News

With a bit of a delay, the second installment of our 2021 Howl is here and this time we talked to Niklas “sIKK.” Welk from our Wolves Esports CSGO team!

We’ve talked about the current situation with the team, Counterstrike and a little bit about CS competitor Valorant as well as non-gaming related questions!

Here we go:

Q: Hello Niklas! While we certainly know you, would you please tell the readers a bit about yourself and your role within the team?
Niklas: My name is Niklas, I am 24 years old from Hesse, Germany. Talking about Counterstrike, I’ve made a small name for myself in the German community where I’m known as “sIKK.”

Within the team I’m the IGL (Ingame Leader) and act as the head of the team so to say. Although this might chance in the near future.

Q: Unfortunately, we just experienced some changes regarding the roster of the team and parted ways with three players at once. Would you mind to explain why this happened and how things will continue for #WolvesCSGO?
The problem was not that we didn’t get along well enough on a personal level but rather differences in the way of thinking and how we wanted to play. We knew that we all are individually strong players but in the end it just didn’t work out and we mutually agreed to part ways. It’s sad of course, but it’s a good indicator that things need to change once you have the feeling that you turn up to practice because you have to and not because you want to. That’s the point where you have to ask yourself if you want to continue like this or if you split up.

After we decided to split up, we quickly found some “new” players to play with going forward. Marc “aerax-” Wilkening and Marcel “FleX” Fischer are two players I have previously played with here at Wolves. You could say this is a bit of a reunion.

As our fifth, we added Tobias “viciouswolf” U.

Q: What were the most important qualities you looked out for in the limited amount of time that was available to assemble a new roster?
A motivated mindset and great harmony between players on and off the server. It’s important to define your goals clearly and work as a team on achieving them. To make that possible, all players need to have a similiar philosophy when it comes to playing Counterstrike.

Q: Now that we have the heavy stuff behind us, let’s talk about you and Counterstrike. When did you start and why are you still playing the game?
I started playing Counterstrike in 2011. Back then I played Counterstrike: Source on jail and mini-game servers with my friends. Once Global Offensive released I was intrigued by the competitive aspect and that developed more and more over time. Why do I still play this game? That’s what I ask myself from time to time *laughs*.

Even when you are playing default most of the time and you are locked into a certain pattern, it’s fascinating how different individual rounds can be. You also can’t really “finish” the game and find new things again and again. All of these aspects captivate me and even if you don’t always get the success you want, it’s incredibly fun to play this game as a team.

Q: Which moments or experiences you had as a player have been stuck with you ever since? Anything particular you enjoyed?
We’ve had good and bad experience with this team and these stuck with me. We were able to beat very good teams, which made me happy. It also showed me that we could have achieved so much. I also have games in mind in which we’ve been slaughtered and I wasn’t able to change anything about it. I’ve been extremely frustrated after these games but in the end losses like this are part of the game and experience as a team.

A special moment for me personally was when I attended the ESL Meisterschaft 2018 in Düsseldorf, watching “faveN” demolish ALTERNATE aTTaX and DIVIZON. I was extremely happy for him as he was still a very young player at the time. It’s not my dream anymore to play on that level but I still think it would be an awesome experience.

Q: If you could change one thing about CSGO, what would it be?
The anti cheat!

Q: If there would be no Counterstrike, what game would you most likely play?
Most likely VALORANT once it released. If a game like this would not be around, I would have stayed loyal to my World of Warcraft Mage.

Q: What is your opinion on VALORANT as a CS competitor?
VALORANT is something different compared to Counterstrike. I really like the approach with the different skills as they are pretty diverse. It’s competition for CSGO but I don’t think it will de-throne Counterstrike anytime soon. At least not without a fight.

Q: What game would you like to see here at Wolves Esports?
A Yu-Gi-Oh team would be a cool idea! Maybe even something like Mario Kart would be possible?

