Posted: 2022-11-28

With the SCL challenger Grand final only days away, who better to give the viewers a look at both the finalists than the founder of the Aka me :) First off Spirit Academy was the first team that made the Grand final with a 2-0 Victory over 1pin. After a 7-1 season in the SCL, with the only loss being against Cryptoa in the season opener 16-8 before going on a tear, beating every team standing in their way. While few have successfully stood in the way of this Spirit Academy side, they have excelled in the top tier of the SCL, led by AWPer Artem All of this work from Spirit Academy What was formerly a side made up of misfits from different teams, with OWNER being a part of the former BOOMSHAKE lineup, Artfr0st, and Zont1x being a part of the roster since December 2021, baaaZzz formerly playing on TheIncas and donk being a young star in the making. Has propelled this team into stardom. Of course, a Grand final must have 2 teams, on the other side of the server ARCRED. While on the other side of the server, an equally impressive season. What was a shakey start stabilized in a strong run followed by a surprise entry into the playoffs on round wins. They proceeded to beat 9pandas, Beyond Possible and KTRL in bo3 With star players Dssj and HurtsLxrd being statically indifferent to the rest of the side the impact that these players have had on the side has been incredible. New boy Hurtslxrd has become a fresh injection of energy and passion in the server, dominating with a 1.11 Kill/Death Ratio (per SCL Advanced statics) along with a 56% entry success rate (per SCL Advanced statics) he has become a shining star within the roster being able to unlock sites and create space allowing AWPer Dssj to shine with a 1.07 Kill/Death Ratio (per SCL Advanced statics) along with 20 average kills per game (per SCL Advanced statics) being able to capitalize on the space created by Hurtslxrd. This Two-headded dragon for the ARCRED side has been a beast that cannot be tamed by anyone in the SCL. I was able to sit down with one of the scariest players in the SCL, Hurtslxrd and see how this side feels before the big game. Congratulations on your Grand final spot, You beat out one of the red-hot teams in terms of recent form in the SCL, what was the team's mental in that game like? Thanks for the warm words, our mentality was the same as for other matches. We try not to stay focused on our opponents or the importance of the game, we mostly focus on ourselves, our playstyle, and our mechanics. During the game, we didn't feel pressure or something like that, after winning the first rounds all excitement was gone and we played as we did in practice or other league games. We have seen you have a number of successes in tournaments placing 2nd at Republeague, Do you feel that the team's recent results are a sign of how good the team is? After the Republeague league my team changed the roster and took me, we were sure that this change made team many times better and we are far away from our pick form. This roster has been pretty consistent with the only change being SoLB out and HurtsLxrd coming into the roster, with the honeymoon period over how has the dynamic changed with HurtsLxrd in the roster? After the SoLB replacement, we started a hard training process and our first month's results weren't satisfying, but after hard work and many team talks we found what we needed and during the last 4 months we are getting better and better. No player has been a stand-out for this ARCERD roster, who do you think is going to be the difference in the game? We are different from other teams of the current level, huge props to our coach iksou who is famous for his top8 major placement with Quantum Bellator Fire as a coach, he helps us a lot to build a team where everyone does his job and that's why nobody stands out a lot, but for sure I wanna do my best and shine as much as I do this season. Seeing that you are now going against Arcred, how do you think that the Bo3 plays out from veto to final result? Spirit academy is a strong opponent but not the one we should be afraid of, I respect them a lot and there are many friends of mine, but im confident that we should make it 2-0 or 2-1 as their map pool is quite hard for us and they will get a small advantage during map veto. Predictions This Bo3 is set to be one of the best in the SCL Spirit Academy, the side who has only lost one game, the team who cannot be beaten in this league taking on the side who barely scraped into the playoffs and has had to fight and claw their way to a grand final spot. Well, they do call me the king of the predictions. With the players on each roster, I would have to assume a 2-1 Victory for Spirit Academy. Match MVP goes to Zont1x. While I believe that ARCRED will put up a good fight, I need to see more consistency from eN0o and 1NVISIBLEE to believe that this side has a chance to win the Third map. As always, you will be able to catch this Game very soon over on the SCL mainstream! https://www.twitch.tv/scleague_net

Posted: 2022-11-22

SCL SEASON 8 OPEN FOR REGISTRATION The registration for season 8 is open, and you canor Live-chat. Too good for the Public division? DATES SCHEDULE The registration will close on 6th January - 14:00 CEST. The schedule will be released 6th January- 15:30 CEST. First default date9th January, 17.00 CEST, 19.00 CEST or 21.00 CEST Regular season will endAll regular season matches must be finished by then. Playoffs Round of 16: Quarterfinals:13th - 15th February. Semi-finals:16th - 18th February. Grand-final:19th February. It can be rescheduled for later with approval. Note:In special cases can we solve dates outside of the rescheduling scope. Just contact support as early as possible. PRIZE DISTRIBUTION - 11,000 SCL Challenger Division1st 50 QUESTIONS? If you have any questions, please read theDiscord or Live-chat.

