The Canadian counter-Strike team Sprout had certainly imagined its start to the new gaming year better: on the first spring season matchday of the ESL Championship, it was just enough for the German record champion against Cowana Gaming for a 1:1 (16:14; 7:16).

On the Dust2 map chosen by Sprout, it was already close for the Berliners and it looked like a victory for Cowana for a long time. On the second map Inferno, Sprout was then without chances for long distances and seemed much less well-rehearsed than the opponents.

Over the winter break, Sprout had to fill two places in the team again. For example, top player Josef "faveN" Baumann switched to his Berlin counterpart BIG after more than three years at Sprout. So the mission of defending the title could be a little more difficult this season than in previous years.