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.

"Ah yes, the month of August flew by. Seems we've seen the deepest point ofthe of the pit and are our way up! Constant patches, Esl's Pro-Series branching out, organisations such as SK-Gaming getting into Source...

Event wise there was much happening. The UK won the European Nation Cup,surprisingly if I may add. We had the Assembly Summer event in Finland where Ckras had to bow to the professional power of the eXelon squad. Then in the last weekend we had 3 events: From all the way in England, over Hungary to end up in the Ukraine.

Verygames were having a walk in the english park, closely followed by OX-gaming who blew their T-side of dust2 for 3rd place. eXelon's dress to impress "tactic" kinda backfired and they managed to do poorly ending up 9-12th in what everyone expected to be a top5 finish. Over in Hungary the old-reason guys : Spray[+] had no problem with the international flavord competition taking the BEcup event with EAS. Authority Gaming who were favoured to give Spray[+] a run for their money ended up giving themselves a run for their own investment ending up 5/6th behind what could be considered as the subtop of Europe. Over in the Ukraine we saw MOTHERRUSSIA making a heavy presence with teams like pinCho and Aces. Where I would have put my money on Aces it was Pincho who took first place over last seasons EPS.de 5th place finisher: Speedlink."

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. 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.

"OK, hands up who knows what's really going on with CS:S? Is it dead? Is it thriving? Has the talent pool increased, or decreased? Is there a new generation coming through or is it still in the vice like grip of the old guard? Be honest, you don't even know anything for sure but it's a safe bet you have an opinion.

I think all that can be said for certain right now is VeryGames are at the top and looking unbeatable. That is only a truism due to the fact I don't see anyone stepping up to the plate to knock them off their pedestal. Spray and Pray could but no home equals no activity. The current Reason could but I think we'll have to wait and see what happens. mTw could be the team that breaks the German LAN hoodoo... And let's not forget, somewhere out there is a five, possibly made up from players without homes, that could change the face of the scene and establish a new world order, Illuminati style.

Mind you, for now let's just be happy we're seeing teams crop up ahead of a LAN the size of DSRack #3. There's life in the old dog yet."

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.

"Another month low in official matches between the top teams and things haven't changed so much between the biggest names. Team VeryGames confirmed their current number one spot last week with a large victory at i40, while Spray & Pray were winning the BECUP 2010 in Budapest. Also with a good 3rd place in Newbury the Italians from OX-Enermax get a spot in my top10 this month, hopefully with the big Danish events incoming we will have a far better view of the summit of the scene as in this summer month they have been lacking of activity. Now the new season begin with some interesting lan events to come and the EPS seasons, German and Nordic, which will permit us to be a lot more accurate about the top. I'm also looking forward to see who will be the adversaries of Ex6TenZ and his colleagues for the next season, as they seem to have passed a threshold like no one did in 2010 so far."

Mike "Rickeh" McGhee

As the new features 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.

"The European scene seems to be picking up once again and with some big name organisations making their way into the German EPS as well as a number of huge events lined up for the winter LAN season it looks like we're finally past the worst of the "talent recession".

As for the teams currently battling it out for our top10, VeryGames are worthy champions and the chasing pack will need to pull something special out the bag if they wish to topple them. There are teams with the potential to do it, mTw, Reason, spray and more, all they need to do is practice. Until someone does put in the effort it looks like VeryGames will continue to dominate at every event they attend.

Rickeh: DSRack, Slap, i41 and TeX await this winter so it's going to be an exciting couple of months for CS:S teams and fans alike, whether we'll be naming a new king after those events remains to be seen."

Ben "ben0" Balcombe

The veteran CS:S player joins the panel this month with a view to a long term move.

Having captained the former Zboard line-up Ben is no stranger to punditry having been the creator of Source Junky's UK top ten, including a strange mathematical system that only he knows and now subsequently can't remember due to brain cell loss.

Having been around since 2004 Ben did take a break from the scene but has returned with great interest.

"I was playing at i40 between trying to hustle for votes in the Alienware Challenge (fat lot of good that did) and saw for myself how good VeryGames were. While they are the top team in Europe what stood out was the gap between the chasing pack. Not even were the likes of Salvo, Reason, Dignitas and Zboard that dominant when they were stringing together their i-series wins. Yet I don't feel they are as good as some of those teams were, they just seem to be enjoying a lack of competition, that needs to change.

With the other top teams away from i-series, including the UK representatives of what were Power Gaming, it seems little will change at the top. Got to say I'll be including those Italians though. They were crazy, jumping around like that plumber guy who eats mushrooms and showing a lot of spirit to come in third."

The Top 10 will continue at the start of October with the next installment.