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Kule, PESExpert: “The PES community in our region is really big”

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While waiting for the third A1 Gaming Weekend cup to start, we decided to get in touch with the team that will help us organize the tournament and introduce their community to all of you following us. Just as the FBC, the PESExpert guys are constantly helping the players in our region with organizing a big number of tournaments and helping them in the development of their careers. I contacted Kule from PESExpert who was happy to answer my questions and make his community known to even more people.

Hello, Kule, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Could you introduce the PES Expert community to the broader public? How long have you been developing the PES scene in our region?

The PESExpert community exists for over 10 years now, since 2010 – Playstation 3. It was at that time that the founders saw that Croatia has a lot of players that play the best soccer simulation, PES. Since that moment, a lot has changed, we switched to PS4, there were good and bad editions of PES, but the number of members and followers kept increasing constantly. In 2019, PESExpert split into two groups, with the first (12.igrač) focusing on Full Manual, Master League, and the casual side of the player base. Our community (PESExpert) consists of 15 leagues and over 300 players, some of which are between one of the best in Europe, and we can say that we are more focused on developing the quality of the overall scene. Players from all nationalities are welcomed here and we can proudly say that we are successfully working with members from Serbia, BiH, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Macedonia.

What are some tournaments that you organized in the past? Tell us about the PES Expert 1v1 & 2v2 tournament that boasts a 10.000€ prize pool.

From the bigger tournaments, we have organized the “Lumici Centar” tournament in Varaždin, with 80 players playing 1v1, we organized the Reboot 1v1 & 2v2 tournament with 70 players and we worked with Caffe Boeing, where we managed to organize two cups with a total of 90 players.

Our biggest project to date is happening on the 12th of September in Velika Gorica, the sports center Panadić to be exact. The tournament will have 256 players for the 1v1 part, and 64 2v2 duos. Players are showing massive interest in the tournament, mainly because of its €10.000 prize pool, which is the minimal prize pool and is likely to go up. Except for the main tournament, there will be a theme park for kids and adults and a 3v3 bubble football.

How developed is the PES community in the Adriatic region? Do you see this A1 Gaming Weekend tournament as a chance to even further help the players in their competitive careers? Are you looking forward to a great turn out from the players?

The PES community in our region is really big, with over 20.000 active players, we have Serbia that has the biggest number of players and they are really investing into esports with prizes and also bringing the scene closer to the mainstream media with a lot of leagues. We see this tournament [A1 Gaming Weekend] as a chance to show the people just how many players there are in the region that play PES and that it is really worth it. We also hope that people will recognize our organizational abilities and this project will help the PESExpert staff with further projects.

Do you prefer the LAN competition to the online format we have now because of the worldwide pandemic? Are you looking back to going back to LAN?

Online and offline competitions have a lot of differences, for example, when playing tournaments online, not everyone has a connection of the same quality, and that with the delays from the different TV-s can often be a disadvantage for one of the players. Those problems are nullified in offline competitions and the only things that matter are the mechanical and mental quality and capability of the player and that is why playing on LAN is much more popular in showing the real skill of the player.

Aim Assist triumph at the second A1 Gaming Weekend!

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During the weekend the second A1 Gaming Weekend was played out. The first matches were finished fairly quickly on Saturday, while on Sunday we had the chance to see the best of the best Rocket League duos battle it out on stream.

Both of the finalist teams started out the tournament in the first round. Tryhard Kidz and Aim Assist advanced to the second round after victories against DE | Black and Vrucag Uzica respectively, while L3 had no difficulties versus ExquzeS. Except for the Tryhard Kidz – Bwoah matchup that ended 2-1 in favor of the former, all of the round 2 matches were one-sided 2-0 victories for the favorite teams. Real Misfits bested Simple Boys, Size Matters were better than Calculatando and Suzavci outplayed the Macedonian duo Volovi in the Round of 16.

We proceeded to the Best of 5 games in the quarterfinals. No upsets happened in this third round either, and the quarterfinals quickly came to an end after four 3-0 victories for the much better teams. Tryhard Kidz, Suzavci, Aim Assist, and Size Matters all survived the first day and secured a spot in the semifinals of the Rocket League tournament.

Our caster, Pougljeni Mrav finally got to spend some time casting his game, Rocket League. While Tryhard Kidz barely slipped past Suzavci in the first semifinal, Aim Assist outplayed Size Matters in every way possible. Alexii and hoodied were on a whole different level in the Grand Finals as well and Tryhard Kidz didn’t stand a chance. Dred and Haregan were able to win one of the five games played, but Aim Assist closed out the match 4-1 and secured the first-place prize. In the third-place decider, Size Matters breezed past Suzavci with a 4-0 win and took their share of the prize pool.