Posted: 2022-11-14

Fred: Obviously you guys are 3-0 this season, you have got yourselves into playoffs in past seasons. Do you think you can get yourselves to playoffs this season, and potentially get one step further? Biscu: Yeah, this is definitely a season where we're looking to get playoffs again, like you said, it's one of those seasons where we're looking to take it a step further and make a better showing in the playoffs than we have previously. Charlie: You guys have left your games quite late in the SCL, do you think that helps or hinders you in respect to the season. You get an understanding of where a lot of other teams are, and where you need to roughly finish. Does that add a bit of pressure knowing you need to win X amount of games? Biscu: Well, I guess it would if that was our mindset as a team, but our mindset as a team is that we think we're going to win every game, we expect to win every game regardless of opponent, we go into those games thinking that and believing that, and having the confidence too. It doesn't matter to us whether our games are all in 1 week,and the season is finished, or takes us a month to do it. The reason is, realistically we needed a bit more time to work on the team as we made some roster changes and big ones too. That's the only reason, I guess it is somewhat advantageous. As you can see what teams are going to be in playoffs, and if you leave it really late, you might get some forfeit wins. But certainly not an intentional tactic. Fred: You've got two games today, both of them being overpass, clearly you guys are very confident on that map. Any thoughts going into that one? Is there a game today that you think could be a close one? Biscu: I think every game in SCL could be a close game, I look at the division and I see the teams that are at the top of SCL are at the top of ESEA advanced. I see 1pin, I see ktrl, flowstate, spirit academy. These are all the teams that are flying in the respective leagues as well. I don't see the league as "oh this game should be easy" Of Course every game is going to be tricky, when the opponents are quality just as POLIGON and Partizan will be, but we do expect to win both of our games today and secure playoff position. Charlie: From last season to this one you mentioned wanting to take that one step further instead of just making playoffs. Is there a way that you shape up differently when in BO3 when there is that added pressure, when there is really no second chances. Is there anything we're going to potentially see from you guys to take that next step? Biscu: Yeah, I think when it comes to SCL playoffs, we've been... I don't want to say unlucky because it sounds so much like a cop-out. I feel like we've in a couple of occasions we've been caught cold by our opponents who wanted it more, and we're a bit more serious about it than us. I think our approach this time, when we get there, we take it a bit more seriously. then we perhaps have. and That might have not been a conscious decision, just because we were too focused on something else. But because there's no lans atm, and in a transitional year for ESEA, we're looking to make a more serious step forward in the SCL, and that mindset change, is going to see a large difference for us going forward. Fred: It's clear to see that you guys have that confidence, yes you have made some changes but look how you're doing so far. Something to mention, you look at the stats of the team I'd say, your team is looking very different to some others. Usually you'll have 2/3 stars and supportive players. But it is clear to see from the kill department alone, everyones a fragger everyones a clinical player is that something you consciously decided to mold as a unit, or was it something that seemed to happen. Having everyone who can be that dominant factor, is going to inflict a lot of fear into your opponent's mind. Is that something before you built this team, it was a main focus, or was it something that quite luckily happened? Biscu: I think, that is a product of the team becoming better not necessarily us having better mechanical players, I'm not saying the players weve got now, arent as good or better than the players we had previously, But what i'm trying to say is, that since we've made the roster changes, we've been able to perform much better. The team plays together much better and when the team players better, behind the same philosophy and all on the same page, everyone plays better. The stats show everyones looking like a dangerous fragger, that's because the team is playing better, that's not because everyone is an individual monster. Its because theyre all buying into what it is Artist is trying to instill in the team, what we're trying to do, and were trying to keep that going, and hopefully we can see more consistent stars emerge rather than, everyone just appearing to be fragging, I actually think traditionally speaking, teams should have 1 or 2 guys, "that guy the awper, he's the interesting one, oh yh, that's the star rifler" I would say at the minute, we're trying to get there but right now everyone is doing really good.