The EPS UK Season 2 finals, and Cadred takes a look at two of the teams taking part

With the EPS UK Season 2 Finals just a few days away, we sat down and had a proper look at two of the teams that would be taking part. In this version we take a look at Team Dignitas and ButtonBashers and then on Thursday you can expect to see a preview of both Reason Gaming and Team CoolerMaster.

We will take a look at both teams individually and then take a look at the encounter itself.

Team Dignitas

Jason "LoOkZoR" O'Connor
Danny "SoCLoN" O'Connor
Jonathan "raz" Baker
Mark "mark" Horner
Michael "Mick" Bradshaw

The reigning champions come back to the Conference Centre to try and hold onto their title. They won the trophy without really breaking a sweat in the last season, but this season has been really different. Looking at how they have done in the online part of the tournament, it definitely isn't all glamour. They barely made it through to the LAN finals, after only coming 4th overall. However, they did make it through this part, and the fact that they finished 4th won't really affect them, at all.

Mick joined the team several weeks ago and initially didn't look like he was settling back into the team. But things have changed, and the team are looking to get back into their typical stride. Mick was playing really well at UKeSA and team looked like they could have won the whole tournament. They looked really good at times against ButtonBashers in their first game, and then were able to string some good play together against Team CoolerMaster. But they certainly didn't look like they were at 100%.

The team had no real flare about them at the event. They were not fired up, at all, and had to have Odee constantly trying to persuade them to get louder. Maybe they should get a few lessons with Kritikal to help them on their way? But one this is for sure, this team do have the ability to win. A lot of it will come down to how well they play on the day. mark will need to play like he did at times against TCM at UKeSA and SoCLoN will have to be able to get those sniper kills he was pulling off at times.

I spoke to LoOkZoR to see what he thought about the upcoming event:

OK, going on our recent online results and the near loss vs tcm at UKeSA, I feel that we are now starting to hit that dominant form again. My hope and expectation as always is to be 1st or its a disappointment, for a team who has won several things in a row, nothing but 1st feels good.

One thing is for sure, dignitas will have the fire again to win this tournament. They are probably not the favourites, but this could be the chance for dignitas to come back into the lime light, in the last game before the major CoD4 LAN events kick into action at the end of July.

ButtonBashers

Daniel "L-KiNG" Luther
Ryan "dUffER" Duffy
Ralph "qwertYYY" Balder
Will "will" Nye
Chris "nreo" Mead

ButtonBashers have "the best player in CoD4" as some were describing him, in the form of nreo back in their team. The person they were missing in the UKeSA Grand Finals is now back in the team, but unfortunately for the team they have had to lose another player. Due to the rules, davy will not be taking part in the tournament. Instead they have brought in the famous UK player, Will Nye.

As one of the most well known players in the UK scene, he will definitely fit into the team well as a person, but as for his playing style, we are unsure. He has not played properly in a team for some time now. Unfortunately hysobe did not want to come to be their 5th again, which according to some, would have been a lot better for the team in terms of hopes of winning.

This will definitely make ButtonBashers slightly weaker than they would have hoped, having won the online stages. If we going to base the tournament on the performance in the onlines stages, then ButtonBashers would have already won, as they were clearly the best team there winning all their games. But unfortunately for them, the money is most certainly not in the bank yet.

They will definitely take their performance at the UKeSA Grand Finals as a confidence boost. They managed to secure a 3rd place finishing, after losing to dignitas in the semi finals. However, they were able to beat Reason in the 3rd/4th place playoff. But again that was with a different lineup. They had the ex Tek9 veteran davy playing, and he was playing very well. It will be interesting to see how will nye will adapt to the team's play style.

As for how the team will do, it is going to be hard for them to go all the way. Teams will definitely target Will, and it will also be interesting to see if they will have to change their play style to fit him in, something that is definitely not ideal. There is no doubt Will is up for the task, as he has played on the big stage before, and the flashing lights shouldn't affect him.

To find out more, I went and spoke to nreo to get his view on the matter:

It hasn't been as easy as one player come in and filling a role because we haven't had the time to prioritise roles in the first place. Will in place of hysobe has meant realistically we've had to change our style a bit, but he's an experienced nyena veteran so I have no worries.

In terms of hopes and expectations, of course we're going there to win, because we know on the day if we turn up we can produce. I'd be disappointed if we didn't take gold, though with TCM reaping the rewards of long term stability and Dig seemingly living on their server, we won't underestimate either of them or Reason.

ButtonBashers will be ready to fire on full cylinders on Saturday, and so we can expect some great games.

The Encounter

The match between Team Dignitas and ButtonBashers is going to be a very interesting one. Both teams are going to come out wanting to win, but I think ButtonBashers will have that little bit more fire in their bellies. They lost to dignitas at UKeSA in a 3 map game, but a lot said that with nreo they would have won. But I am sure dignitas are going to try and take advantage of the "old boy" in the team.

If they manage to take him out of the game quite easily, then it is going to be very hard for ButtonBashers to win this game. Playing with one man not really pulling his weight is always hard, especially when you are playing against dignitas. This all may sound like a "Will Nye" bashing session, which it isn't meant to be. He may pull off the game of his life, in which case I think ButtonBashers could clinch the game. But I suspect that he won't be up to the same standard as davy or even hysobe purely because he hasn't played enough.

The maps will play a fairly big part in the game. I am sure if possible ButtonBashers will choose Crash as they were able to destroy dignitas on that, with L-KING and davy playing very well. Dignitas on the other hand, looked very strong on Strike and surprisingly, Crossfire too. But as normal with most of these maps, it will be down to the snipers. Whoever is able to hit those opening shots will give the team a big advantage. Most people would expect that to be SoCLoN but then again, qwerty has the ability to match him.

It will also be interesting to see how the SMGers do. If raz is able to get through a gap in the defense, then he could start to exploit the ButtonBashers line. But even if ButtonBashers lose players early, they have shown they have the ability to clutch and pull of some great rounds. They have all played at a very high level, and under pressure. Then again, dignitas are also renowned for their great clutches.

This is going to be a touch match; as for the winner, well I think this could go right to the wire. However, I think that the full strength dignitas team will manage to conquer ButtonBashers.