B Site officially unveiled its first season’s talent pool last night while revealing that the league will start in March 2020. There was even more information available to fans if they knew where to look.
B Site is scheduled to start sometime in March 2020, according to the tweet. The timeframe lines up with initial reports stating that the league would overlap with Season 11 of ESL’s Pro League. The talent lineup for the league includes both familiar and new names, alongside some that are returning to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive after time away.
Auguste “Semmler” Massonnat is the highlight of the reveal. The beloved caster will return to CSGO after a two-year absence from the sport while working as a commentator for Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League. Semmler announced that he would return to CSGO full-time last night on his official Twitter account.
The tweet doesn’t mention whether or not Semmler will man the analyst desk or participate in a caster role, but the odds are in favor of a caster position given the other names also announced.
Semmler might reunite with long-time casting partner Anders “anders” Blume, who was also announced as part of the new league.Â
While new to Counter-Strike in a talent capacity, Christopher “Montecristo” Mykles will make his debut in March with the FACEIT-produced B Site. Although MonteChristo is technically a new face in the Counter-Strike talent pool, fans shouldn’t assume he’s unfamiliar.
Montecristo founded the Renegades organization in 2015 and has been involved in a whole host of esports including casting WarCraft 3, StarCraft, and League of Legends. Additionally, Monte was the coach of LCS team CLG from 2014 to 2015.Â
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Odds are that Montecristo will fill an analyst slot at B Site, according to the former Overwatch League caster himself in a series of tweets announcing his departure from Overwatch:
“This means that I will not only continue to perform as on-camera talent, but I will also broaden my skill-set as a creative director and producer,” said Montecristo.Â
If pegged for an analyst role, Montecristo will join Duncan “Thorin” Sheilds on the desk. Thorin also has a spot in the lineup following his hosting duties at EPICENTER 2019 and the StarLadder Berlin Major. Thorin had some choice words in regards to B Site, essentially saying that fans are going to be able to experience CSGO esports in a way they’ve never seen before.
Montecristo revealed in a tweet that both he and Thorin have been involved in B Site for “months,” and that the league set out to create something “for adults, not children.”
Thorin also made sure to note that B Site will overlap with Season 11 of ESL’s Pro League tournament. The fiery esports personality took a shot at the two other competing tournament circuits, BLAST Premier and ESL Pro Tour, saying that that B Site was the one stockpiling talent.
As much as Thorin likes to push buttons, he’s not wrong. B Site announced that Jason “moses” O’Toole, anders, James “JFZB” Bardolph, and Daniel “ddk” Kapadia would also participate in the League. Since FACEIT is handling the production of B Site, ddk and Bardolph aren’t unexpected additions. Moses and Anders, however, are a huge get for B Site in the current tournament environment.
In the tweet above, Thorin reinforced what many already knew; teams and talent that participate in B Site won’t available for Season 11 of EPL. While Valve has pushed back strongly against any type of exclusivity in Counter-Strike, the soft exclusivity created by scheduling seems above board to the developer.Â
B Site has chosen FACEIT’s Freya Speirs to host the new Counter-Strike league after honing her skills at the ECS Season 7 finals before nailing the host role at the ECS Season 8 Finals. The British host originally started as an interviewer with FACEIT before making her way to the desk.
She is currently slated to host the upcoming DreamHack Open Leipzig tournament starting tomorrow, January 24.
Former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in-game leader Sean “seang@res” Gares is also on the tweet’s list of talent and will likely join Freya on the desk in an analyst capacity.
The complete list of B Site talent includes the following personalities:
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