The best four teams finished the second A1 Gaming Weekend cup in the following order:

1. Aim Assist – (hoodied, alexii) – €200
2. Tryhard Kidz – (Dred, Haregan) – €150
3. Size Matters – (ENTONI, Stipsy) – €100
4. Suzavci – (Hidex, Daciii)

A1 Gaming Weekend - Rocket League

Tune in next week for the final A1 Gaming Weekend cup – Pro Evolution Soccer awaits! You can read more about the PES cup by clicking here, and we have an upcoming interview with one of the admins that is a must-read.

Closing out the A1 Gaming Weekend series with PES20!

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The A1 Gaming Weekend really helped us pass the time between the regular seasons of A1 Adria League while also helping the scenes of the featured titles grow. After Rainbow Six Siege and Rocket League, it is time to reveal the details surrounding our third game, Pro Evolution Soccer.

The eternal rival to the FIFA franchise, PES is making its debut as a game covered by the A1 Adria League, or in this case, A1 Gaming Weekend. We are really happy to give a chance to the regional PES players, and together with the PESExpert community, we are expecting a great turn out from the players. An interview with one of the members of PESExpert is coming soon, so stay tuned if you want to learn more about this amazing community of players.

Playstation 4 is going to be the featured platform and the best players will split the €500 prize pool accordingly. All the competitors will be split into up to groups, depending on the turnout, with 256 being the maximum number of players allowed to sign up. The group stage will begin at 15 o’clock on the 1st of August, with the best two players of each group advancing to the playoffs. The playoffs will be played on the next day, Sunday and they will be played in a BO3 format, with overtimes and penalties enabled. The matches are set to last 10 minutes each and on Sunday, all the Top 8 matches will be streamed on the A1 Adria League streaming channels.

Make sure to fill up the Google Docs sign up form here and follow the rules and decisions made in the Discord server that you will be invited to upon signing-up. The €500 prize pool for this Pro Evolution Soccer tournament will be split as follows:

1. €250
2. €150
3. €100

A1 Gaming Weekend continues with Rocket League!

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We recently announced the A1 Gaming Weekend series of events. The first one the list of titles was Rainbow Six Siege, and after an exciting day yesterday, we concluded the cup while crowning Trokut as the champions of the competition. Now, it is time to turn to our second title, Rocket League.

Rocket League, the vehicular soccer simulation that is easy to understand for everyone and is getting more and more popular by the day is next on our list of games. We feel that this incredible game isn’t getting enough attention in our region, and it is great that our followers chose it as one of the featured titles in the Gaming Weekend.

This 2v2 single-elimination cup will feature a BO3 series format until the quarterfinals of the tournament. The quarter and semifinal matches will be played as BO5 duels, while the Grand Final will boast a BO7 format. We will broadcast the semis and the Finals, and the third-placed team will be decided off-stream.

The best three duos of the tournament will split the €450 prize pool in the following manner:

1. €200
2. €150
3. €100

You can use the following link to sign up for the tournament. Both of the players need to have passports or be current residents of one of the countries in the Adriatic region (Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina)

 

Trokut Reborned win the first A1 Gaming Weekend cup!

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The first A1 Gaming Weekend tournament showed us just how good the regional R6: Siege scene really is. We had the chance to see over 20 teams battling it out for their share of the €650 prize pool. basHYYEE and med1czz further improved the quality of the tournament with a wondeful casting day, and we are grateful to the players and the staff for their efforts in making the first A1 Gaming Weekend cup a big success.

The first A1 Gaming Weekend cup comes to an end after an amazing final!

Most of the teams advanced to the Round of 16 by default, but we were able to see Nerva beat Koper4 and BigW outplay neLos big nose in the first round of the cup. The first match featured on stream was the duel between Judge Knows and Trokut Reborned. After a convincing lead in the beginning by Judge Knows, Trokut were able to turn around the game and win the match in overtime. GASERI and Mendoza were better than Ace7 and GameON Exiles, respectively, while Nerva breezed past TF-141.

The broadcast followed BigW’s one-sided victory against Mendoza in the quarterfinals, while the other match in that side of the bracket saw Trokut secure a spot in the semifinals over GASERI. Slav Team Six and Nerva rounded up the second semifinal matchup as they managed to move past Kerber and Cesta 2 Esport. It took 11 rounds for Nerva to beat Slav Team Six and qualify for the Grand Finals. In the other semifinal, we got the other finalist, and it was no other than Trokut, who continued their phenomenal performance in the match versus BigW.

