Midyear SKADE CS:GO report

First half of 2022 with SKADE CSGO

As we are about to embark on the journey that is the 2nd half of 2022, I figured id sum up all the amazing things we got to experience in the first half. The more thoughi i have given to this over the summer, the more it dawns on me how much we already did.

Shaking things up!

First things first, 2021 was a incredible year for us with bigger tournament wins, taking down big names in esports and tons of fun. However, we always felt that some component was missing, and consistency was a challenge. After some serious thought we started the new year with a couple of new signings to tackle this issue. Kamen “bubble” Kostadinov was set to take charge as the new IGL and Simeon “dream3r” Ganev was brought in to stabilize the fragging department. ?

As always with a newly shaped squad we had some early challenges and a bootcamp was in order to work out some challenges and to make sure the guys became more familiar. This took us to the Kinguin Esports Performance Center in Poland. Having a facility with all needs covered letting the players 100% focus on improvements turned out to be just what we needed.

Highest world ranking to date!

Shortly after our stay we started seeing individual performances picking up and with that the new teamplay started coming together as well. Just 3 months into the year we won our 2 biggest events to date with less than a month gap. Taking the W in both Elisa Invitational winter and then Pinnacle Cup III, with that also taking down some serious names in the CSGO scene.

In the time after this we also managed a new best ever for the org, with a peak HLTV.org ranking of #17 in the WORLD!!

Tight schedule and fatigue.

However, the intense grind we had to push the guys through to achieve our climb on HLTV without playing the biggest tournaments (that naturally give more points), started taking its toll. We have played more official matches than any other team in the world, by a good margin, and that only works for so long. Fatigue was setting in and we lacked energy as the biggest qualifiers came around.

With this in mind, a decision was made. We would take some focus away from the “smaller” tournaments and start shifting our focus towards the bigger ones. The new goal has now been changed towards making it into a IEM, Dreamhack or Major, meaning we need to change things up and get used to a new way of working. And this had a bigger impact on the end of the season than I think most had expected. Making a big change when your “in the zone” really shook things up.

First live event, first LAN win!

Even though the end of the season came with some road bumps, we still got to play our first live event of the year as the season came to an end. Once more, faith brought us back to Poland, Gdynia this time. As one of 4 teams in the live part of Polska Liga Esportowa Superpuchar 2022! The guys came in with a determination and winning mindset that we finally got to experience first hand on ?LAN. Having to dig deep and pull out some incredible moments after a bumpy period only seemed to bring even more focus. A tournament without losses and a clean 2 – 0 grand final victory was a perfect end to the season!

The future of CSGO is bright!

?A lot has changed during the summer and there’s new challenges for most squads. With a more packed tournament season than ever before, being able to manage players time and energy with be a artform in itself. With the addition of the Champion of Champions tournament system there will also be a brand new eco system in play for squads that are not franchised by ESL. CSGO is booming like never before ??