Photo by GrimyRannarr of UKCSGO
Spanish Counter-Strike 2 team Iberian Soul will be competing at EPIC.LAN 45 with UK Counter-Strike player and streamer Owen ‘smooya’ Butterfield.
The Spanish core of Alejandro ‘mopoz’ Fernández-Quejo, David ‘dav1g’ Granado, Pere ‘sausol’ Solsona, and Alejandro “alex” Masanet complete the line-up for the upcoming tournament.
The Iberian Soul team have been without an organisation since KOI’s departure from the CS2 scene back in January earlier this year.
This will be the first time in a while that smooya has competed at the Kettering-based event, with his last appearance coming in February 2024 at EPIC.LAN 41.
Previously, smooya was fined for misconduct at EPIC.LAN 41 after leaving his seat and removing his earphones mid-match during the final between his team, The Neighbours, and K10.
Esports News UK also understands smooya had previously been informally banned from the event for misconduct, but that ban has now lapsed.
This ban was not due to the aforementioned fine for misconduct issued after EPIC 41.
smooya and the roster of Iberian Soul will compete with various international teams at the upcoming CS2 event, including Alliance, Estatic, Inner Circle, Preasy, and Wild Lotus.
Iberian Soul roster reportedly signed by Gentle Mates
As previously mentioned, the Iberian Soul players have been without an organisation since previously playing for the Spanish organisation, KOI.
Now, it has been reported by Sheep Esports that the roster will be acquired by French esports organisation, Gentle Mates.
Portuguese in-game-leader Renato ‘stadodo’ Gonçalves is the only player not staying with the team, and that gap won’t be permanently filled by smooya either.
According to the report, Spanish AWPer Antonio ‘Martinez’ Martinez is expected to join the new Gentle Mates team from Agentinian organisation 9z.
Fielding an all-Spanish roster is an interesting choice by Gentle Mates, considering the historic rivalry between France and Spain in CS2 and various other esports titles.
The Iberian Soul roster has failed to qualify for any S-tier tournaments this year, missing out on PGL Bucharest, PGL Astana, and IEM Dallas.
Meanwhile, this will be the Gentle Mates first entry into Counter-Strike, though the organisation are no strangers to FPS games.
Two of the club’s co-founders are former Call of Duty pros in Corentin ‘Gotaga’ Houssein and Kevin ‘Brawks’ Georges.
The duo, who are both content creators now, were also part of the group that helped found Team Vitality, who now have the strongest CS2 team in the world.
The other co-founder is Lucas ‘Squeezie’ Hauchard, the second-most subscribed French-speaking YouTuber.
You can gamble on Gentle Mates’ first CS2 matches and other tournaments on esports betting sites.
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most proud of the latter.