Q: Do you have a special routine before official matches?
I start on aim_botz with a routine of ~800 kills, followed by 30-40 minutes of deathmatch. After that, I take a 30 minute break and watch a series, like “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. This happens to be the best routine I’ve had so far.

Q: Apart from Counterstrike, do you play anything else at the moment?
Currently, I enjoy playing Dead by Daylight or Raft with my girlfriend. I need a more relaxed game to chill with next to Counterstrike. Something to take my mind of competitive matches and a game where I don’t need to watch out for timings and don’t need to have on-point reflexes.

Q: Marvel or DC?
None of them! I actually had a small fight with my girlfriend because of that. If I had to choose, I’d pick DC. Mainly because Joker is a DC character *laughs*.

Q: Whats your favorite movie?
That’s difficult to say, I have may favorites. I’d say Fast and the Furious. Although the new Joker movie is extremely good, too!

Q: After the pandemic: What is the first thing you do?
I already whine about not being able to go swimming or go to the thermal bath. I love swimming and relaxing in the water. So definitely one of these. Also, I want to go play billiards again and go out with my friends.

Q: That’s it! We are done. Any last words to conclude this Howl?
Thank you to those who have taken the time to read through all of this. Let’s hope the new team works out better than the old one!

——-

Stay tuned for the upcoming Howls as well as more information about our Counterstrike team going forward!

#KeepHowling

Our interview series is back, meaning “The Howl” is back!
You can expect quite a few of these throughout the first half of the year and we are kicking things off with Brawlhalla! We asked all of our players some questions regarding themselves, Brawlhalla and a few unrelated questions, here are their answers:

Hello guys! Let us start with something pretty simple. Go ahead and quickly introduce yourselves!

Pavelski: People know me as Pavel outside of Brawlhalla but ingame my nick is Pavelski and I’m 19 years old.
TheNinja729: My name is Daniel aka TheNinja729. I’m 20 years old and went competitive in Brawlhalla in 2018.
Solarson: My name is Ivan, I go by the nickname “Solarson”, I’m from Portugal and I’m 20 years old.
KiXe: I’m a 17 year old “for fun” competitive player fighting game enthusiast.
ErTitoooo: Hello, I’m a spanish Brawlhalla player called ErTito… and I’ve been playing tournaments for around two years.

Okay, thanks! We all know that you are playing Brawlhalla, but what was the first videogame you ever played?

Pavelski: The first videogame I ever played was either Need for Speed Underground 2 or Counterstrike 1.6.
TheNinja729: The first videogame I played was Pokemon Blue Edition on the old Gameboy.
Solarson: This is actually a hard question. I think the first videogame I’ve ever played was when I was 4 years old and it was either Tekken 3 or Toy Story 2 for the PS1.
KiXe: I can’t remember exactly what my first video game I ever played was, but I have always loved playing video games. I remember playing Mario, Pokemon and Smash with my brothers, so those are the first game I’ve ever played. Which I played on gamecube, Wii and my Nintendo DS.
ErTitoooo: The first videogame I ever played was Minecraft.

Talking about Brawlhalla – is there any reason why you chose Brawlhalla over other fighting games?

Pavelski: There is no particular reason why I chose Brawlhalla other than one of my close friends suggesting the game and me having fun with it for a long time.
TheNinja729: It was free to play on Steam and other fighting games usually cost money so I chose the cheaper option.
Solarson: I like the simplicity of Brawlhalla compared to other fighting games. Its definitely not a hard game by any means but it does have its perks. Personally If I had to give you my main reason I’d say its due to the support that 2v2s has in Brawlhalla. I’ve always been a fan of co-op and team games in general so having a fighting game that combines both is great.
KiXe: I’ve played Smash before but far far away from anything competitive. I always enjoyed playing it together with my friends and family.
It was in fact my brother who had this game on his laptop and said it was similar to smash and I had to play it with him. I didn’t play it everyday at that time, it was just a party game we had some fun with. It wasn’t until next summer where I managed to convince my friends to start playing the game. And since I am a bad loser I started practising.
ErTitoooo: Well, I never had an interest for fighting games since they are all played on controller and when I found out you could play Brawlhalla with a keyboard I got really into it.

