With the spotlight glaring on the biggest CS:S tournament to date it seems only right to turn that high beam on to the people that make the tournament what it is – the players. What, you thought it was you guys? Guess again.

I’m going to be focusing on the players that are going to be the difference makers for their team, the players capable of winning games single-handedly with their talents, the players that can do the things that few others can… Yes, if FPS titles in e-sports weren’t so horribly sidelined we could even dare to call them stars. And to you guys they should be because they are capable of all the things you attempt when you’re struggling to beat that wretched mix team at four in the morning.

The third player on the list might not be seen as deserving of the same reverance as the others. He plays for the team that it’s safe to say most don’t think deserve to be there (even though they qualified), don’t expect to perform and will be consistently cheering against. It’s rare to see massive underdogs hated in such a way in any competitive endeavour but it’s not entirely without reason, even a large chunk of it is jealousy. Regardless, there is a different kind of pressure on this player than to many of the others. It’s up to Niklas “trumaN” Levinsky to pull a fantastic performance out the bag if his team are to do anything at ESWC. Why? Well, with all due respect to the likes of Hatten, MSL, Nille and p0se, they’re just not in the same league as anyone else attending the event. In fact, there’s an argument to say that they’re not even real players at all. They’re not even in the elite band in Denmark. At least trumaN has had a taste of the big time before…

Where’d He Come From

Although the Danish scene is about as stable Michael Jackson in his final days, drugged out of his mind, recording himself talking in a fevered dream and with only an antique porcelain doll for company, it does throw up a lot of talent. Although for so long there was only one group of Danish players that anyone else in Europe talked about, in their local LAN scene there were many players beavering away to try and improve and now they are reaping those rewards with arguably the strongest scene, individually, in Europe.

One such player was Niklas who moved across from 1.6 in 2007 with a wave of other players who thought they saw the future of counter-Strike. It wasn’t quite as glamourous as he expected it to be and he spent a lot of his early time in the game playing with friends in mix teams that didn’t amount to much. After impressing a few more established players in the Danish scene with his aim he was given a chance to compete with eyegaming. They placed fourth at their first LAN despite being underdogs but it was clear that there were mixed ambitions within the team.

The official team of DSRack was where he ended up, a name he would represent for most of his playing career, and while the team impressed online it was always a struggle to pull out results at LAN. While many sneered at the reason for this, Niklas always maintained it was down to being in a team with friends, not least of all his longstanding playing partners Magnus 'JOKERN' Barthel and Mathies 'MEFIE' Eskildsen, as LANs were spent mostly drunk and goofing around.

Still, this didn’t wash with the rest of the competitive community, which had now opened up into being a European consideration as opposed to just a local one. After much criticism he decided to move back to 1.6 in 2009 and spent half a year trying to get back into a scene that had changed vastly since he departed from it even if the game hadn’t. It didn’t last – the same players he had spent most of his time with luring him back in time for more competitive events.

It’s clear from what followed that Niklas was never settled. Never deemed reliable enough to play in the biggest teams in Denmark and with rumours of cheating circulating amongst his peers, he started to look further afield for his teams. Sadly this meant something of a spell in the wilderness, playing with either young Danes or, at an all time low point, such long-standing UK failures as David “hendo” Henderson. Needless to say none of these teams troubled anyone at LAN.

Now he has returned to the name he feels the most attachment to, the only player from the original DSRack line-up left, and he’s the old and experienced head in a team of youngsters once more. Who knows how it’ll work out on the biggest stage.

How’d He Get To The Big Show

This is a question almost all of Europe has been asking. DSRack are viewed as poster boys for the argument against online qualifiers, teams with much bigger names not attending and a team that is expected to flop easing their way in after a run in the qualifiers that defies belief. This was only compounded when they attended the ONIC LAN event just a short time afterwards and finished dead last, being knocked out in the lower bracket with a humiliating 16-0 defeat at the hands of Copenhagen Wolves. Although other big names failed at the event, they were afforded excuses. It was seen that DSRack had everything to prove.

Online they managed to beat the ex-OX Gaming, Infused, fellow attendees ESC (which suggest they’ll have at least one team they can beat at this event) and also BEASTS (who ended up getting a spot as well). They lost to CKRAS and mTw. With this run of results did they really beat anyone unexpected? Many say they did, others are not so convinced. One thing is for sure, in the thick of it was trumaN, winning his team several key clutches and out-AWPing his rivals with some fantastic prediction and landing the big shots when they mattered.

Why You Should Watch Him

Well, you probably will be anyway. You’re either in the majority wanting to see him and his teammates fail or you’re in the slender minority that know him well from the Danish LAN scene and want him to confound his critics. I’ve sat with Niklas in the middle of a Danish heatwave drinking case after case of Tuborg and shooting the breeze. He’s a good guy but way too relaxed. It’s almost as if the game is a secondary concern, which arguably is the right outlook. But not if you want to win. Never then.

If he’s on point he will be the stand-out player in his team. Essential to the way they play, fast pick and pushes, or slow defense with pincer like rotates, if he can’t land a shot at this event they will fail badly. If he plays like he did online he will show that he’s an underrated talent, one that could be in bigger and better teams if only he could find the right mindset.

Predicted Finish

Hate to do it but I have to side with the gallery on this one and say they’re finishing 11th/12th. Their players simply don’t have the experience, have too many dubious elements about them and have nothing to suggest they can be LAN competitors coming into this event. The Danish teams consider them something of a joke, the rest of Europe see them as the punchline to the whole Danish scene. With the exception of the Germans they will get no joy out in Paris. In many ways they’re all playing for themselves.

Achievements

4th SLAP11
SLAP 16
SLAP 23
Thesleeplesslan
5th/6th DSRack #1