Formerly known as X043, we take a look at Team-Zboard, its foundations and its future

It's been a good while since we came across some sort of Team-Zboard reform, but instead of going straight into that, lets take a look at the history of the legendary Team-Zboard. Team-Zboard is one of the longest standing UK organisations, with its teams stretching back as far as Multiplay i23 back in 2005, where its source team competed and won the very first CSS tournament under the trustful hand of Ben "Ben0" Balcombe, who is still the clan leader to this day.

This was a minority of the many victories that the Zboard team would induce, both online but predominantly offline. They went on to become one of the most successful UK source teams in history. Over a two year period, the Zboard team went through multiple lineup changes and attended almost 20 LAN's within the UK by Summer 2007. Here is the LAN's that the Zboard team attended over the period of summer 2007, back to the very first Multiplay source LAN in 2005:-

LAN history

2nd - Starbytes Summer'07 - 2007
3rd - i30 CSS £3500 LAN Tournament - 2007
4th - Team Ebuyer LAN Finals - 2007
2nd - StarBytes Winter Warmer - 2007
3rd - i29 CSS £5000 LAN Tournament - 2006
2nd - i28 CSS £1000 LAN Tournament - 2006
1st - StarBytes Summer Madness - 2006
1st - TheSGL CSS LAN Tournament - 2006
1st - i27 CSS £1000 LAN Tournament - 2006
1st - GameOn#64 UK Mid-LAN CSS Tournament - 2006
1st - StarBytes Winter Warmer - 2006
WCG UK LAN Finals - 2005
1st - StarBytes £500 CSS WCG UK LAN Qualifiers - 2005
2nd - StarBytes £500 CSS LAN Tournament - 2005
1st - i25 CSS Pro LAN Tournament - 2005
2nd - StarBytes £500 CSS LAN Tournament - 2005
1st - GameOn#63 UK Mid-LAN CSS Tournament - 2005
1st - i24 CSS Pro LAN Tournament - 2005
1st - i23 CSS Pro LAN Tournament - 2005

The team and it's past

The Zboard team has seen many faces, with players ranging from CPL quake players - jaFro, to current CGS professional players - Hudzg, HenryG, ritch and url. But big names have not always been the clan leader Ben0's core reason for recruiting, he has never been one too shy away from the new talent and has taken many unknown players to a whole new level. A few players to mention are beta who got his break at Multiplay i30, who then went on to become a CGS professional player for LondonMint and their current taxi player, along with being in what is considered the best UK team outside of the CGS in Guns4hire. Other players who got their break in Zboard include tiLs, who went from a relatively unknown player in xciteuk and BoooM, to one of the biggest players in the UK after his time in Zboard at i31 and the CGS. These are just two examples of players who were brought into the Zboard orginisation by Ben0 and given their break.

Zboard at i30

The year of 2007 was where the Zboard team was to be put to the test with the UK CGS draft on the horizon and i31 just around the corner, the Zboard team was announced with probably the most controversial lineup the UK had ever seen, players included fatal, jafro and ritch. Some said the team wouldn't even make it too LAN (they weren't far wrong!) however the team proceeded to reach the semi-finals where they lost too 4kings but then managed to defeat Infused-gaming for the 3rd place and securing a podium finish yet again. With 77 teams in attendance this was a really good boost for the team before the CGS combine which was only a month away.

Zboard at i31

Zboard then attended the CGS combine, with the same lineup they had used previously in Multiplay i31, with Gandofini of AuxiliA replacing ritch. The team went on to reach the finals of the UK draft where they defeated everyone, but lost to Dignitas (Birmingham Salvo) 10-9 in overtime on stage in the finals. The team was then invited to the Three Mills television studios in London to play two more games in front of a live audience. Zboard defeated Infused gaming in the semi-finals and then lost again to Dignitas in the finals.


Zboard at their CGS apartment

Zboard chosen to attend Three mills studio in London

Shattered dreams - Zboard miss out on a CGS spot to rivals 4kings

This is the last instance of Team-Zboard we all remember at an event, some expected them to be chosen over 4kings (now London Mint) after they defeated them in the semi-finals in Birmingham, but it just wasn't meant to be. One year on and the Zboard team is back for yet another LAN appearance, this time at CLUK21 where they will be competing for a prizefund of £1800 and a chance to get back into the competitve LAN scene.

The lineup has gone through quite a few changes in the last few weeks, with potential players being dropped for inactivity, lack of motivation and a broken arm (Kritikal) but it has now been finalised and I can reveal the lineup for the upcoming CLUK21 LAN as follows:-

Team-Zboard

Ben "Ben0" Balcombe
Luuk "darky" Verink
Ollie "crazycat" Netherton
David "jaFro" Davison
Kyle "fataL" Mardel

Manager

Tony "Gom8z" Oldfield

I had a chance to speak with my long friend and ingame leader David "jaFro" Davison for an insight into the new team.

Hi jafro, I know your basically only doing this interview because you have nothing better to do and im your manager, but thanks for taking the time out to answer a few questions. After being part of so many great lineups, how do you think this one will compare?

The team is better than any lineup i've ever been in. Its basically our CGS team with crazycat and darky who are both amazing fraggers. We dont have a single strat at the moment so were taking each game as it comes and trying to aim for the head as much as possible

Its fair to say that your a great set of individual players but are you worried that teamwork may let you down? Are you just hoping that your fragging kills are good enough to beat teams that turn up at your up and coming event at CLUK21...

Teams are going to have a big advantage over us as they have the chemistry and team-work all set whereas we pretty much have nothing. On paper I believe our lineup is good enough to make the finals of this LAN but going to LAN as a mix in an MR15 tournament... anything can happen really. The teams going to this LAN are just as good as any others i've seen recently at LAN so we'll just turn up and do our best.

Its no wonder the women think your such a sweety...! personally I don't see it but meh! Anyway back to the questions.. and now lets just get a feel of our sweet welshman Jaf.. Do you mind telling us a little bit about your life at the moment and how you manage to mantain a social life and play games to a high standard...

Haha lol, maintain is a bit of an exaduration - my girlfriend hates me playing games! Aside from her, I work full time so I can only dedicate so much time to practicing and even less to playing deathmatch or aim_maps. I play regular with Ondskan for fun but recently most of my time is dedicated towards practicing for LAN with our lineup.

Well its good to see women are still evil and gaming is still very much a part of your life... now for some questions that were sent in as rumours for you to finally clear the air... Is it true you onced pulled a tree out of the ground just to return a baby kitten to an old lady! AWwwWwwWWw.

No that was Pez aka the manbearpig and he was trying to eat the kitten, not save it... o_O

Anyway lets get back to serious gaming talk. With CLUK being the only lan your looking to attend this year what more can people expect from zboard and what will happen with the players, do you know what darky's plans are?

No idea what anyone has planned, were just going to concentrate on the LAN in hand and then go from there. We have two CGS taxi players in this lineup so we dont want to commit 100% as they could go at anytime!

Leaving a spot for me i see... for the last time Jaf.. Im a good looking gamer it aint gonna happen!! Anyway... Lets wrap this up and get back to whatever we should do with our spare time.... is there any final comments you would like to say, anyone apart from me you'd like to make a shout out to?

Shoutouts to Ceratech, Zboard, xpletus gaming, my team, anyone going to cluk21, birmingham salvo reppin the UK out in L.A, all my friends and foes on cadred, team-vvv and most importantly avash - good luck with your team search sweet prince xx