Author: hREDS

Busy winter is upon us!

Posted on December 12, 2022 by - NHL, Top stories

Winter is time of ice hockey and same can be said about NHL23!

We participate on both, ECL Winter 23 and Capsgaming Showcase Europe, starting this week!

First, some roster changes:

Teemuyy joins to bolster our defense for ECL Winter 23. xDoumi leaves for mandatory military service and Teemuyy is already familiar face to team as he was part of our roster on 2020 and we have faced him ingame multiple times.

Sibelius and Valttyy leaves us. We want to thank them for their contribution for FCL and FEL CUP.

So. What’s up next?

Capsgaming Showcase matches are played every Tuesday. ECL multiple games weekly.

Our top focus is on defending our championship from ECL Spring 2022. Current timeline for ECL Winter 23 is:

  • Regular Season: 12.12.2022-18.1.2023
  • Quarterfinals: 25.1-1.2.2023
  • Semifinals: 5-8.2.2023
  • Finals: 24.2.2023 (Live in Helsinki)

Winner of ECL gets to play against NACL ’23 Winter Champion at Assembly Winter (25th Feb 2023) for World Finals!

Our games begin on Tuesday in Capsgaming and Wednesday in ECL with SportsGamers stream. Follow us at Twitter for most up-to-date information about upcoming games.

And as a bonus we are bringing hREDS casts back.

Mad Catz x hREDS

Posted on October 1, 2021 by - Partners

Today we are happy to announce Mad Catz, a legendary computer gear manufacturer to the hREDS family. The brand has been around since the late 1980s and is now making a comeback with a big array of new innovative products for gaming. To support this mission hREDS will spearhead the brand’s awareness here in Finland.

“Mad Catz is a recognizable brand all the way from my youth and it is exciting to see what they have in store for the new generation of gamers,” says Christer Kasurinen, GM of hREDS organization.

“Working with the best players in the country and as our headquarters are located here in Helsinki, it is natural to be cooperating with hREDS who is an integral part of the legendary HIFK family and have its roots in the capital area,” says Johanna Tuominen, Marketing Manager DELE.io

Mad Catz’s innovative and efficient gaming mice, keyboards, and headsets are available on the www.delenordic.com website.

ECL Elite Champions!

Posted on August 2, 2021 by - NHL, Top stories

It has been a few seasons coming and during last weekend we finally did it.

Many have been asking for a bit of a season recap and here goes:

ECL11 was hard for us. Whilst beating HAVU in the semi-finals, we found ourselves in a totally new place with the finals against FILADELPHIA. With tight games, we thought that we could climb back on the championship train, but something was still missing from our gameplay. It was not fluent and in most of the final games, we had to force ourselves to play better and were 95% of the time just reacting to what the opponent was doing.

After the unsettling 0-4 series loss we knew something had to be done and here is where our story starts. From the get-go, it was apparent that radical changes had to be made and we tore the bandage pretty fast after the season-ending formalities.

The first step needed to take was to release Joakim “Joukkiii” Nyholm, our leading scorer from the playoffs, and find a better-suited forward to replace him. We knew that with Perttu “Beniittto” Kemppainen and Niklas “NikkeDangles” Tukiainen we had enough offensive capability to be competitive in ECL Elite, but still needed the missing ingredient. The player needed to be defensively capable, willing to play a strict team game, and have chemistry with the core from the start. As the search started there were no doubts that only a few people in Finland (or in the whole world for that matter) were skilled enough and we realized there was only one name even worth considering. Vili “Vilupoika” Häkkinen was the obvious choice and from day one playing with him, we started realizing that there was something really special in our forward line. All of the three could play any role needed from offensive juggernaut to the two-way center type of play and results followed.

Defensively after the ECL11 campaign, we were also thinking of adding an ingredient and as a result of Teemu “Teemuyy” Polttila announced pretty fast that he was looking for new opportunities and departed to JYP from where he would eventually move to FILADELPHIA to face us again the finals this season. The team has had a singular name in mind for the role of LD for a long time now and it was discouraging to learn that the name in question Aaro “xDoumi” Ruuhinen would want to test his chances with Havu Esports and it was almost that this fairytale would not have had its end. With details not covered here just before the start of the season, Aaro left Havu and we were finally able to add the missing piece to our defensive core.

