Otukset - A one hit wonder or a new contender on the rise?

Our regional leagues are an excellent platform for new talents to showcase themselves and that is exactly what Otukset eSports did during their past FCL campaign, which ended in the Quarterfinals at the hands of eventual champion FILADELPHIA.

Otukset eSports is a slightly more unknown team for many, although the team has a wealth of experience in various competitive tournaments. Most of their players have already participated in previous ECL tournaments, but team captain Matias @theMaddias Kilpinen notes that only recently, a more goal-oriented approach to playing has started: "As players, the number of players became acquainted with ECL10 when NEO was played in different gangs. The project started because the goal was to play in the same gang before, now the timing was right. From then on, we played together from time to time, and now, at the end of ECL12, a gang was pulled together."

Individual skill is perhaps not the strength of the team, but instead the fact that every player knows their role and play an equally important part in the game.

"The strengths of our team are largely in the passing game as well as in defence, skill-wise, the team is very even, i.e. everyone is able to do a little bit of everything and adapt to different situations. We've got high ambitions, which means that at the moment we've got our sights set on an eventual promotion to Elite."

"Although our FCL squad didn't consist of big profile players, each of the individuals had held important roles in their previous teams. I think that we were seen as underdogs simply because people hadn't heard of us before and we harnessed that as a strength."

The team's captain notes that participating in the FCL was a foregone conclusion and the team's biggest goal in the tournament was to go as far as possible. To everyone's great surprise, the team managed to progress all the way to the playoffs, where they managed to beat skilled groups such as IQUE and RCTIC along the way. 

"In the IQUE series we started to win every game and got an OT win right from the first game, which was very important for the series. We simply stuck to the process without any special attempts to adapt to the opponent's style of play."

In the quarterfinals, FILADELPHIA, who eventually progressed to become Finnish champion, was an insurmountable obstacle for the team.

"Against FILADELPHIA, we wanted to continue in the same way, but the skill and experience of the opponent just ended up being too much for us to handle at that moment."

A successful FCL tournament gave the young team a lot of confidence for the future. When asked about the team's next goals, participation in the Pro Qualifiers through a wildcard spot is what the team has their sights set on.

"FCL provided a lot of confidence for the future and we also decided to stick with the same lineup going further, sadly losing the handsome Dane Mikkel @Birkedal96 Birkedal. Under the new ECL qualifier rules we'll be able to qualify for Pro through a wildcard spot, which we are very excited about, we're diving into action head first and of course are aiming to just win."

Success stories like this are always exciting to see and it'll be interesting to follow the journey of Otukset also in the future. They will start their ECL 13 campaign through qualifiers to determine in which division they'll end up, so make sure to keep an eye on this ambitious group when the puck drops!