" I think that the top quality players that me and you grew up with have now been burnt out, we are now too old; we have jobs, families and wives. It’s now down to the next batch of top UK players to pick up the game. Out there somewhere is a UK Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund no doubt; we just have to find him. I will say one thing, the UK scene in general and certainly in CS has always been toxic. It is full of trolls or people being racist. It doesn't help them win; or put off the opponent, and in all honestly it probably makes the opponent try harder. "

" Coming from a mainly CoD background I'm used to seeing good UK teams, friendly players that just want to play the game. But when I started playing CS:GO competitively, I realised how bad the UK scene was. There's drama literally round the corner in every team, no matter how successful they are. Although I feel this isn't the main problem. I have found with the bigger UK teams, it's their ego that is the problem. They seem to think they are that much better than everyone else, and it affects them so much when they do play the good teams.



Saying things like "Ah these guys are idiots look at them", "He's hacking he has to be" instead of just admitting they're getting outplayed and learning from it. I honestly feel there is never going to be a UK team anywhere near the top, not until this wave of players retire and the new blood comes in. "

" I think toxicity is always going to happen in gaming, it’s not just the exclusive to the UK scene. There will always be trolls; but surely if you are aspiring to be a pro player; you have to block out the negativity and not let it affect you. I also think that a lot of the younger generation in the UK are console players. Call of Duty is still, and probably always will be the biggest FPS game in the world. Too many people are focusing their time on console and not on Counter-Strike which is sad. "

Only a few years ago the UK was a dominant force, not only within FPS, but in gaming as a whole. In Battlefield and Call of Duty there was of course Team Dignitas, with players such as Michael 'Mick' Bradshaw andOther top teams worth a mention are ones such as: 4Kings, Team Coolmaster (TCM), Reason Gaming, Zboard and Infused Gaming plus many more. The UK has also brought out some of the best players in their respective games. Top players likeDavid 'Zaccubus' Treacy, and in CS terms you cannot forget Sam 'RattlesnK' Gawn and Henry 'HenryG' Greer to name just a few.But in Counter-Strike right now there is a severe lack of UK participation, at the top level. Only fm.TOXiC sit within the top 50. To find out more, we spoke to some of the older UK competitive gamers; and found out why they tought the UK scene is currently lacking.Jon 'Jonte' Ellis-Jones, former CS:S player for The Last Resort (TLR) and Asperity said:Being bad mannered is not something new within gaming and it certainly isn't exclusive to the UK scene, it will always go on; but this view appears to be echoed by many other members of the Counter-strike community.Steven 'Stevestar' Gow, a former CoD4 player for Rage Esports, Empathy, CRG and a former CS:GO player for Playcasters said:It appears that it is not that the UK players lack the skill, but there could certainly be an attitude problem. However not everybody is in agreement with this statement.Dean 'Billaz' Bilbrough, former CoD1 & 2 player for Team UK said:Within the UK there are plenty of skilled players; but no world class team can be born overnight. You need the cohesion, teamwork and a lot of time and effort.Obviously there numerous factors to why the UK is lacking the powerhouse of the good old days. It is a very subjective matter and there is no right or wrong answer. Nobody can predict if we will ever see a top UK GO team, one to push the likes of Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic . In the near future it looks unlikely, but maybe this new initiative by ESL can prove different.The next round of qualifiers begin 02 March 19:30 GMT for more information visit click here. Source(s): ESL