Also as our former goalie Mika “FinKonna” Paasikontu wanted his shot with Goons we released him to pursue the main goalie spot we needed to start thinking of a replacement. Niklas “UhNikke” Nieminen was also in the military serving his year in military service so we could not count on him playing for us consistently although doing some really nice work in ECL10 and ECL11. For the new goalie, we wanted to add something new to the mix. For a long time, many teams have had a steady circulation of the same players and it was something we wanted to avoid. We had earlier played with an idea of considering international players and with Filip “Faze91_” Azri we knew we would be getting something really special. Trailing the likes of Casper “CAPPE” Lundgren we already knew adding a Swedish goalie would not disrupt the team’s communications and would also bring some international flavor to the sometimes stagnant Finnish scene.

With the addition of completely three new players we were ready to settle into the competitive side of things and this time from the start of the season there was nothing else in our minds other than to take the title which we had been bitterly denied last season.

ECL12 started relatively easily with the “honeymoon phase” still on and seemed it would be a crushing performance of the year. In the first three rounds against IQUE, Sawo Esports and JYP Jyväskylä we were blasting offensively left and right (also center with Beniittto there obviously) and we’re continuing where we left off in ECL11 with a big margin of 29 goals scored to 6 goals against.

With a solid start like this, it was apparent that the team started believing in their offensive capabilities but needed a bit of a wake-up call from Goons who shut us out in the series with the remarkable job from Finkonna between the pipes. We knew we still needed to be better in the defensive side of the game. After this series, hREDS were not shut down again and also added a new layer to the game that eventually would lead us to victory.

As widely expected and speculated, it was the games against HAVU and FILADELPHIA that would test our form and that is where important things happened considering how the season finally went. With HAVU we had to prove ourselves that we needed to repeat last season’s upset against them in the semi-finals and did just that although the two-series game would have not been able to be any tighter than it was eventually landing us the 2 W’s in the winning bracket. With FILADELPHIA we were planning on executing the same tactic, but as it is when you are playing former years champion, it was far away from the truth. We ended up losing the second game of the series, but with the good form we had from our previous series against Rusty Blades we clinched the first game to our name in the overtime, and with that came the conclusion FILA would be vulnerable and that was what mentally happened in the finals.

Finishing anywhere else than first-place we knew we would have to work our way through from both of the titans mentioned above and with our hiccups and FILA having a monster of a season with only two overtime losses we took second place dominantly but knew it would be far from over until we could covet the prize at the end of the road.

It was apparent that our first-round opponent POGGERS would have to be defeated with a little info as possible to our opposing teams of the future playstyle we wanted to execute and we took the series with a goal difference of 22-7. HAVU in the semifinals was a tough opponent as expected and the series extended to 6 games with only a total of 16 goals scored between the rivals. What would turn the tide of things was the realization of our final boss FILADELPHIA staggering against their first-round opponents IQUE. The team named unbeatable was dropping games and the idea of that boosted the morale of the troops a lot knowing we had dealt with their opponent easily in the regular season.

As the finals were locked in and only two remained we made sure there would be nothing that would distract us from pursuing our goals. Social media presence was lowered to cover only the needed communications, all the players were brought to LAN environments (although Faze having to stay in Stockholm, but he was given a solo room to play in) and the general focus was just to enjoy being together after a long hiatus because of the pandemic and boy did we accomplish just that.

By the start of the series, people were still anxious about facing such a tough opponent, but as the puck dropped something changed and it would dictate the whole series from start to finish. Compared to the general atmosphere and ease of being together from ECL11 the team seemed like a whole different group of people. Communications were polite and people stood behind each other. If someone messed something up, others would come to aid and that is what made us finally into a championship-caliber team and we took the series by a landslide allowing only one goal to be scored on Faze in the whole series, a feat that will surely not be done again in ECL Elite Finals ever again. And as the season started it also ended with our trio on top:

Source: NHLgamer.com

Thank you for reading. We will see you again very soon in the FCL!

Welcome to hREDS, LYNXI!

Posted on July 1, 2021 by - CS:GO, Highlights

After Samu “Samppa” Kylmälä stepped down from the active roster, hREDS has been looking for a replacement to complement our new dynamic as Mikko “xartE” Välimaa will become the IGL. To properly do so, we needed to find a new AWP player that met the standards of the rest of the team. The market for such a Finnish player is small as people know, but we had not taken into consideration a man who just came back from his military duty in the Finnish army.

