I’m aware that there’s a lot of controversy at the minute regarding our recent announcement in the CDL, and I just wanted to clear some things up and say a few words about the project and our intentions.
The boys started their journey in EU Challengers two years ago, and as an organisation, our goal and intentions have always been to enter the CDL, our focus has been to coach and develop a full Arab team, from a completely new region and showcase the talent and potential within Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East.
We’ve had many challenges and setbacks along the way that have been out of our control, involving both personal and visa issues, which has resulted in us attending the majority of our Events with pickups. In their first year, the boys they were forced to call out in English, which was a massive barrier that impacted our placements, however this was an important part of the boys journey which now allows us to communicate in Arabic / English opening up more options in the future. Due to the time I have also spent with the boys, I am now able to understand Arabic call-outs and call-out myself in Arabic, despite my poor accent and pronunciation.
The team that will represent us next season in the CDL have been together as a four in Challengers for only four months after picking up Khhx midway through the recent season. Within that time the improvements have been massive which is supported by our online placements, including winning the EU Season 3 Elite. We were faced with more visa issues after this meaning we had to replace Khhx with another player a week before the Champs Qualifier, which ultimately ended our challengers season.
The boys qualified for EWC through the MENA qualifier, and showed a lot of potential and fight, despite not being able to practice or scrim four weeks prior, going up against some of the top teams including FaZe and LORE Gaming (Arcitys and co), the 2024 Challenger Champs, losing a close series 3-2 which I believe should have gone our way.
I hope this clears up a lot for the people who believe we picked up four random Arab players who we found one day in a shipment public match. My boys have unreal gunskill and mechanics and have a unique style which I’ve done a lot of work on to balance. We’re aware that this is a big step and a massive challenge and something which will take time and a lot of hard work. We received a lot of hate and doubt when we first entered the challengers system two years ago, but we gradually gained respect and proved a lot of doubters wrong. This is something we aim to do once again.
My goals and intentions for this project is to further develop the players within Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East, by creating a ‘Path to Pro’ system for the players with limited opportunities due to there being no Challengers system within that region. We aim to create an Academy Team with Arab players who will work closely with the main team and compete within NA Challengers next season. We are not limiting the project to only a specific region and understand that in the future, we may need EU / NA players to help us achieve future goals and will be prepared to do so should we need to.
We are all excited and extremely grateful for this opportunity and will work hard to prove people wrong.