Esports Wales has announced its Open and Women’s IESF Roster for 2025.
The Open roster consists of a rotating door of eight players set to compete in the European Esports Championship 2025 qualifiers. They will kick off proceedings this Saturday with friendlies against Spain, Germany, Czechia and Slovakia. These friendly matches are in preparation for the online qualifiers that are set to start on the 21st of May. Successfully making the top 16 in these online matches would see Wales get through to the LAN finals hosted in Kosovo on the 9th of July.
Esports Wales has also put forward a nine person women’s roster to compete in the women’s edition of IESF. These qualifiers will be on the same dates as the Open roster, including the LAN finals in Kosovo. Unlike the Open roster, the Welsh women’s team have already finished their international friendlies playing matches against the likes of Gibraltar, France, Slovakia and Turkmenistan.
Introducing the CS2 Welsh National Squad for 2025!
Esports Wales is proud to unveil this year’s Counter-Strike 2 National Team, representing Wales on the international stage throughout 2025!
Meet your 2025 Welsh CS2 Squad.#TeamWales #YmaOHyd pic.twitter.com/iBCTXyD7Un
— Esports Wales
(@EsportsWales) April 12, 2025
Different to the Open team, which sees 16 teams qualify for the LAN finals, only eight women’s teams qualify, making it that bit harder.
UKCSGO heard from Wales’ women’s roster’s AWPer Avery “Av3ry” Thomas, who mentions that preparations are going well:
Practice has been really good. From my view everyone is improving and I think its putting the women’s team in a better position than previous years as well as making Esports Wales look stronger from the womens side of things.
Av3ry also spoke about how it feels to represent Wales on the international stage:
Representing Wales is a huge thing, not just for myself but for everyone in the team, and every player from wales to put Welsh CS into the lime light.
The rosters for both teams will be selected based on the best available players for any given match. With the timings of each match yet to be confirmed, only the dates are known. This creates a degree of uncertainty regarding who might be available at any given moment.
The Open roster sees some familiar faces return to the lineup, with players like Ollie “0llie” Froud, Javier “Ping” Griffiths, Kieran “kyzer” Thompson, Liam “zyrx” Jones and Morgan “m0g” Butler representing their country again. The team also features three newcomers to the team by way of Liam “M1n1mal” Reynolds, Ehren “Abyss” Osborne and Eli “rizzy” Pritchard.
M1n1mal set to make his interntional debut
Adding strong first-timers like Abyss and M1n1mal will definitely bring firepower upgrades to the team in their pursuit of LAN qualification. M1n1mal is known for his stint on Viperio Academy, playing in top UK Counter-Strike tournaments like UKIC Division 1 as well as ESEA Main.
Abyss has also seen the highest echelons of UK Counter-strike, competing in 5 seasons of UKIC Div 1 but also reaching the highs of ESEA Advanced. His experience IGLing at the top flight of UK CS might be the edge this team has been missing in previous years.
Speaking to UKCSGO 0llie had this to say about practice:
Practice has been going well so far; the team’s been putting in a lot of hours, and we’re starting to build some really strong chemistry. Obviously, there’s always more to improve on, but the foundation is definitely there.
Furthermore, 0llie laid out some expectations for the roster and their hopes for the upcoming qualifiers:
As for goals, we’re aiming to put Wales on the map and show that we can compete with some of the best. Expectations-wise, we’re definitely hungry to make a deep run and represent the country the right way.
In 2022, the Welsh squad made history by not only participating in the IESF World Championships in Bali but also making the playoffs. Since then, neither the women’s team nor the Open team has made it through the qualifiers.
Wales’ Open team is:
Ollie “0llie” Froud
Javier “Ping” Griffiths
Kieran “kyzer” Thompson
Liam “zyrx” Jones
Morgan “m0g” Butler
Liam “M1n1mal” Reynolds
Ehren “Abyss” Osborne
Eli “rizzy” Pritchard
Wales’ Women’s team is:
Avery “Av3ry” Thomas
Kensa “GKenise” Wilson
Bethan “Bethan” Evans
Olivia “Olivia” Price
Meagan “mehlody” Turner
Neve “iro” Evans
Sarah “Cwmplexr” Forrester
Nadia “NadiaRoxz” Williams
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Announcing the Welsh Women’s CS2 National Team – 2025!
Esports Wales is incredibly proud to unveil the Welsh Women’s CS2 National Squad, ready to represent Cymru on the international stage throughout 2025!
C’mon Cymru!
— Esports Wales
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