Ecstatic, Alliance, Inner Circle are amongst the international teams expected to attend EPIC.LAN 45. The teams will add their name to an increasing group of international teams attending EPIC in the quest for VRS points, joining Preasy and Wild Lotus.
Ecstatic, attendees of the 2024 Copenhagen Major, feature a young, talented full-Danish lineup. 18 year-old William ‘sirah’ Kjærsgaard is both the youngest and top-performing of the bunch. The former MOUZ NXT player is averaging a 1.10 rating in 2025.
Number 27 in the last VRS snapshot, Ecstatic will be the team to beat in Kettering. As VRS is an Elo-type system which vastly rewards teams who beat teams above them in the rankings, Ecstatic will be a true prize to capture for teams looking to rise in the rankings. For Ecstatic, the opposite. Though they stand to gain by winning the event, a loss to a low-seed would be extremely punishing for the Danish roster.
Alliance feature a full Swedish core led by a veteran of the game, five-time Major attending Simon ‘twist’ Eliasson. The 30-year-old was twice 3rd-4th in a major, with LGB and Fnatic, respectively. Now he’s fostering a new generation of Swedes, some of whom will be familiar to UK CS fans.
Sean ‘eraa’ Knutsson played under British Coach Ashley ‘ash’ Battye at GamerLegion, while Markus ‘upE’ Johansson was part of British org Viperio’s move to a fully international roster in April 2024.
Having parted ways with Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný, Marcus “Q-Q” Krolak-Henriksen, and Frederik “Fessor” Sørensen in the space of two days, it’s unclear what roster Inner Circle are bringing to the KCC. Despite having two players, Inner Circle is still one of the most star-studded teams coming to EPIC.
They feature Poland’s Szymon ‘kRaSnaL’ Mrozek and Slovakia’s Martin ‘STYKO’ Styk. The Slovak dabbled in broadcasting last year, appearing as an analyst for BLAST, but seems to be fully on the grind now with Inner Circle to establish a VRS rank with a now new core.
N.B. While tickets have been purchased by the rosters, EPIC.LAN tickets are transferrable, meaning they can be sold to another team if the team ultimately does not attend.
The quest for EPIC.LAN VRS just got a lot harder
While Valve Ranking does reward LAN victories, only HLTV-covered matches can be used to create and grow a rank. The limitation in VRS means that teams will be fighting tooth and nail to get deep into the playoffs, where HLTV matches reside.
Usually, HLTV cover only the top four teams, but with International teams and the UK’s top teams in attendance, there is more competition than there are points to go around.
While most of the UK CS representatives just want to have fun and play some CS, international teams will be spending thousands of pounds on their pilgrimage to Kettering, and some will leave disappointed. For the top UK teams, the hope will be that they do.
While the UK teams will have to battle fiercely to secure VRS points, EPIC.LAN Managing Director, Jon Winkle, promised on X that the event will still be the same old EPIC.LAN, asserting, How will @EPICLAN change with international CS2 teams on the VRS hunt? It won’t.”
While the Lanxess Arena of IEM Cologne may be known as the Cathedral of Counter-Strike, Europeans will now be able to see the Church of England of Counter-Strike, the spiritual home of UK CS, the Kettering Conference Centre.
EPIC.LAN starts on July 17th, and Esports News UK will be live from the Kettering Conference Centre to bring you all the exciting action from Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, and Starcraft II.
VRS has made tier two even more competitive, so check out our Esports Betting Sites for odds and offers.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.