This is where Topi “LYNXI” Kauppi steps in. Ending his tenure in the Finnish defense forces just two days prior he started playing in the roster. At first as a stand-in so we would have the possibility to try and reach the ESEA Advanced playoffs. “My perspective on life has changed a bit now that the military training is done and I think something will also transmit to my playing career”, says Kauppi.

It became clear from the very get-go that Topi’s skills had not dulled and the rest of the team wanted to sign him straight then and there. “We are coming out of the pandemic and want to really step up our game. This is why I am happy LYNXI considered us first and we could sign him for the rest of 2021”, says Christer Kasurinen, the GM or hREDS organization.

“The roster has huge potential and especially now that xartE is getting back to the IGL role, combined with the young talent that is craving for his teachings, I think we will be able to accomplish something special here at the later stages of 2021″ Kauppi adds.

Thank you Samppa.

Posted on June 10, 2021 by - CS:GO, Top stories

Together with the player, hREDS is announcing the benching of Samu “Samppa” Kylmälä from our active roster. Samppa was a big part of the organization during his tenure from late 2019 all the way through the pandemic and we want to wish him all the best in his future endeavors. Samppa is now free to look for new opportunities and no contract obligations will hold him down if he chooses to move to a new project.

“Thank you Samppa for all the hard work and effort in a very demanding IGL role”, Christer Kasurinen, General Manager, hREDS

Ahlman yhteistyö syvenee

Posted on April 27, 2021 by - Highlights, Top stories

Hakuaika syksyn opintoihin on käynnissä ja Ahlmanin opisto hakee vuosikursseilleen uusia opiskelijoita. Tarjonnasta löytyy koulutusmahdollisuuksia sekä kilpapelaamisen että striimaamisen saralla.

HAKUAIKA 23.2.–13.5.2021
OPISKELUAIKA 10.8.2021–27.5.2022

Lisäinfoa Ahlmanin esport- ja streaming-linjojen hausta saat alta löytyvistä linkeistä:
https://ahlman.fi/koulutushaku/esport-linja/
https://ahlman.fi/koulutushaku/streaming-linja/

hREDS syventää yhteistyötään Ahlmanin ammatti- ja aikuisopiston kanssa. hREDS on mukana edistämässä syksyllä käynnistyvien esport- ja streaming-linjojen toimintaa. ”Haluamme olla entistä tiiviimmin tukemassa kokonaisvaltaista pelikulttuuria, jossa otetaan pelaajien tarpeet ja hyvinvointi huomioon. Ahlman on tästä loistava esimerkki, koska heillä pelaajista pidetään hyvää huolta, niin pelipalvelimella kuin sen ulkopuolellakin”, hREDSin myyntipäällikkö Eemeli Ikonen kertoo.

Ahlmanilla panostetaan laatuun. Suomen parhaat valmentajat käyvät viikoittain valmentamassa opiskelijoita, ja kokonaisvaltaista kehittymistä tuetaan teoriatunneilla, pelitilanteiden analysoinnilla ja erilaisilla testeillä. hREDSin tarjoama osaaminen on ollut merkittävässä roolissa esport-linjan alkuajoista lähtien. ”hREDS on ollut meille luotettava kumppani jo vuosien ajan. Joukkueiden valmentajat ja organisaation edustajat ovat aina olleet pidettyjä vierailijoita opiskelijoidemme keskuudessa”, kommentoi koulutuspäällikkö Jari Yltävä pitkään jatkunutta yhteistyötä.

Useat kilpapelaajat ovat saaneet uranostetta Ahlmanilta siirtyessään sieltä kotimaisiin ja ulkomaisiin organisaatioihin. Vuosien saatossa myös hREDS on sitouttanut organisaatioonsa kilpapelaajia ja valmentajia Ahlmanin esport-linjalta. hREDSin entinen Overwatch-valmentaja Niklas “Nihvu” Hirvelä on nykyään töissä Ahlmanin esport-linjan valmentajana. Valmentajan ammattitutkinnon suorittanut Hirvelä kertoo valmentamisen olevan mielekästä Ahlmanilla, koska opiskelijat jakavat saman kilpailuhenkisen ajatusmaailman. “Täällä opinnot keskittyvät kilpapelaamiseen. Tarjoamme erinomaiset puitteet opiskelijoille, jotta he voivat panostaa täysillä kohti ammattilaisuutta. Koulupäivän loputtua pelaajat siirtyvät valmennuksen alta omien joukkueidensa harjoituksiin. Peliluokkamme on auki linjan opiskelijoille vuorokauden ympäri”, avaa Niklas koulussa päivittäin tapahtuvaa opiskelua.

