Corin Cole

Over the past few years Corin has had experience in numerous areas of competitive video gaming, and has a wide range of knowledge and experience in this area.

Currently working for Heaven Media Ltd. as Technical Editor, Corin has extensive experience in other areas of work, including IT consultancy, editorial work, project management and both the creation and management of gaming events, and is in particular a mine of knowledge about the CSS scene.

"Not a lot of surprises in this month’s top ten given that there are no new entries, but people’s opinions about who’s hot and who’s not have clearly changed. There is quite a marked gap between the top tier, the mid tier and the lower tier and it is highly likely that next month will see some teams bow out, and some others make huge leaps up the table.

Certainly the next three major LANs are going to dictate what happens in that regard, but it will be interesting to see what happens in regards to VeryGames who have dominated the top of the chart for so long but will be largely inactive for most of the Summer period. Can they still remain at the top if they don’t compete? I guess we’ll see.

Richard "Dr. Gonzo" Lewis

Richard comes from a journalistic background and has covered e-sports in print, on radio and television having worked for such organisations as GotFrag and CGS. He is the current content manager of Cadred where he contributes a weekly e-sports column. He was this year’s captain of Team UK in the ClanBase Nations Cup, although he is semi-retired from playing.

He now concentrates on writing and management. Over the years he has worked for Zboard, xciteuk, Infused and is currently based with 4kings.

This months top ten saw quite a lot of inconsistent voting. Once you moved outside of VeryGames and Reason people’s top tens varied wildly, with some teams placing high on some and then not at all in others. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues with a Summer season of LAN events that are going to see the clear winners over the last few months, VeryGames, not competing at all. Couple that with teams who haven’t been attending European LANs coming back into the fray and people’s attitudes could change by the time the next top ten comes around. At the very bottom end of the table it seems people are waiting to see what this new Alternate Attax line-up is going to do, although I’ve been told that they are expecting big things and I certainly rate the new additions. I imagine they will improve on their placing in the next top ten. TCM on the other hand have slowly been dropping, people seeming to lose patience with what is a fantastic line-up on paper, but something that has to start translating into results soon if they wish to remain in the top ten. The Summer LANs are certainly going to answer a lot of questions. "

Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner

Appearing on WorldsOldestHuman.com isn't all that Paul has to his name, he is also one of the most knowledgable and experienced men in eSports.

With a CV that won't fit into an average word processor, Paul is a director of QuadV, a broadcasting company he founded at the start of 2007.

Paul has been commentating for six years now, has appeared on major television networks in three continents, and is one of the most in-demand experts in gaming.

"Despite Reason dominating proceedings at UKeSA Finals last week I still think they are marginally behind Verygames despite the Frenchmen seemingly taking a summer break. Behind the undoubted top two star studded line ups it remains anyone's final podium place and despite not really being a team any more, I gave third place this month to Crack Clan. You may find that an odd decision, but its based on a firm belief that had they stayed together they would have claimed 3rd for themselves and possibly gone even higher, they had that much potential as a team. You only had to see with just a few days practice between them how deadly they could be on the first map against Reason in the UKeSA Final. Dignitas continue to have issues with their revolving door of a line up but should they now stick to what looks like a good line up, I am sure they will gel in to a fine team capable of challenging for major honours again. After that, its a turkey shoot. I could have picked any number of teams to go between 5 and 10 and really, until we see some of the German teams in action at (possibly) Tex and/or OOF things wont get much clearer."

Robert "KleX" Pinsler

Robert came in touch with eSports two years ago and has become more and more interested in the CSS scene since then, and also loves to play the game himself.

Last year he started working for the up and coming German eSports site eFever.de and helped to make it to what it is today. With some changes coming across in the last couple of weeks he quit this job after almost two years.

Nevertheless, Robert says that he will "give himself a go as a free agent from now on, so you better watch out!"  

"June basically was the month between LAN79 and the-eXperience as well as the time for exams. As such, we haven't seen that much competition except the UKeSA and some EPS Finals. It's been another very good month for Reason Gaming with winning UKeSA and several other officials but I think they have to prove they're able to beat VeryGames to get on top. Dignitas and 4Kings definitely haven't played enough to hold their positions in the top10. Same would go to mTw if they didn't win the EPS Finals with a very strong performance. Coolermaster also had a good month in my opinion; TCM can be happy with their choice after they lost the old team around warclown. Hopefully they can attend the-eXperience as well as all the other teams because that LAN will definitely be one of the most important competitions of 2009."

Jason "Jay" Atkins

Since starting his shoutcasting career at the now defunct Team Sportscast Network Jay is now a quadV shoutcaster.

Having covered a multitude of games his primary focus has been on CSS and CS 1.6. In the 2 years he has been covering CSS he has seen most if not all of Europe and North America's top teams duke it out in countless leagues and LAN's.

Jay has been around eSports for 5 years now, and broadcasting for 3. In his time he has seen leagues, teams and organisations both flourish and fail.

"After the UKeSA finals this weekend just gone the UK scene has seen some of the games that have set the scene for the coming month. With Crack Clan putting in an impressive performance and Dignitas seemingly re-adjusting this left Reason to show exactly why many are starting to consider them pretenders to Verygames crown. However until I see verygames beaten at LAN I have to say that they are still considered my #1. With the EPS finals coming up it will be interesting to see if the UK scene can stabalise before i37. Upcoming LAN's usually have a positive effect on existing rosters as it gives them a goal to work towards, with seemingly no little to no roster fall-out coming out the UKeSA Season One Finals, perhaps we will start to see compelling games between the same 70 or so players for a couple of months to come."

You'll be able to catch more thoughts from our panel with Cadred's July Rankings in a month's time!