Space Soldiers (esports)

Space Soldiers
Full name	Space Soldiers Gaming A.Ş.
Short name	SpaceS
Sport	CS:GO ; FIFA 17
Founded	2014
Folded	October 2018
Location	Istanbul, Turkey
Colours	Yellow and Black
CEO	Bünyamin Aydın
Head coach	Canpolat "hardstyle" Yıldıran
Captain	Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli
Members	Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş ; Buğra "Calyx" Arkın ; Ahmet "paz" Karahoca ; Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli ; Engin "ngiN" Kor ; ; Emre "Riv9" Kayır
Main sponsor	ByNoGame.com

Space Soldiers was a proffesional esports organization founded in 2014 by Bünyamin Aydın.[1] Originally, the team was active in only a single game: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Later on, the organization added a FIFA 17 player.

The team is well known by CS:GO fans for beating SK Gaming, the number 1 ranked CS:GO team at that time, in ESL One Cologne 2017. The most notable achievement of the team is their runner-up status in WESG 2017. The team attended 2 CS:GO majors: ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 and FACEIT Major London 2018. The team was ranked 12th best throughout March and April 2018.[2]

The organization also had an Academy team called Space Academy, with the purpose of guiding young Turkish players into good teams.

On 13 October 2018, the CS:GO players couldn't come to an agreement with the organization after they declined a financial offer. The organization ceased operations shortly after.[3]

Rosters

Before ceasing operations, the organization had the following players under contract:

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Name	ID	Role
Ismailcan Dörtkardeş	XANTARES	Rifler
Buğra Arkın	Calyx	Rifler
Ahmet Karahoca	paz	Rifler
Engin Küpeli	MAJ3R	In-Game Leader
Engin Kor	ngiN	Support
Çağatay Sedef	DESPE	AWPer (Reserve)
Canpolat Yıldıran	hardstyle	Coach

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Academy

Nat.	Name	ID
	Ahmet Civa	realzy
	Kerimhan Duman	kero
	Emre Biçer	e1
	Ibrahim Temizel	mag0o
	Edis Aydın	edis

FIFA 17

Nat.	Name	ID
	Emre Kayır	Riv9

Former Players

Contracted

Nat.	Name	ID
	Tugay Keskin	TuGuX
	Cihan Gönek	ONLY
	Emre Biçer	e1

Stand-Ins

Nat.	Name	ID
	Joey Schlosser	fxy0
	Tarık Çelik	tarik
	Salih Onaran	marqnue
	Berker Kubat	gAndhi

Former Academy Players

Nat.	Name	ID
	Buğra Arkın	Calyx
	Isa Aydın	Jesus
	Semih Selvi	LEGOO

Achievements

In the last 3 years of existence, the team has stayed with the same core players, with the following achievements:

Tournament	Tier	Placement
BLAST Pro Series Istanbul 2018	S-Tier	4th
ESL Belo Horizonte 2018	S-Tier	5-6th
DreamHack Austin 2018	A-Tier	1st
ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals	S-Tier	9-12th
ESL Pro League Season 7 Europe	S-Tier	5th
FACEIT Major London 2018 Main Qualifier	S-Tier	15-16th
WESG 2017	S-Tier	2nd
Play2Live Cryptomasters	B-Tier	2nd
ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018	S-Tier	9-11th [4]
ELEAGUE Major 2018 European Minor	A-Tier	1st
ESEA MDL Season 25 Global Challenge	A-Tier	1st
ESL One Cologne 2017	S-Tier	12-14th
GeForce Cup 2017	B-Tier	1st
WESG 2016	S-Tier	4th
WESG Middle East Championship 2016	B-Tier	1st
ASUS Rog Summer 2016	B-Tier	1st
Copenhagen Games 2016	A-Tier	3rd-4th

Controversy

In September 2017, Space Soldiers' 6th and reserve player, Çağatay "DESPE" Sedef got banned for 2 years by ESL[5], making him unable to stand-in in ESL tournaments in case it was needed. Space Soldiers made an announcement on Twitter, saying that they were in talk with the German organizors.[6] Eventually, the ban was lifted by ESL, saying that the ban was unwarranted.[7]

The main reason for the players and the organization parting their ways is because the players were not happy with their salaries. The organization hadn't made a roster move since Mid-2017, when DESPE took a break from the game and former player ngiN was brought in. At this time, the team wasn't known much outside Turkey, so the players signed a long contract with a low salary. In January 2018, the roster started to pick up the pace as they attended the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 and won several international tournaments. Although not much is known, it was obvious that the players weren't happy with the organization and their low salaries. At some point, the players changed their profile pictures to completely black, instead of the logo of Space Soldiers.[8] Finally in September 2018, the two sides agreed to part their ways, but not before they attended a major tournament in home soil Turkey (BLAST Pro Series Istanbul) for the last time.[9] In an interview later, Space Soldiers captain Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli said that the organization didn't fulfill the promises made and that it was run by amateurs. He added that he really liked the Aydın family, but said that they hired people who didn't have any experience in esports and that Bünyamin Aydın was busy with his clothing company.[10]

gollark: Also, the monospace was quite cool. But this new background image is nicer.

gollark: Evidently we need an A/B test.

gollark: I did quite like the scrolling background text.

gollark: Notice that we reserve the right to leave applications unanswered literally forever.

gollark: Perhaps they're cousins.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20180124135559/https://www.spacesoldiers.com/hakkimizda/

[2] ttps://www.hltv.org/ranking/teams/2018/april/16/5929

[3] ttps://twitter.com/SpaceSoldiersTR/status/1051157985597247488

[4] ELEAGUE Major 2018 Boston - HLTV.org

[5] ttps://www.hltv.org/news/21559/space-soldiers-comment-on-despes-esl-ban

[6] ttps://mobile.twitter.com/SpaceSoldiersTR/status/910787125368549381?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E910787125368549381%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hltv.org%2Fnews%2F21559%2Fspace-soldiers-comment-on-despes-esl-ban

[7] ttps://www.hltv.org/news/21596/despe-ban-lifted-by-esl

[8] ttps://playerbros.com/space-soldiers-dagildi-detaylari-xantares-paylasti/

[9] ttps://www.hltv.org/news/25089/ex-space-soldiers-we-unilaterally-rescinded-our-contracts-on-september-15

[10] ttps://gamerbase.org/maj3r-roportaj/