Article by Max "Goodeh" Silver, Editor in Chief Cadred.org


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LONDON, United Kingdom --- Two years ago no one had heard of Lewis “Hughsy” Hughes, but now the quiet London Mint fragger is regarded as one of the best riflers in game. What events lead to Hughes’ transformation from the back burner to the limelight?

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At 13 years old, Hughes started off his competitive gaming career playing Counter-Strike: 1.3 and soon became frustrated with his age holding him back -- the top teams would simply not give him a chance despite his obvious skill. His frustrations would eventually lead him to leave Counter-Strike for the first (and only) time, in favor of World of Warcraft. After nearly two years of casual MMORPG play, Hughes’ friends persuaded him to brave the challenges of a brand new game, Counter-Strike: Source, and join them on Morti Viventi, a clan sitting comfortably one peg below the top the UK had to offer.

Source was an instant hit with Hughes.

The young Londoner found his break with Morti Viventi in the semifinal of the Enemydown Challenge Cup versus Elite Clan Killers, where after nine overtimes and 84 total rounds, his team lost the unofficial longest single map CS:S match of all time. Despite the loss, Hughes’ competitors took notice of his strong individual performance.

“I felt it wasn’t my ability holding me back, but the fact that it’s not how good you are, it’s who you know,” said Hughes. “After the game I felt enough people were watching me to try my luck with a top clan, it paid off.”

Following the tournament, Hughes would join Snipers Alley and spend the remainder of 2006 with the team. Along the way the team put together a string of impressive wins that capped off with a first place finish in an Enemydown Invite Cup. Unfortunately Hughes’ spell in Snipers Alley was short lived as the team decided to part ways following an average showing at EuroCSS LAN.

Armed with a proven track record of impressive performances, Hughes would have no trouble finding another team to join.

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In early 2007 Hughes joined Devastation, a newly created team with the goal of winning the upcoming Ebuyer tournament. The team would collapse in its infancy during the group stages of the tournament after Richard “ritch” Gibbs decided to leave for Reason Gaming. Although clanless, Hughes still had his sights set on competing in the tournament.

Fortune came to his rescue as AuxiliA, one of the other teams competing for Ebuyer’s first place prize -- a £35,000 sponsorship -- had a space that needed filling. A mutual agreement was made and Hughes traveled down to Newbury Racecourse to participate in Ebuyer’s Grand Finals and i30, a tournament running simultaneously at the same venue. It would be an extremely memorable weekend for Hughes.

Although Auxilia failed to win either tournament, their second place finish at Ebuyer and fourth place finish at i30 (that included a 16-1 victory over Reason Gaming) spoke volumes of Hughes talent.

Hughes’ performance that weekend lead rival team Reason Gaming to offer him a spot on their roster following a spat of inactivity from their fifth. It was here that Hughes established himself as one of the best fragger’s in the UK playing along side Tom Chenery, Henry “HenryG” Greer, and Jonothan “jon0o” Finglass, three of his current London Mint teammates.

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Whilst in Reason Gaming, Hughes’ aspirations were solely to become the best Counter-Strike: Source team in the world, money was not (and still is not) his primary focus.

“Earning money never crossed my mind when I joined up with [Reason Gaming], I knew salary was being dished out to big teams, but I didn’t imagine us as one of them,” said Hughes. “I did not think that Counter-Strike: Source would ever reach level of publicity and money that it’s at today.”

Hughes’ impression on the game would change overnight when he first heard about Championship Gaming Series. Although the league didn’t necessarily strike a chord with the entire UK gaming scene, it did offer gamers a legitimate chance to showcase their skills on national television.

“I worked harder than ever had before with my team to be a part of the first season. To play a game you have played for such a long time on live TV and get paid to do so, it’s something any gamer would love to do,” explained Hughes.

In June of 2007 Hughes and his teammates left Reason Gaming to join the 4Kings moniker. The move served as the team’s first step in making the transition from amateur to professional gamers. 4Kings would become the first UK team to publicly announce their support of CGS’s modified CS:S ruleset. The team would go on to practice exclusively using MR9 for the next two months in an attempt to prepare themselves for CGS’s upcoming UK Live Qualifier.

Their dedication paid off.

The team would finish in third place at UK Live Qualifier and perform extremely well during the tournament’s challenge matches.

On September 27th, 2007, London Mint General Manager Sujoy Roy selected 4Kings as the final pick in CGS’s UK Draft.

Hughes had done it, he’d become a pro.

With the shock still setting in that Hughes was now living his dream, he had his Mint teammates would have less than 24 hours to prepare for the biggest match of their careers thus far, CGS’s UK Championship.

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Throughout the UK Live Qualifier Team Diginitas -- who would go on to be drafted as the official CS:S team for the Birmingham Salvo -- had been a thorn in the side of Hughes and his teammates as they simply could not beat them. All of that would change in the UK Championship.

“I went into our first game as London Mint like any other, focusing solely on getting ourselves the win. The only difference was that the result mattered more than ever. I think we vindicated our earlier results by playing to our potential and showing everyone that we are able to compete with anyone,” said Hughes on the Mint’s CS:S and overall match victory over the Salvo.

Following their UK Championship win, the next time we would see London in action would be nearly three months later at CGS’s World Final in Los Angeles.

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The trip to Los Angeles brought new challenges for Hughes and his teammates as it marked the first time he would play against the notoriously aggressive American teams.

“The Americans really bring the game to you; they are very aggressive and change the tempo of the game to their favor,” said Hughes.

But before he would have his first crack at an American team, Hughes and the rest of the Mint would have to go through the Berlin Allianz in CGS’s Counter-Strike: Source Individual Championships.

Despite a string of strong practice results against both Berlin and the other teams present at the World Final, the Mint lost 5-10 to the Allianz. Hughes felt all elements of Chemistry between the five Mint players seemed to vanish during the match, and the tactics which had worked so well in practice fell apart.

With London set to face off against North American runner-up Carolina Core in merely three days, a poor performance in the Individual Championships looked like a bad omen.

London would go on to lose by 13 points to the Carolina in the second round of the World Final. The Counter-Strike: Source squad continued their woes with a 6-11 loss.

Hughes took his team’s early exit very hard.

“I know I had a poor game, but Tom [Chenery] played very well in that match,” said Hughes. “It’s a shame the rest of us couldn’t step up to the plate, the result would have been different... Counter-Strike is a team game and if all five players are not pulling their weight then its game over.”

He continued, “Going out in our first match was a big disappointment for me, because I would have liked to go back on stage to prove my worth to the viewers on TV, the eSports community and myself especially. All I can do now is apologize for the performance to our fans and promise that 2008 will be different.”

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Although Hughes has come a long way in a very short period of time, he will not be satisfied until his team can comfortably call itself the best in the world.

Will 2008 be any different for the London Mint, and for that matter Hughes?

The young fragger is confident that he will retain his spot on the team as he believes GM Roy sees him as “a valuable asset” after watching his performances at various LAN tournaments.

We’ll know his fate for sure in the next few months, but if individual performances are anything to go by, I suspect he will remain as an integral part of the team.



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