What began life as one of Counter-Strike’s many meme mix teams has now become a bona fide Cinderella story as German CS creator ohnePixel’s DRILLAS squad magicked its way to the Asia RMR of the upcoming Shanghai Major, with over 75,000 fans following their decider game live along the way.
Hastily established just a few weeks ago, ohnePixel set himself up as the coach of this rag-tag squad, which admittedly did feature some notable talent. Former Monte captain Volodymyr “Woro2k” Veletniuk and his in-game leading talents were the initial highlight of his squad, as he was joined by fellow Ukrainian Vladyslav “Kvem” Korol from IKLA’s bench alongside ex-LDLC player Ali “hAdji” Haïnouss and Tal “meztal” Hahiashvili and Meytar “AMSALEM” Amsalem, both hailing from Israel.
As we’ve discussed around the time the squad was announced, hAdji’s dual nationality meant that the team was eligible for the Middle Eastern qualifier, which was arguably the easiest pathway to the eventual CS2 RMR.
Still, their triumph is noteworthy even beyond the meme potential. The DRILLAS squad had to bounce back from an opening round loss against JiJieHao to secure the only qualification spot on offer, and they did so by winning five best-of-three series on the trot, capped out with a one-sided triumph over Onyx Ravens with a 13-10 win on Mirage and a 13-1 triumph on Ancient.
In a highlight of CS esports’ special nature, this qualifier of a qualifier attracted some star-level talent in the casting department, with SPUNJ and Harry joining for the occasion, making for a stream that far surpassed the viewing figures of any qualifying event.
Next up is the RMR itself, which is going to be a much more significant challenge for ohnePixel’s squad. Whether the German streamer will actually stand behind them as a coach or if he’ll aim for an upgrade instead after such a case of overachieving is still unclear—however, the memories made and the moments still to come have already made this a legendary run in CS history.
Published: Aug 31, 2024 08:35 am