There’s nothing more satisfying in Counter-Strike than competing on a LAN in front of your home crowd. And for Australian team Bad News Kangaroos, chances to do so are few and far between. That made last weekend’s match between ESL Challenger Melbourne and ESL Pro League Season 19 in Malta all the more painful.

But despite the pain of missing their home tournament, captain Toby “BRACE” Barnes would give up any Aussie LAN opportunity if it meant more time to play the best teams in Europe. “When we found out we were missing DreamHack, it was pretty tough. It’s one of the biggest things we look forward to all year,” BRACE told Dot Esports.

BRACE donned the purple and white jersey for Vertex in a packed Rod Laver Arena in 2023 and said he was sad to miss the Australian crowd this year, but that it was a sacrifice worth making as his team, now no longer an organisation under the BNK name, competes against the best players in the world in the Pro League.

“This is a huge opportunity for us, we can’t pass up any European event where we get so much practice,” said BRACE. The in-game leader explained that, like their colleagues at FlyQuest, the best OCE teams had to make it to events like EPL for the EU practice, and that their absence serves the Australian scene well, as the next generation of talent gets their chance on stage.