Pitkään jatkunut yhteistyö syvenee Ahlmanin ja hREDSin välillä syksyllä käynnistyvän streaming-linjan myötä. Vierailevana kouluttajana toimii mm. hREDSin striimaaja Aino “aippa” Lehtimäki. Striimaajien kehitystä vahvistamassa myös yhteinen kumppanimme Jimm’s PC-Store.

Linjoista lisätietoja antaa koulutuspäällikkö Jari Yltävä:
jari.yltava@ahlman.fi
050 3833 941

Esports Uncut #1: Pandemic and Partnerships

Posted on March 24, 2021 by - Esports Uncut

This is the first part a blog series written by the General Manager of hREDS Christer Kasurinen. In the blog, he will go through interesting topics and give his insights on the field of esports. The author with his opinions are his points of view and should never be considered as 100% truth. Although you might notice they differ a lot from the traditional ones.

Before we start going through the first piece, I think introductions should be in order. My name is Christer Kasurinen. I am the operational lead of the Finnish esports organization hREDS and have been so since the end of 2016. Esports has become my primary passion leaving my old career to fully commit to it in late 2018.

I am 43 years old and live a mundane life with a wife, one kid, and a dog. I also drive a Volvo to keep the stereotype alive also when I am not at home. Been a huge video game enthusiast ever since 1983. My father bought me my first device (Atari-2600) and have never looked back since.

The Pandemic

Where else to start this blog series than the pandemic that has lasted for over a year. During this period we have had the chance to experience a world with less stimulus and interaction than in many decades before. This has made the use of technical devices even more of a norm in our lives than ever before as humans tend to drift to social interaction and want to link themselves to something.

We have experienced in the industry that this has shown the strength of esports compared to many traditional sports. The day-to-day operations can continue as most of what we do can easily be done on the internet and the need for a specific space is not required. One could think esports is in a place where we have a very big advantage over the other parts of the sports industry. Yet it is not so black and white as I will explain below.

Where our capability to operate unhinged on the internet continues we are left in a state that makes working in the industry rough. As the business keeps growing globally one of the biggest things supporting its growth, good stabile partnerships have become rarer as time goes on. At the start of the pandemic in early 2020 (EU region) the partnerships were still on their non-pandemic terms where for example live events and activations were a big part of the deal.

Wanting to be an endemic brand, the companies needed to meld into the heart of the countries ecosystems by not being just present in events but also being part of the infrastructure that grows it. As the events have been postponed or altogether canceled now for a year already, many companies have taken a step back and their general consensus is to “wait it out and see how it goes”. We as a business cannot.

As mentioned above, we as a global ecosystem keep on growing. The challenge for us now is to prove ourselves by combining the best practices of old and new to counter the skeptics who think esports is a short-term thing that will fade eventually. This being said the field of new partnerships has become somewhat odd compared to pre-pandemic times.

The Partnerships

Whereas the 2010’s esports was a new and growing sector in sports entertainment, we have reached the point where the “new factor” has started to move aside and the day-to-day business grind has taken the field gradually. Now with that being said the pandemic could have not come in a worse time as the marketing budgets of many companies have declined and reverted back to the “more safe partnerships” leaving the growing organizations in a slump where the expenses keep rising and the available opportunities keep saturating as more and more companies are formed.

On top of this, the bad times have also created a market desperately needing funds, thus growing the interest of parties that might want to benefit out of the situation with less money exchanging hands for more work to be put into the deal. I have heard and also been part of negotiations where the opposing side has merely wanted a content creation subcontractor to create content with a smaller budget than it would normally cost making the partnership a +/- 0 deal where the organization does not gain any resources from the transaction.

Opting to hang tight with the opposing brand and make it a reference case might be the way to go. Sadly in my opinion it promotes the “we will literally put up with anything” mentality, thus strengthening the side of the business that does not want to commit to growing a long and meaningful partnership.

