Ravens - CoD4, DotA, FIFA, TMN

Today sees the launch of the first edition of a new top notch CounterStrike event, as Arbalet Cup Europe kicks off at the infamous Inferno Online netcafé in Stockholm, Sweden. Ravens.cs have been given a last minute invite - and upon accepting that invite - the Danes have immediatly been marked as underdogs.

Why? Because Ravens.cs have been placed in an absolute killer group alongside last weeks Dreamhack Winter winners Meet Your Makers, Korean professionals WeMade FOX and one of russias top CS teams tp.uSports.

Ravens.cs are generally known as an inexperienced team when it comes to international CS, and rightfully so. This lineup was first formed right before the first WCG Denmark Qualifier held at the-eXperience LAN event  in Roskilde, Denmark this summer, and the core has only been playing together for about 5-6 months.

A look back

Only 2 players remained from the old Ravens lineup, namely Christian ‘turkizh’ Bindslev and Daniel ‘dalle’ Kjersgaard. Both were determined to rebuild the lineup, and quickly found 2 new talented players in the form of Danny ‘Berry’ Krüger and Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer. Both came from the former NS-Gaming. Finally we saw the addition of the experienced Michael ‘Friis’ Jørgensen.

The new team came out guns blazing, winning the first WCG Denmark Qualifier, and from there on showed great form in the Danish eSports League, defeating almost all opposition in their path. Unfortunately after a moderately successful BWS Challenge (2nd place), Friis got an offer from a rival team, and decided to leave the otherwise successful streak that his team was now on.

Ravens at the WCG Qualifier with the new lineup - Picture courtesy of XplayN.com

A replacement was found

Friis left for DSRack (and then Mirror.p00n), and meanwhile our remaining 4 players - admittedly disappointed about the situation - set out to find a suitable replacement. Luckily such a replacement was found in the well-known and sympathetic AWP’er Baljit ‘zE-’ Lal, who came from a longer stay with Spirit of Amiga.

Baljit and Christian apparently knew each other very well and had always wanted to play with each other, and now that the opportunity presented itself, it seemed like a match made in heaven. The chemistry in the team seemed right from the get go, and they continued their succes in the Danish eSports League, finishing the best Danish CounterStrike Division on top.

Baljit's first event with the team, WCG Denmark Finals - Picture courtesy of HLTV.org

Good results

Meanwhile the new season of Intel Extreme Masters was set to start, and the first opponent there was one of Germany’s finest; Alternate Attax. Most people had ruled our chances out, but despite a fairly one-sided first map of dust2, the match proved to be a great spectacle. Ravens went on to claim the second map convincingly, and a 3rd and final map - de_train - had to be played. Both teams had incredible CT sides, and the outcome all came down to margins. turkizh had more then one chance to decide the map, but unfortunately for the Dane, Attax proved to be too strong. The Germans ended up winning the match 2-1, but that didn’t keep the Danes from fighting for a place in the European Finals.

Ravens.cs have won each of the following 4 matches, taking down DTS.Chatrix, EYEsports, Confis.Bigshock and finally Team Unibet, to secure a second place in the group. This sends the team into a Relegation match, and if they win this match, the team have secured that spot in the finals, which they have been working so hard for.

Ravens at the Danish eSport League Finals - Picture courtesy of XplayN.com

Baljit’s first offline experience with the team was the WCG Denmark Finals - where the team finished 2nd, falling short to mTw in a double overtime match - followed by SLAP LIVE #19 where Ravens.cs had to compete in a total of 3 tournaments; the Danish eSport League Finals, the Komplett Gamer Challenge Finals, and the SLAP LIVE main CS tournament. The team ended up taking home 2nd place in DEL, 3rd in KGC and finally another 2nd place in the SLAP main tournament only losing by margins 16-14 to mTw.

Overall very good results from the team, and not exactly something that was expected from the rest of the community, given the short amount of time this lineup has been playing together.

So here we are, December 4th, and the team is currently in a minivan somewhere on the Swedish highway with fRiJeC behind the wheel, headed for Arbalet Cup Europe and a chance to compete against some of the worlds finest CounterStrike teams.

Final words

Do they have a chance? Possibly. Are they going to try their best? Absolutely. Because this team has proven from Day 1 that with the right chemistry, individual talent and skill, and finally a great ingame leader - a team can achieve great things. I’m not saying they’ll take first place, but they’ll try their very best to advance from the group stage, and who knows what can happen if they pass that test. One thing is for sure, the team can benefit from that underdog status, and hopefully turn a few heads this weekend. Worst thing that can happen is that they’ll have gained experience from competing at a top international event, and that’s not all that bad if you ask me.

I’ll deffinatly be glued to the screen and HLTV come Saturday cheering for the lads, and look forward to seeing them in action. Be sure to keep your eye on roskilde-ravens.dk this weekend, as we’ll keep you updated on Arbalet Cup Europe with results, updates, pictures and more.