the retirement of their inspirational captain looming they will be wanting to ensure they win as much as they can before they call time on glittering careers. Next on the list has to be Alternate Attax. Despite being disappointed with their performance out at Copenhagen they are still looking strong and their dominance in the German EPS is a testament to that mental toughness that I believe will see them win back-to back titles.

Once you get beyond the top three, the success becomes harder to measure in clear terms. Both 30P and H2K have started making up some much needed ground to give Sweden some CS:S representation ever since the slow demise of Blight Gaming and CKRAS will now be starting to deliver on their promise as the best in Finland. VeryGames are also still in the pecking order somewhere above those teams maybe, but they don't seem to be the team they once were and I'd put ROCCAT ahead of them still as the French premier team, even if they didn't win Gamer's Assembly."

Emmanuel "Wave" Meunier

The latest addition to our news team brings with him an in depth knowledge of CS:S and 1.6, especially in his native France. His work covering French EPS has been integral to the continued development of the site.

He also joked that having a French person on the panel might ensure less arguments about the top ten in future, although somehow we doubt that very much.

"This month permitted us to see more clearly the situation on the top of the scene after an easter weekend fully charged with events all around Europe. By winning CPH games the new Uber-G33kz are doubtlessly at the top spot of the Top 10. Reason-Gaming also had a good month but the Danish side was simply better this time, a fact that will have to be confirmed during the incoming events. If there is a team able to join these 2 at the summit it would be VeryGames, the French side have shown a lot of consistency online and offline, beating ROCCAT during Gamers Assembly causing them their first loss at a lan event in almost 2 years of supremacy in the country. I still don't know clearly how to rate them in comparison with Reason or Imperial, hopefully some online tournaments such as the EMS will give us an answer to that question.

Power Gaming, ROCCAT and ALTERNATE are for me closely following the podium, but in my opinion we haven't heard the end of those three teams who could also do some major damages with the necessary preparation and a bit more stability. After a great performance at i39 TCM-Gaming is one more time in my top10 this month but if they remain together they will have to achieve some good results against all the teams above them in these rankings to keep advancing. The last 3 teams of my top 10 would be composed of mTw, and two other sides that performed better than expected during the easter weekend but have also shown signs of improvement for some time now, OX.Enermax and D4Gaming."

Mike "Rickeh" McGhee

As the new coverage editor, Mike brings with him an in depth knowledge of the European scene and not just those usual suspects that everyone can claim to know about. Having started plying his trade as a news contributer, he is now part of the management team here at Cadred and contributes regularly with features.

"Finally we have something to base our top tens on. The past few months have been pretty much the same due to some events being cancelled and not much to talk about. However with the dust now settled from the immensely busy Easter weekend we can bring a - sort of - accurate top ten. Imperial, now known as uber G33KZ are without doubt my number one after an emphatic win at the Copenhagen Games, seeing off the likes of Power Gaming, Alternate and the once untouchable Reason Gaming, it was great to see them finally lose their "onliner" tags and to do it in such fashion.

Reason Gaming will be disappointed with the defeat but they still took it graciously and put up a good fight in the final, something that keeps them in second place of my rankings. Closely following the big two are none other that team VeryGames who finally overcame ROCCAT at the Gamers Assembly, something no other team has managed to do in close to two years now, the next event we get to see Verygames at will be LAN79 next week so hopefully they can carry on their excellent form. Below those four teams is where it becomes difficult, Power Gaming performed well and TCM managed to win i39 after a great final against fm! Toxic, however with the usual post LAN rumour mill in overdrive the likeliness of these lineups making it to another LAN is slim. For now though they remain in my 5th and 6th spots. Closely followed by both Alternate and ROCCAT who both had slightly disappointing events considering how hyped up both teams were.

OX-Gaming are another side that had a fantastic event at the CPH Games, finishing well above where people thought they would, I hope we see them at more events in future as they are a joy to watch at times with a true never say die attitude towards the game. I also think team PinCho deserve a mention in this months rankings since they took on most of the old forZe team, I don't think it will be long before they start to make a mark in the European scene, perhaps at some of the summer events."

Jason "Jay" Atkins

Since starting his shoutcasting career at the now defunct Team Sportscast Network Jay was until recently a Quadv shoutcaster.

Having covered a multitude of games his primary focus has been on CSS and CS 1.6. In the 2 years he has been covering CSS he has seen most if not all of Europe and North America's top teams duke it out in countless leagues and LAN's.

Jay has been around eSports for 5 years now, and broadcasting for 3. In his time he has seen leagues, teams and organisations both flourish and fail.

" I think the major story with this months Top 10 has to be the former Imperial team, for the first time in a long time Reason looked fallable. Beating Reason on Train 16-10 might sound more convincing than it actually was be it not for the T-Side pistol win then the game could have unfolded with Reason winning out, it will be interesting to see how my fellow panelists have taken this into account, even so I feel Uber G33KZ are deserving of the #1 spot.. With TCM, FM Toxic! and Power Gaming all adjusting in what has to be said is an all to familiar turn of events for the Source scene, it seems that the UK scene has imploded yet again.

However I am hopefull that with i40 around the corner and a mini iSeries lite in the meantime it means the new UK rosters have some time to adjust. Apart from that very little can be garned with Roccat seemingly content to stay inside of French borders (be it through lack of finanical insentive or self preservation). The iSeries and CPH clashed so we didn't get to see TCM take on an upper echellon team and the Power roster that finsihed third at CPH has changed so I sense this month's top 10 being a contacerous and contencious affair."

You'll be able to catch more thoughts from our panel with Cadred's May Rankings in a month's time!