It was a really fun tournament – lots of familiar faces and ex-teammates, some of which even played in TrokuT. I always love to see great Adria tournaments like this one, it brings the best of us and offers us a chance to improve as well as show what we got individually. But Siege is and always will be a team game, we wouldn’t have won anything without a full roster of fantastic and quality players! HeRi with his insane mechanical skills and top-level fragging, Tekma with the calm and collected game-winning plays on his birthday, Voya with his IGL work showed us various ways to dismantle the enemy defenses, few round winning clutches as well, and Domyy, ex NERVA player that carried us to victory in the first map against them as well as showing up throughout the whole tournament!

I would like to thank them because without them the title would not be possible. We didn’t have much time to practice as we got together 5 days before the tournament started but we used that time well and it paid off. I would also like to thank the casters for their amazing job, A1 for organizing this tournament and great admins and support we got during it! I hope for more of this in the future!

  • SoulSeekeR, Trokut Reborned

The Grand Finals started on Coastline and saw Trokut get a 7-5 victory in the first map of the final match. Kafe Dostoyevsky went even better for the team led by SoulSeekeR and with a 7-1 win, they managed to dominate the competition and secure the grand prize of €350.

These are the Top 8 R6: Siege teams of the first A1 Gaming Weekend tournament:

1. hr Trokut Reborned – (SoulSeekeR, tekMa_, Domyii, voya_, HeRi) – €350

2. hr Nerva – (sprMarko, BudaBot, Meawen, Oincky, Tomix) – €200

3. Slav Team Six – (Remains, kaosx, MR4V, Virch, DrateR) – €100

4. hr BigW – (txrci, BruNNo, Monstr, cookieqe, apo)

5-8. hr GASERI – (Genitech, Kovakralj, FrKly, LostAlice, Lakiiz)

5-8. hr Kerber – (xChodex, shred, Dut, CowTipper3, DarkVader)

5-8. rs Mendoza Gaming – (Le., Pavel-.-, KRAN-G, nekiok, dripchina)

5-8. Cesta 2 Esport – (AVMatic, JonyBoii, Josip288, N1K0, Zayn1209)

A1 Gaming Weekend - Rainbow Six Siege

We are proud to say that the first A1 Gaming Weekend cup is a success. More info about the next title that will be featured in the A1 Gaming Weekend event, Rocket League, is coming soon.. Stay tuned!

lvlUP win back-to-back seasons of A1 Adria League!

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After the other three titles crowned their champions, last, but certainly not least, our CS:GO season came to an end after lvlUP breezed past Blink in the Grand Finals of the League.

The second day of the playoffs started with a Lower Bracket match between GamerS1337 and Blink. We are already used to seeing Blink pick Train, and that was the case once again. The team led by Sener “SENER1” Mahmuti managed to secure the first map with a 16-10 score. GamerS1337 won one more round on their map pick, Mirage, and finished the tournament at the fourth place (Mirage – 16:11).

QSKE and lvlUP closed out the day with an intense BO3 match. The Macedonian squad won the first map, Mirage, convincingly (Mirage – 16:9). lvlUP struck back on their map pick and on the decider, Inferno, we saw an even more dominant match by the Serbian side (Nuke – 16:6, Inferno – 16:5). With this victory, lvlUP became the first team to qualify for the Grand Finals.

Sunday saw the Consolidation Final played out first. Blink and QSKE clashed in a duel which ended up 2-0 in favor of the Albanian organization. Even though the match saw only two played maps, QSKE put up a great fight and didn’t make the job any easier for Blink (Train – 16:14, Mirage – 16:12).

Blink once again secured a rematch from the last season’s Grand Final.
uNiQUE against ex-BLUEJAYS then, Blink versus lvlUP now. The teams went through a number of roster changes, but the rivalry remained. This time we saw lvlUP, who were using Luka “emi” Vuković instead of Miloš “dEE” Marčeta, win the final after only two maps. All lvlUP players were on point today and after two short maps, Train and Nuke, they were crowned back-to-back A1 Adria League Champions.

 

Congratulations to lvlUP! Blink and lvlUP already secured their spot in the next season which will boast a prize pool of €11.000. We will be taking a short break from Counter-Strike until the next season starts.. Use the break to practice more and prepare for the upcoming qualifiers. In the meantime, we will be organizing a couple of tournaments for the titles that are not regularly featured in our League, starting with Rainbow Six: Siege.

esad1memic wins the FIFA season after an incredible final and a penalty shootout!

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The title that was finally back after being featured in the first season, FIFA, showed us that the region still has it when it comes to our virtual footballers. We watched seven qualifiers unfold as the best of the best kept delivering and made a great show for anyone interested in the game. The SWISS and playoffs stage finished recently and now, we have a new FIFA A1 Adria League champion.