What are some other games you play apart from Brawlhalla?

Pavelski: I dont play many games outside Brawlhalla but I used to play League of Legends, CS:GO and anything else which I find fun in particular.
TheNinja729: osu! to train reactions and because I was competitive in it before I went pro in Brawlhalla.
Solarson: Outside of Brawlhalla I mainly play Rocket League and Tekken 6/7. I’ve always played Tekken since a young age so I’ve grown to love it. Unfortunately it is better played on PC due to the delay that console has and because my PC isn’t the best I usually don’t play it as much (in regards to Tekken 7). When it comes to Tekken 6 I just play it from time to time when I’m in the mood to grind some records for Scenario Campaign; its similar to a Speedrun type of game-mode in Tekken 6 but the objective is to reach the highest score, combining both knowledge of how the score system works and being fast, I’m ranked #1 for both Single Player and co-op. When it comes to Rocket League I just play it to chill, I don’t take the game seriously at all, but its fun so I hop in for some games from time to time.
KiXe: I enjoy lots of games. But at the moment I probably only play COD other than Brawlhalla. I want to enjoy singleplayer story games but I always end up not playing it.
ErTitoooo: The other games I play are League of Legends and Apex Legends. These are the games I play when I get bored of Brawlhalla and want to play something else.

Let’s talk about Brawlhalla now for a bit. We are used to seeing you in big tournaments. Is there any routine you do or follow when preparing for huge events?

Pavelski: For tournaments in Brawlhalla I always wake up at least 2 hours before the tournaments start so I can warm up properly.
TheNinja729: I always play 30 minutes of osu! to warm up my hands, fingers, reactions and my sight, then 45 minutes of Brawlhalla ranked for every tournament.
Solarson: For me there’s usually not much preparation, it depends on whether its 1v1s or 2v2s. If it’s 1v1s I try to play ranked about 1 week before the tournament to make sure I’m warmed-up for it and if i’s 2v2s, it’s basically the same thing but in 2v2s. Not only do I play ranked but I also try to play custom games and create team combos with my partner.
KiXe: I don’t think I have any special routines for huge events other than just being aware of what I eat and drink. I don’t drink caffeine or sugary drinks when I am gonna play competitive as it gives me bad side effects.
ErTitoooo: I dont do anything special, I see tournament days as any other day.

Looking ahead, what are your wishes for competitive Brawlhalla in the future and for the game in general?

Pavelski: My wish for the future of competitive Brawlhalla is that the devs keep doing what they’re doing and for the game to keep growing as it is right now.
TheNinja729: The biggest wish I have is to have offline events again because it’s such a different game when you play it in person.
Solarson: Brawlhalla is in desperate need of some ranked changes, not only from a competitive standpoint but also from a casuals perspective. I also wish Brawlhalla would have more communication with the players when it comes to balancing and sponsorships. Apart from that, it’d be nice to see an in-game update to the main menu which would provide a direct link to the Brawlhalla Twitch channel whenever there’s a live event, similar to how Rocket League does it.
KiXe: Mainly personal wishes. I would definitely try to go for the podiums and from there to number one.
ErTitoooo: My wish for the future of competitive Brawlhalla is that the game keeps growing and they keep increasing pricepools. Also I would love if they gave more incentives to play ranked, like a new rank or something.

There are plenty of characters to choose from in the game – what are your favourites and who is your most hated character?

