Next week Coventry will see the best of UK CSGO face off in what will be the largest and most publicised UK CSGO tournaments which features more than one UK team. Insomnia54 will see teams such as Infused, FM Toxic, XENEX and TLR as well as the two European teams k1ck and x6tence battle it out for £10,000. See our predictions below and everything you need to know before i54 starts.

Date

3rd – 6th April

Location

Ricoh Arena, Coventry

Prize Pool: £10,000

1st: £5,000

2nd: £2,000

3rd: £1,200

4th: £600

5th – 8th: £300

Map Pool

dust2

inferno

cache

nuke

mirage

overpass

cbble

Casters

Kyan1te, Hoss and Chewwy

Event Stream

Watch live video from Multiplay_CSGO on www.twitch.tv

Teams and Predictions

This event is the first UK CSGO event we have seen that includes an online qualifier that did not include any UK teams that has given two European teams a free route through the groups and the top two seeds. If we see an all EU final I will be disappointed with the UK scene and what could happen is we see more EU teams take over this UK event. This most likely will improve the prize pool and viewership but will phase out UK CSGO even more.

Are you attending i54? Post your team name and lineup in the comments below and where you’re expecting to finish.

Infused

Expected Lineup: tsack, hudzG, decclan, redSNK, CRUC1AL

Updated Lineup (see below): AaroN, CRUC1AL, redSNK, hudzG, ZED

Infused have been the UKs flagship team of late, attending Gfinity as the UKs only team and sticking with a relatively stable (if compared with the UK scene) core lineup, albeit changing one player consistently and having a different lineup from last i-series. I would expect to see an Infused vs. TOXIC final which, when these two teams have played at an i-series together, is the norm. The addition of decclan since EpicLAN in February could help Infused win this event. Watch out for the aim of both decclan and CRUC1AL, they’re incredibly dangerous and can dominate a game when on form.

UPDATE

With less than a week before LAN we see a roster change from Infused with decclan not attending due to personal reasons. He will be playing for the team after LAN as the team look forward to EPS. The new Infused lineup will be AaroN, CRUC1AL, redSNK, hudzG, ZED.

Our 5 for iseries will be AaroN @Infused_CRUC1AL @infused_redSNK @hudzGG & ZED! See you all Thursday! — Neil Murphy (@infusedNeiL_M) March 30, 2015

Sadly I won't be attending I-series due to personal reasons. After the event I will be playing as we aim to focus on doing well in EPS! — DecclanCSGO (@infused_decclan) March 29, 2015

Predicted Finish: 1st/2nd

fm TOXIC

Expected Lineup: socN, nEiLZiNHo, weber, mikeS, Kryptix

After not attending EpicLAN, fm TOXIC are back. They come back with a typical lineup for the UK organisation, after weber and Kryptix played for fish123/Obscene Esports at Epic LAN and won in the final against Infused. That being said this fm TOXIC lineup has only had since February to practice for i-series and is having to play with a stand-in. socN will replace Whindanski at this LAN because Whindanski is in Canada. Even though socN is a stand-in he has played with this set of players before, so I wouldn’t expect TOXIC to completely flop just because they don’t have Whindanski. This lineup is just as good if not probably a little under practiced facing off against Infused, either way we’re going to get a good final.

Predicted Finish: 1st/2nd

k1ck & x6tence

k1ck Expected Lineup: fox, mUttt, KillDreaM, rmn, AIm

x6tence Expected Lineup: MusambaN1, FlipiN, Kairi, loWel, meisoN

k1ck beat Publiclir.se 3-1 and x6tence beat myXMG 3-1 to win their place at Insomnia54, they will get the first or second seed meaning that they will skip the open bracket straight into the double-elimination upper bracket and pretty much everything catered for, free accommodation, free transport and free PCs and monitors at the event. This means they will be jet lagged, playing on PCs that aren’t theirs and will underestimate the talent at this UK event. They will come in thinking because they got a free ticket through groups they will get a free ticket to the final. Wrong. The UK teams will hold their own and not allow an EU team to the final, fm TOXIC, Infused and arguably XENEX and TLR could beat k1ck and x6tence.

Predicted Finish: 3rd/4th

XENEX

Expected Lineup: SHEEKEY, Puls3, RattlesnK, JT, Lumji

This lineup is very experienced and skilled. They have been at the top of the UK scene for a while now in both CSGO and CSS and with the inclusion of veteran player RattlesnK bringing in even more experience this team should do well and could get top 3 if they have practiced. This team could bring out some amazing strats with their huge pool of knowledge but that’s if they’ve bothered to put the practice in. JT comes in fresh off his win at EpicLAN full of confidence and looking to place highly once again so we could see XENEX do better than we have predicted. This is definitely a team to watch.

Predicted Finish: 5th

Perilous Rage

Expected Lineup: quiver, chance, Tankey, ash, zeo

Third at Epic LAN in February we have another team wit ha lineup change, zeo comes in replacing luster. This team showed how good they can be at EpicLAN giving Infused a good game and almost beating them. But once again it’s a case of a roster change in February so how much practice could this team actually have done before this LAN? Answer: not a lot. For a team who is normally very active this can’t be good. NOTE: zeo is a stand in for Luster as Luster has a holiday booked, but zeo has played with the PRAGE team before so, despite a lack of practice, could fit in well. I’d expect Perilous to finish top 6 but could fall behind TLR if they’re not on point. However, there’s no way Perilous Rage isn’t going to finish top 8.

Predicted Finish: 6th

TLR

Expected Lineup: vertiGo, ALIG, b3n, paynt, steel

Again, the same story, I’m a broken record, this team hasn’t practiced, they’ve changed their lineup from EpicLAN and are another mix team. This team is made up of talented players who have played in the same large mix of players for years now so should still make top 8. steel coming over from Canada for this event hasn’t had much practice before the event but should still be able to bring his expertise in to this lineup and make an impact.

Predicted Finish: 7th