Jasik had a clean 3-0 score in the SWISS league, while HarisBLrob1 was eliminated without getting a single win. esad1memic and amke2001 booked a spot in the playoffs with a 3-1 record. In the fifth round, rob1 was the player who got the W and advanced to the next stage of the tournament.

Jasik outplayed rob1 in the first semifinal. Both the matches finished with Jasik having a three-goal lead at the end. After a 3-0 loss in the first match, rob1 lost the second game as well, this time, the final score was 4-1 in favor of Jasik. The second semi was pretty close as esad1memic won the first two games with a single goal advantage. At the final whistle of the referee, esad1memic won the matches with a 2-1 and 3-2 results, respectively.

In the third-place decider, amke came out as the better player. And after an amazing Grand Final match that our caster PvtMole commentated, esad1memic was crowned the best FIFA player in the fifth season of A1 Adria League.


All of the top players will soon collect their earned rewards and Esad “esad1memic” Memić now has the A1 Adria League winners belt under his name. We want to thank all the players that participated in the qualifiers, and the number reached over 400. Thanks to the admins and the guys from the FIFA Balkan Community, and we will be glad if this tournament helps their community grow and develop even more. As for the players who didn’t end in the top eight, keep practicing and we will see you in the next season!

CS:GO’s endgame begins; tune in and support your favorite team!

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Four qualifiers, eight teams, five rounds of SWISS. The last month has been filled by the best Counter-Strike our region can offer. After the regular season finished, we have four remaining sides still in the fight. The first day of the CS:GO playoffs finished with the favourites, QSKE and lvlUP (ex-Juggernauts), each earning a spot in the Upper Bracket Finals.

The day started with a derby between QSKE Gaming and GamerS1337. The players from both teams are very familiar with each other, and both the maps were intense and interesting to watch. The first map, Nuke, was pretty close at the beginning but then QSKE managed to get a good round streak and finish the half with a 10-5 lead. They even extended their lead to 15-9 at one point, but the GamerS weren’t ready to give up. Blaže “HEv1X” Hristov and his squad won four rounds in a row and brought the map to 15-13, but QSKE closed it out and went to Inferno with a 1-0 lead.

After a 8-3 lead on Inferno for QSKE, GamerS1337 turned the game around and had a 11-8 lead at one point. The QSKE players didn’t let that destroy them mentally and kept their cool, eventually winning the match and the series (Inferno 16-12). With this win, they are a step closer to the Grand Finals, while GamerS1337 will be facing Blink in the Lower Bracket elimination game tomorrow.

We saw a rematch of the last season’s finals between lvlUp and Blink in our second match. We didn’t see a third map this time as the Serbian powerhouse closed out the match after only two maps, Nuke and Train. After having a strong 9-2 start on the T side of Nuke, Blink started getting into the game and quickly brougth the match to a 11-11 scoreline. At the very end of the match, lvlUP won five rounds in a row and came a step closer to their match against QSKE.

Train, as one of Blink’s best maps was much closer in terms of the scoreline, and we saw our first playoffs overtime. After two 9-6 halfs, the match went into overtime where lvlUP edged out Blink and booked a spot in the Upper Bracket Finals versus QSKE (Train – 19-17).

Tune in during the weekend and support your favorite team in their road to the Champions title.

Crusher Esports crush the competition in the Clash Royale playoffs!

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With Alpha Elite winning the Brawl Stars League, it was time to turn to our other mobile title, Clash Royale, and end yet another, fifth, season with an incredible playoffs night.

Our commentator, PvtMole, had the chance to watch the Crusher Esports vs LA Gaming game first. LA Gaming started the game strong with a 2-0 victory in the first 1v1 set. Crusher struck back and won both the 2v2 and KOTH modes, while Tocilovac and LA Gaming once again prevailed in the second 1v1 mode. In the end, ConeKorleone wasn’t able to outplay Bruno Blaze and LA Gaming were eliminated from the tournament.

Crusher went on and faced Totem Esports in the second match of the Gauntlet format playoffs. The first 1v1 set ended in favor of Crusher, while Totem bounced back during the 2v2 and KOTH sets. As Beast was playing the No Tilt league in the time of his match against Totem, the team had to surrender the last set and give the win to Crusher.

Crushter couldn’t be stopped in the finals. After two hard-fought victories, they still managed to keep their cool, stay focused and beat Emperiial-Flayn in the Grand Finals. After an amazing 4-1 Group Stage, Emperiial lost the finals without winning a single set. It was amazing to see Crusher win three out of the three series they played and win the fifth season of Clash Royale.

 

A1 Adria League S5 - Clash Royale Final