Pavelski: My most hated character is Dusk… I despise playing him because hes boring :D… and my favorite character is Lucien because he’s fun to play and I won my first tournament with him ^^
TheNinja729: My most hated character is probably Teros because of his high strength and heavy weapon combination. He takes stocks off of you within 4 hits which is why I hate him. My favourite character is Sidra because I started my esports journey with her and no one else plays her.
Solarson: Most hated character is probably Teros or Fait, they’re very different from each other. When it comes to Fait I’m very bad on the match-up against both weapons and she has really strong sigs. Teros is just annoying in general being one of the best 2v2 characters and hitting really hard with heavy weapons. My favorite character has to be Bodvar since that’s the character I have the most playtime put into and my true first main.
KiXe: My most hated character is definitely Jaeyun as it was the first greatsword legend and totally ruined the meta of the game to a ridiculous state. My favorite character as of right now must be either Lucien or Mordex. They’re both really fun for me to play.
ErTitoooo: I don’t really hate any legend in specific, but I don’t enjoy playing against rocket lance. My favorite character is Xull.

Outside of playing games, what are some of your hobbies and what are you guys doing in your free time?

Pavelski: In my free time I’m mostly in voice chat with my friends or exercising in real life. Sometimes I watch series as well but my biggest hobby is probably exercising.
TheNinja729: Right now I’m studying media culture which consumes a lot of time. Besides that I used to travel a lot and go to events.
Solarson: Usually, when I’m not playing Brawlhalla I just watch Youtube, hop in some streams on Twitch, talk to my friends or study for university.
KiXe: I enjoy programming and just learn new things in general, especially things that have to do with computers. And being with friends, gf and stuff like that of course.
ErTitoooo: In my free time I like to play videogames and play paddle tennis.

Most of us consume a lot more content on streaming websites during this pandemic so we’d like to know who your favourite streamers are.

Pavelski: I dont really watch streams that often…
TheNinja729: PavelskiBH <3
Solarson: I watch a great variety of streams for different games, I don’t think I could say I have a favorite streamer but if I had to pick someone I’d say Boomie for the Brawlhalla section, he’s entertaining on stream and I always like to hear what he has to say about balance or the game in general since I respect his opinion.
KiXe: I don’t actually watch that many streams, but when I do it’s The_Floater and xQc. But nothing stand a chance against EphiBL streams. I just love his personality and how good he is at explaining stuff. And he is also a big reason why I am in this place today.
ErTitoooo: My favourite streamer is Crockie, I’ve been subbed to him for a year now.

Last question: What is your “feel good” food after you had a rough day or tournament?

Pavelski: My feel good food after a rough day or a tournament would most likely be rice, a banana shake and some salad.
TheNinja729: Lollipops because i can aggressively bite on them.
Solarson: I’d have to go with Spaghetti with tuna, it’s delicious.
KiXe: Nothing beats a good steak.
ErTitoooo: Any type of pasta, as it’s my favourite food.

We are done, thank you for answering our questions! If you want, this is the time for final thoughts!

KiXe: Shout out to Sætre for being a good loser.

New year and Wolves is recruiting!

Second post of our public announcements regarding our recruitment efforts. This time, we are now officially open to applications from teams playing Valorant, PUBG, Rocket League, and content creators!

Requirements for Valorant:

• Age 18+
• Stable roster
• Maturity & honesty
• Based in Europe
• Activity and decent placements in recent tournaments
• Open for a longterm project
• Able to provide useful links regarding the team (team profiles in leagues, results etc.)

Requirements for PUBG:

• Age 18+
• Stable roster
• Maturity & honesty
• Based in Europe or North America
• Activity in cups and tournaments and leagues
• Activity in qualifier tournaments
• Open for a longterm project
• Able to provide useful links regarding the team (team profiles in leagues etc.)

Requirements for Rocket League:

• Age 18+
• Stable roster
• Maturity & honesty
• Based in Europe
• Activity and decent placements in national leagues
• Activity in cups and tournaments
• Open for a longterm project
• Able to provide useful links regarding the team (team profiles in leagues etc.)

Requirements for Content Creators:

• Age 18+
• Streaming on Twitch.tv
• Streaming in German or English
• Game focussed stream
• Average concurrent viewers: 20+

If you or your team are interested, please reach out to us via Twitter DMs or email us at info[at]wolves-esports.com

#KeepHowling

New year and Wolves is recruiting!