Our organization has been lucky with our current partners. We have already signed new contracts with them or are in the process of doing so. This trend needs to continue as our business needs to grow. With the majority of funds still flowing into the esports economy being investment and partnership deals, it is imperative to find good companies on which we can build on. Not for the upcoming quarter, but for the long haul as well.

For this to happen, organizations need to refrain from taking nonbeneficial deals from companies that don’t want to fully commit. This is of course easier said than done as the resources are hard to come by these days.

In a nutshell: Get partnerships, not companies that only want subcontractors.

Thank you.

Introducing hREDS Academy

Posted on March 11, 2021 by - CS:GO, Youth Program

This one has been a long time coming and finally, we can shed some light on how our CS:GO youth program is going forwards in 2021.

The original players from our 2019 beginner course have continued to develop and wanted to continue playing together. At the end of 2020 we decided to bring them back together for that, with the exception of the world pandemic situation, they would start their journey safely from their homes and work on their progress delaying it no longer.

It became really apparent from the get-go that players would start needing more outside competitive play and we moved forward with the Academy initiative that had been brewing with Mikael “sotsi” Reenpää for quite some time already.

This been said, here is our first ever competitive Academy roster for the upcoming spring:

Viktor “Vikke” Kulmala
Joel “Joel” Kuhlberg
Nicolas ”mejak” Reenpää
Eero “WeeRo” Weckström
Kalle “hevosmies” Kainulainen

We have plenty of more to tell you about our youngsters and what they will do next so stay tuned in our social media channels!


Nuorisotoiminta startattu!

Posted on February 8, 2021 by - CS:GO, Youth Program

Maailmantilanteesta riippumatta olemme vihdoin päässeet hetkeen jossa voimme ilolla todeta, että pitkään suunniteltu nuorisotoimintamme, joka alkoi jo 2019 pilotilla on jälleen lähtenyt käyntiin.

Tällä kertaa ryhmiä on kolme. Kaksi näistä keskittyy uusiin kilpapelaamisesta kiinnostuneisiin nuoriin kun taas kolmas ryhmä pitää sisällään ensimmäisen kurssimme parhaimmistoa, jotka ovat jatkamassa tekemistä haastavammilla harjoitteilla.

Alkeiskurssit on rakennettu niin, että pelaajat pelaavat toisiaan vastaan omilla pelipalvelimillamme tehden samalla valmentajien osoittamia harjoituksia omantasoisessa ryhmässä. Iloksemme voimme todeta, että ensimmäiset harjoituspäivät ovat startanneet todella hyvin ja ryhmäytymistä on jo havaittu pelaajien keskuudessa.

Jatkokurssi tuntuu myös onnistuneen hyvin. Aluksi tottuminen etäyhteyksiin, livenä näkemisen sijaan oli haastavaa, mutta hyvä pohja jonka pelaajat rakensivat GLHF tiloissa vuodenvaihteessa 2019-2020 näkyy myös nyt vuotta myöhemmin pelipalvelimilla.

Vaikka vielä emme tiedä maailmantilanteesta kurssien jälkeen on jo nyt jatkoa suunniteilla. Kysymys kuuluu enää tuleeko tekeminen jatkumaan etänä vai päästäänkö takaisin liveympäristöihin.

hREDSin nuorisotoimintaa tukevat pitkäaikaiset yhteistyökumppanimme Telia ja OMEN.

Valorant Discontinued

Posted on January 13, 2021 by - Valorant

As the previous contracts end on our players, we in mutual agreement with the players and coaching staff have decided not to pursue future roster plans. As an organization of our size, we still need to see where the games ecosystem is going before we start investing more time and resources in the game.

This being said, we are not renewing the contracts of Jussi “Skipah” Mehtälä, Ilari “Iluri” Puranen, and Santeri “Bonecold” Sassi. We wish them all the good in the future and want to thank them for their time and effort during the last half-year period representing the hREDS organization.

hREDS CS:GO 2021

Posted on January 4, 2021 by - CS:GO

As one door closes, another opens and that is just what our CS:GO roster will experience going forward. For some, it is time to hop off the roster, and others a time to start climbing the ladder. With a good end of the year behind them, the boys are back and hungry after a short break. They start their training today as this article will be released.

The core of the team will be making a return for 2021 with the exception of Pasi “VORMISTO” Koskinen leaving the roster to pursue his studies and career IRL. Pasi will stay with the organization as a guiding pair of eyes who will from time to time give his input on the development of the roster.

