A new roster with familiar European faces has been finalised after making the finals of ESL's Go4Overwatch Weekly EU #2. Although competing in the tournament as Ventus due to contractual obligations, they shall henceforth be known as 2sTroNk.

Their tournament run on Sunday saw them take down Prets and Eyeoctane on the way to a closely fought finale where they were pitted against OWKings. Despite bouncing back from an early 0-2 deficit in the series, victory would slip between their fingers when they were bested on the fifth map, Ilios.

Although technically a new venture, these players are more than a little familiar with each other. At the heart of the team lies Elvinas "evokje" Padegimas, a veteran TF2 player who has been grafting in competitive Overwatch since Phase 1. He has been assembling the pieces of the 2sTroNk roster over the last few weeks.

The Experiment line-up that finished 7th at TaKeTV's TaKeOver before fracturing - ToxikeN would become a stand in for Rogue, whilst Mendokusaii and Veineless are rumoured to be involved in a new project – would be the most high profile reference point for the 2sTroNk backstory. Here evokje and EISSFELDT would fight behind the shield of European World of Tanks champion Dominik "Ruster" Waffler as the short-lived LAN team were able to take four maps from Melty and Graviton Surge at the launch week event.

If we go further back in the Closed Beta era a Ventus roster featuring evokje, EISSFELDT and Mineral even managed to beat out REUNITED in a best-of-five to take gold in the ESL Community Cup #5, albeit with a little help from Zebbosaii, iddqd and Nevix.

Yet, perhaps the most exciting piece on the board is one of the newest - their hotshot Widowmaker, Tim "Manneten" Byhlund. You probably haven't heard of this kid (I know I hadn't), but recent performances suggest that you soon will.

Curious about the history and ambitions of the team I caught up with Vytis "Mineral" Lasaitis, another TF2 veteran, who plays support for 2sTroNk:

"The initial plan was for me to join the old Experiment line-up after they returned from TakeTV, but that team kind of split with Veineless leaving. So everyone went their separate ways, trying out for different teams. That's when evokje reached out to me with the proposal of building a team around talented, less experienced players and taking the long-term approach.

We knew we wanted Manneten, since he's a superstar talent and an absolutely lethal Widowmaker, and me and Zave have good cohesion as supports. We tried some different line-ups, but eventually Ruster and EISSFELDT became available and the current line-up just "clicked". Me, evokje and EISS have some leftover synergy from the Ventus days, and we feel like the ceiling of the team is very high. It's still a collective learning curve and a struggle for consistency, but we're getting there. mkL also agreed to help us in the coaching department, helping out with scrims and reviewing our games, which is huge help.

Everyone in the team has the ambition to go pro. Most of us have already decided to forego studying next year, and we're ready to quit our jobs and go full-time as long as we find some support. Finishing 2nd in the recent ESL cup was a nice morale boost and sign of progress. If we can go full-time and expand our scrimming schedule by 2-3 more hours, that would certainly help, and we should be competitive against top teams relatively soon."

The 2sTroNk roster is:

  • Elvinas "evokje" Padegimas (Flex)
  • Arthur "EISSFELDT" Marx (DPS)
  • Dominik "Ruster" Waffler (Tank)
  • Vytis "Mineral" Lasaitis (Support)
  • Kalle "Zave" Haag Nilsson (Support)
  • Tim "Manneten" Byhlund (DPS)
  • Mikael "mkL" Skjønhaug (Coach)