Where it all started, at i31.

Well it started of after i31 pretty much, we had a great LAN there with myself, ritch, tiLS, fatal and ben0, beating off infused-gaming, ebuyer, edge-gaming, planet6 and drawing with fnatic, then losing two games to London Mint to put us out of the tournament (Fuck you Henry you monster!!! :D)

The i31 aftermath

After that, ritch had one of his crazy ideas and went off to play with his best friend and the best player in the UK, hudzg... so we were left with 4 players before the combine and after looking at a few players including Callisto, X and a few others we decided to go along with Gandofini, who I had played with sometime ago in AuxiliA and he fit in best with the team and our playing style (which was pretty much run around getting headshots)

The CGS combine - trouble brews...

So we left for the combine, got there about a week before the event actually started as ben0 had managed to get us a bootcamp at the omega-sektor for some pre-combine practice and also managed to get us an apartment there for almost 2 weeks! costing in excess of £1000! They say you dont know what a person is really like until you work with them or live with them and we were about to find out! so the first couple of days went great, we practiced but mainly had fun, played in the first omega-sektor tournament hosted by masterplan from mouse1 and managed to win it and take away a whopping £150 which we spent wisely on beer and food. Tensions were running a little high as this point, we managed to get an all night stay at the omega sektor where we played Serious Sam for about 4 hours straight, not to mention ben0 and tils going throat to throat because ben0 had not brought tiLs pepsi upstairs. I actually thought ben0 was going to punch him through a wall when tiLs squared up to him LOL.

The combine begins

Then before we knew it, the combine was here, so we registered and the games begun! It started off great with Xtremely Sneaky (which consists of players from the recently formed Artis) managing to beat Dignitas quite easily on Nuke by locking the map down CT side. Everyone was on a high as we seen Dignitas as our main rivals for the other draft spot so we were on a high. We then got to play Xtremely Sneaky and managed to beat them quite comfortably 14-4, a draft position was well in our sights.

The CGS - Under the camera

We played a few more games and after catching the eye of the CGS staff (and having a night out with them until 4am, the day before the finals!) we were taken on a laser quest trip with 4kings (London Mint) which was an awesome afternoon, followed by a bit of camera work where we had to lineup as if we were aboard the star trek, only to see fatal's reflection in the camera lens and burst out laughing, not once but TWICE! haha.

CGS combine - 4kings and dignitas

We then met 4kings on the main stage in the semi finals where the winner would go on to play dignitas in the finals and we were feeling confident after seeing dignitas beat them with ease in the previous round. The game finished 10-8 after some great awping from ben0 and tiLs on middle stopping url from even making it to the B bombsite without getting tagged, the spirit was high and we were ready for Dignitas! So we setup, confidence high and knew we had to beat them in there own game, the game started on d2 and was very close... they got a round, we got a round... it was the most nervous i had ever been, especially with a camera in my face and HeatoN standing within 20 foot of you watching every play. The game went into overtime, we lost the coin toss and had to start CT side... not thinking we crossed to B and one of us got picked before the round had started... they had bought 4 awps with the 10k money and then reverted to ak47's, sweeping up the last 4 they managed to beat us and win the combine at birmingham (rattlesnakes sharp thinking had got the better of us)

After Birmingham, on a downer...

Everyone was on a low after this, I had some terrible news from back home that one of my best friends had died in his sleep after a night out and really felt like i wanted to go home at this point but with some good advice from xertion and my team mates (including fatal who does infact turn out to have a heart!) we carried on... for now...

What REALLY happened at the apartment

Then it was like all the pressure and tension and spending too much time together finally got to us. That night at the apartment it was the night before we were travelling to London and people were drinking alcohol and tempers were flaring. I was sat on the balcony on the phone to a lady friend when I looked in and I seen the bear-like physique of Gandofini raise from his chair and deliver 3 vicious slaps to the face of fatal, I hung the phone up and stormed in to find out what was going in, to hear gandofini raging in scotish and dr gonzo explaining to me that fatal had infact called gandofini a "fat cave dwelling scotish twat" to be met by brutal force. So i went in to see if fatal was ok, and he was stood next to the window like the chess board killer, fists clenched with a look of death in his eyes, i said "kyle, calm down its not worth it" and cracked a small joke to take the ice of the situation, for a second he laughed and then went back to killer-mode. So gando and dr gonzo decide to walk back to gonzos apartment and me and tils have a little chat in the other bedroom. Less than 2 minutes later we hear SMACK BANG WALLOP and we decide its probably best to go and see what the racket is. We walk in and we see ben0 ontop of fatal choking him to death, so i decide to grab ben and throw him off but it was clear the damage had been done, fatal gets his stuff and goes off to the omega sektor! What a fucking night!

Off to London!

Were then off to the London Combine where we catch a ride down on a 42 seater bus with some of the head-honchos of the CGS and team-zboard sat in the back of the bus having a giggle as if nothing had ever happened, it seemed like we were all friends again. We start of in London vs infused-gaming and beat them quite comfortably and then face dignitas in the finals, where we lose quite badly 10-5, they were a different class to both us, infused and 4kings and were the winners at 2 finals, with us coming 2nd place at both. So our CGS was over, the only thing we could hope for now was that one of the GM's chose us over 4kings, which was unlikely as they had beaten us in GM challenge matches and Sujoy seemed quite friendly with joNoo as they had worked together before.

Combine over, whats next?

After everything, I decided to back to benO's in Kingston, London for a few days after meeting one of his girlfriends friends and getting to know her quite well, spent a few days with her and him and a few house partys and I was back on the train to Wales where i was to decide whether to carry on playing or throw in the towel. I decided to keep playing, but as the Uk scene would have it, there was some controversy, beno and tils going neck to neck in an ego-battle and the team inevitably got split up. I decided to go and play with tils, shivers, callisto and vpr where we appeared to be doing well in our practice wars online and expected at least a top 5 finish, which wasn't meant to be, losning not only to TLR but to team-coolermaster aswell. This was the worst I had ever done at a LAN, we decided to try and give it a go and concentrate on CGs, but again as the UK scene would have it, people had other opinions. My working schedule wasn't appropriate for the team and therefore we parted ways.

Where I am now

I then move onto, possibly the best day of my life when I find out that im a father to two beautiful babys, a boy and a girl who were born in perfect health. The best xmas present ive ever had and it really makes you appreciate how important things in life are.

So here I am today, still upset that we didn't manage to get to go to L.A, about to go and see my babys and then go to work for the rest of my shift, thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading guys, pretty bored as you can tell.