Mikael “Sotsi” Reenpää will also continue in the organization with the youth program, but will not be part-taking in the rosters day to day operations as of now. We would like to thank Miksu for his hard effort during the second half of 2020.

To introduce a new player to the active team, we are more than happy to welcome Joona “Sm1llee” Holmström to the organization. Joona went through a rigorous try-out period before the Christmas break and we are more than eager to see how he develops during the next year. Eetu “eDi” Astikainen remains as the last player from the original roster and will be taking a bigger role in the team with him losing the junior spot to Sm1llee.

The roster will have its first official game experience this week already as the Elisa Nordic Championship Finland starts on Friday with the group. We have an interesting year ahead of us. Stay tuned for the #hREDSCSGO2021

Valorant roster changes for 2021

Posted on December 9, 2020 by - Valorant

First months of our Valorant path have been completed and it is time to reflect and start planning for 2021. A big effort was made to make the rosters start as smooth as possible and also the launch was delayed for few months cause of the global pandemic. Than being said, not everything went according to plan.

As of today, our roster will be shrunk to three players and we are letting Toni “Ube” Häkli and Sami “Haamu” Sutinen continue on their path and look for new opportunities. The decisions have been made mutually and we see it is better to give them a competitive edge on finding a new opportunity as soon as possible and dont want to delay it for a day longer.

The remaining players Ilari “Iluri” Puranen, Jussi “Skipah” Mehtälä and Santeri “Bonecold” Sassi will continue trying out new candidates for the roster starting this week.

We talked with team coach Samuli “Baito” Karppinen and his message was clear: “Even though we have had a lot of tight matches against great teams, our roster has not met the expectations we set together at the very start of the season. Individual consistency and confidence was something that we were missing in a lot of matches during our first months.”

Eemeli “Woomera” Ikonen agrees and wants to emphasize that fast decisions need to be made at this stage of the games development as we believe that the more ready we are to tackle 2021 the better for the organizations success in the long run.

The roster took part in three tournaments during its first months, including clinching a qualified spot to Nice Cactus Fall #2 tournament, part-taking in Valorant First Strike qualifiers, and competing in the Finnish FEL Valorant Cup.

We will keep you posted on the progress of new players being introduced to the organization as the tryouts have completed.

Afterthoughts: Esea Advanced Season 35

Posted on November 19, 2020 by - CS:GO

The ESEA Advanced season 35 is over and what a season it was. Few afterthoughts from the GM Kasurinen and how he saw the season unfold.

Before the season start, we were coming off a dry streak of sorts as bringing in new players always can either have a boosting effect on performance or then you need to adjust to the changes. The team was going through the latter one and was a bit shaky early on.

Starting off the season we had a normal start and the first 3 games seemed to go as planned as we lost to Project X, which at the time was deemed “not fun, but something you would expect” kinda loss. Scrims were going smoothly and everything clicked, but then something happened and during a span of 1 week, we managed to take 3 losses against our own level teams as we dropped to the ball versus Wizards Club, ECLOT, and Vexed Gaming.

Some might have started to wait for a new season with a record of 2-4 from our first six games, but it was at that moment something really interesting happened. As players age, they tend to start developing manners of tightening their game as the odds get stacked against you and it was here that Mikko “xartE” Välimaa and Pasi “VORMISTO” Koskinen took it upon themselves to carry the team over the hard stretch of not being allowed almost any losses in the last 10 matches.

With a two win streak we managed (once again) to drop the ball against our finnish rival Kova Esports and it started to look that a record of 4-5 was not going to cut it to reach the playoffs.

The team though was not keen on letting the end of 2020 slip by their hands and started to dig even deeper into the tactics side of things and managed to pull off a 5 game winning streak with the newly gained vigor from that time. Still lead by the veterans, even the younger players adapted to the new playstyle, and results followed.

It was the game against Tenerife Titans that ensured us the 15th spot that we still barely clinched going into the playoffs. We were down by 3-12 in the first half of the game (Terrorist side) and somehow managed to reverse our CT side with the same results, making it to overtime barely. It took 3 overtimes to get the game under our wings and we ended it with a 25-23 record. Match MVP as earlier was xartE who recorded a whopping 42 kills, 1 ACE, 1 4k, 88 enemies flashed (34% of whole teams flashes), and a promising ADR of 88,15 which by any standard is a good number for such a long game.

