k23

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k23
Abbreviation k23
Manager RussiaRussia Konstantin Pikiner
Headquarters KazakhstanKazakhstan Almaty
founding year 2005
resolution 2012
Clan color turquoise
Teams
* Counter-Strike

k23 is a former E-Sports - communities of Kazakhstan , by international success in the computer game Counter-Strike was announced. It was the first professional esports team in Central Asia .

description

The Counter-Strike team around Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev first generated a lot of attention in 2005 when it came second at the World Cyber ​​Games in Singapore as a completely unknown outsider . However, the poor flow of information from Kazakhstan and the financial inability to take part in costly tournaments outside the CIS ensured that little was heard from k23 in the next few years.

In 2008, the Kazakh esports patron Murat “Arbalet” Zhumashevich, who had been actively promoting professional computer games in Kazakhstan since the late 1990s, decided to give the team particularly intensive support. Konstantin "groove" Pikiner, formerly a Virtus.pro player , was hired as a trainer and manager and was supposed to help k23 achieve the best possible placement at the 2008 World Cyber ​​Games. At the same time, the players were exposed to very high pressure to perform. However, they managed to convince their new financier by finishing the tournament in the top 8. In the quarter-finals they were defeated by the later third-placed eSTRO .

As a result, k23 was able to move to Moscow in March 2009 into its own team apartment. The training conditions there were far better than at home, where the players were often forced to compete in two-on-two or three-on-three mode due to the weak competition. Zhumashevich also financed the team's trips to major esports tournaments in Spain, South Korea, China and Dubai. Despite good performance, the Kazakhs never managed to place in the top three. At the World Cyber ​​Games 2009, k23 was eliminated again in the quarter-finals despite a victory against co-favorite wNv Teamwork .

Since Zhumashevich's expectations of becoming one of the most successful teams in the world could not be met, he completely stopped his support at the end of 2009. Together with three players from the Russian clan Virtus.pro , which was dropped by Zhumashevich at the same time, Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev and Malik "N1ck3L" Sualirov were able to convince their investor to give them one last chance and formed the UNiTED team .

After this was also dissolved in mid-2010 due to poor performance (Zhumashevich had already achieved his goal with the Ukrainians from Natus Vincere at this point ), the two players returned to k23 and reactivated the 2008/2009 squad. When Kystaubayev announced that he was about to end his career in August because of his early studies in China , the Counter-Strike team at k23 disbanded completely for the time being. At the farewell tournament, the ASUS Summer 2010 in Kiev , which was mainly made up of Eastern European teams , k23 once again attracted attention by beating Natus Vincere, who was then the strongest Counter-Strike team in the world. In autumn 2012, the clan took part in GameGune 2012 without success . Since switching to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , the clan has not appeared and is considered dissolved.

Successes (excerpt)

Counter-Strike

  • World Cyber ​​Games 2005: 2nd place
  • World Cyber ​​Games 2008: Top 8
  • e-Stars Seoul 2009: 6th place
  • ESL Intel Extreme Masters IV - GC Chengdu: Top 12
  • ESL Intel Extreme Masters IV - GC Dubai: Top 6
  • World Cyber ​​Games 2009: Top 8
  • ASUS Summer 2010: 2nd place

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arbalet, the eSports oligarch. ( Memento from January 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) ePen.is
  2. ↑ The players of k23 in a detailed portrait. readmore.de
  3. ↑ 2on2 training as a Kazakh recipe for success. readmore.de
  4. ↑ AdreN hangs the mouse on the nail. readmore.de
  5. ↑ k23 to attend GameGune. hltv.org, July 21, 2012, accessed August 15, 2015 .