Team Ebuyer has picked up a team which will bring many memories back of old Zboard line-ups.

Two of the current xciteuk players and two former zboard players join HudzG to form this strong line-up, which has been kept one of the best secrets in European CSS.

This line-up, still under the control of John "Chilli" Day, replaces the original Ebuyer.CSS who had moved to Call of Duty 4.

Nathaniel “tiLs” Tilsley
Kyle “fataL” Mardel
Ben “ben0” Balcombe
Ollie "crazycat" Netherton
George “HudzG” Hoskins

Chilli gave us this statement about the move, and Team Ebuyer in general:

As anyone who has followed us will know the original team has not done a lot with the franchise. We have a 5th and an 8th at i-series, the semi-finals of the Intel Challenge and the quarters of the Packard Bell European Open. That is hardly a fantastic testament to the levels of support they have had and in short we knew we had to make changes. We allowed them to move to COD4 under our name for their efforts but we had to bring in players that could do the ebuyer brand proud.

We then picked up the old TMG 1.6 line up and they do have a future of source, just not with us as it is taking them too long to convert. The ebuyer franchise is 12 months old and there’s just not time to support that kind of slow conversion. We need immediate results to take back to ebuyer so we can justify their investment and this lineup can compete with the best in Europe. I wouldn’t ever write those players off, Kurtis is a big talent for the future. It’s just the time constraints don’t mean we’ll see that talent blossom for ebuyer.

It speaks volumes about what we have here to attract a player like ben0 who has had total control over the Zboard sponsorship. With the wealth of experience we have here now, given the amount of LANs and competitions won between them, we now have a team that ebuyer and the UK can really get behind. I’ve wanted ben0 in one of my teams for over a year and not just because of his reputation but his gaming talent. He is always underestimated just in playing terms and I expect him to shine in this team.

My main job now is to take these huge personalities and make sure we gel in time for i-series, but I’m a hands on guy and will take away all the problems that they may have been concerned about in the past. All they have to do now is talk to each other, get along and shoot heads.

On his move from xciteuk, tils had this to say:

I’ve been with xciteuk and their management for some time now and there have been rumours linking me and some of my new team mates with moves all over the place. The support that we’re going to receive as players and the opportunity to play with players I rate so highly is one that I couldn’t turn down. Sure things have been said in the past, but we’re all professionals and I am totally focused on moving forward with these guys and becoming the best the UK has to offer.

I’d like to thank Chilli for giving me this opportunity and of course my long term manager and friend Richard “Dr. Gonzo” Lewis who was always looking to get me a good home once he stood down from xciteuk.

Ben0 has really been the corner stone of Team Zboard in the past, so this move will come as a shock to many. He told us this:

I've only played about 5 hours since CGS, with everything seeming so... mediocre to say the least in comparison, I haven't really had the motivation necessary to rebuild Zboard... again. On top of that, I've been working which has been able to occupy my time. So with an offer like Ebuyer being laid in front of me, a decent lineup, management, everything really, it's an obvious choice to give it a go.

Zboard will sit on the side for a while depending on how long term this lineup ends up, in time I’ll have to figure something out, but as it is, they need a break after the amount CGS cost us, so all the pieces fit nicely.