It was not just our own goodness that got us to the playoffs, but we managed to pull off a greater later half of the season, with the knife on our throats, which shows good signs of things to come.

As expected, we fell in the first round to Lyngby Vikings and took our spot in the lower bracket where the actual magic started happening. At this point, we knew that going up against The Dice looked easier than it was. A promising french lineup that had almost exactly the same map pool as we did and it could rotate either way. This being the case, we were relieved to come out of it on top with the end score of 2-1.

Making it to the next round, the roster started realizing that we still had more juice to go with and that there was elements of surprise we could use against Project X, a team we had lost to in the earlier rounds of the season, and who had won the whole series. And so it was that on a rainy November evening we beat an opponent we “should have not beaten” with a clear 2-0 and the maps even were not that tight, making the team realize that we can if we set our mindset where it should be.

Making top 8 was an achievement on its own, but one always starts to get more hungry when an opportunity to get to the MDL qualifiers presents itself and the roster started pushing for top 6 and this is where our season ended. With a seemingly more easy team with Budapest 5 compared to Project X we overthought our strategy and fell to an opponent pretty much like The Dice (same map pool as us), but with better individuals to execute them.

All and all the experience of ESEA Advanced 35 was a good one for us, setting the tone for future tournaments and 2021. We now know even better what parts of our game we need to practise and develop more and now that we are showing improvement in international games, the players are hungrier than ever to break into the bigger scene and start climbing the HLTV ladder.

hREDS CS:GO to ESEA Advanced Playoffs

Posted on November 2, 2020 by - CS:GO

ESEA Advanced Season 35 has concluded and we are happy to announce that we made it to the playoff stage in the EU region.

The start of the season was a hard one for us, but we managed to pull through after 3 games losing streak against Wizards, Vexed Gaming, and ECLOT. With the added confidence boost brought in by the experienced Mikko “xartE” Välimaa, the team was able to pull off few nice upsets over higher ranked opponents.

The deciding factor on the season’s success was the five-game winning streak late in the season versus Aalborg Rebels, Enable, Gaminate, Smoke Criminals and Tenerife Titans.

The arrival of our newly aquired Olli “oopee” Piispanen also added to the offensive value of the roster providing hard, continuos performance throughout the series with hard clutches when they were needed.

Welcome hREDS Valorant!

Posted on October 30, 2020 by - Uncategorized

The Helsinki based esports organization hREDS expands it’s operations to a new competitive game. hREDS announces a roster in Valorant, coached by Samuli ”BAITO” Karppinen and managed by hREDS Valorant team manager Eemeli ”Woomera” Ikonen. The squad joins an emerging Valorant scene with a whole new ecosystem.

Building the team has been a long and thorough project, delayed by the ongoing corona situation. The players were picked after practice squads and tryouts. We have been working hard with the team for several months now. Now as the big tournaments approach, we felt it was time to release the roster, said team manager Ikonen.

Together with Samuli “BAITO” Karppinen, our goal was to form the most balanced and competitive team possible through personalities and, of course, skills. We feel that we have succeeded in this goal. We have a very hungry and talented team willing to do the necessary grind to reach the top ranks.

Our Valorant team players are:
Santeri ”Bonecold” Sassi
Toni ”Ube” Häkli
Jussi ”Skipah” Mehtälä
Ilari ”iluri” Puranen
Sami-Petteri ”Haamu” Sutinen

Several players participated in practice squad play and tryouts. The hREDS thank everyone of them for their effort and interest in the team.

“I would like to thank all the players that were involved in the tryout process. There are a lot of young and talented players in this country that will surely come a long way in their careers, if they just choose to invest their time and effort in Valorant”, said Woomera.

hREDS new web page is here!

Posted on October 30, 2020 by - Top stories

After working tirelessly during the last few months we are finally ready to reveal our new web page to the world. The web page was originally meant to be put up as a part of the brand rework, but the global pandemic and the financial insecurity it brought set us back several months.

We were able to keep the design of the page really close to the vision of Miika Kumpulainen (see his other work at Kumppari web site) and still have plenty of space to add more features in the upcoming times.

The web page incorporates more graphical elements than the previous one and we will be working vigorously to keep it up to date, so from here on out, there will always be something new for people to view.

Thank you for your patience. hREDS is back!