Over the course of the following weeks, we will publicly announce our search for teams in several different games. To start things off, we are now officially open to applications from teams playing League of Legends, DotA 2, and Warcraft 3!

Requirements for League of Legends:

• Age 18+
• Stable roster
• Maturity & honesty
• Based in Europe
• Activity and decent placements in National Leagues
• Activity in cups and tournaments
• Open for a longterm project
• Able to provide useful links regarding the team (team profiles in leagues etc.)

Requirements for DotA 2:

• Age 18+
• Stable roster
• Maturity & honesty
• NA/EU/Asia
• Activity in cups and tournaments and leagues
• Activity in qualifier tournaments
• Open for a longterm project
• Able to provide useful links regarding the team (team profiles in leagues etc.)

Requirements for Warcraft 3:

• Age 18+
• Stable roster
• Maturity & honesty
• NA/EU/Asia
• Activity and decent placements in leagues
• Activity in cups and tournaments
• Open for a longterm project
• Able to provide useful links regarding the team (team profiles in leagues etc.)

If you and your team are interested, please reach out to us via Twitter DMs or email us at info[at]wolves-esports.com

#KeepHowling

I guess we can all agree that 2020 was a difficult year for most, if not all of us. But this won’t be a recap of all the crazy things that happened outside the world of gaming and esports.

This is a recap of the year 2020 for Wolves Esports.

The first few months of the year were spent in preparation of the imminent foundation of our company – the Howling Media UG. In April, it finally happened. Wolves Esports is officially a brand of the Howling Media UG.

In terms of esports, we have participated in the inaugural season of the “Realm Royale Champions” league in April and claimed our first championship of the year. At the end of season 2, which ended with a 2nd place finish, we decided to no longer participate in the league which closed its doors just a few weeks after.

Our first-person shooter teams #WolvesCSGO and #WolvesR6 have been quite successful this year as well. Our Counterstrike year has seen ups and downs, a bit of drama, too. Unfortunately, the team did not qualify for Division 2 of the 99Damage Liga and will take another shot at it once the new season starts. Their international journey this year started in ESEA Open and ended with the qualification for ESEA Main, something not a lot of German teams managed to do in the same season. Two ESEA seasons, two promotions. We are excited for the new season with tougher opponents!

Our Rainbow Six: Siege team went flawless in the DeSBL Ultimate League Season 9 with a 14:0 score, winning the trophy. In seasons 10 and 11, we finished on a third place each. Despite not winning the league two seasons in a row, the boys finally managed to win the DeSBL Pokal for the first time, ending a rough period on a high note. We are preparing for the new season and want to reclaim our league title, as well as defending the cup.

Our Super Smash Bros players who rarely played in online tournaments before had to adapt to online play over the course of the year. In the end, we have seen plenty of tournament wins and even more podium placements. We are extremely happy with the selection of players and our shift away from German players to the European players we have now and really hope that 2021 will allow them to participate in more offline events again.

The other fighting game here at Wolves, Brawlhalla, has been incredibly successful as well in both 1vs1 and 2vs2 tournaments, culminating in our very own Pavel “Pavelski” Milev becoming the European World Champion at the end of November. Yes, it really was the European World Championship. That is 2020 for you.

Despite the success and great results, we also went through some struggles with teams, players and the general development of the esports scene around our level. This is why we have to say goodbye to our League of Legends and Rocket League players. We would like to thank all of our players in these games for the time spent with us and wish them all the best for the future. While we are interested in coming back to both games next year, we are going into 2021 without them.

To sum it all up: It has been a challenging but still successful year for us in terms of results. We hope that the world can crush the Coronavirus with the vaccines and that we can return to normality. For esports, this means we would be to able to take in and appreciate big tournaments in front of large crowds again. Something we all like to see and hope to experience for ourselves one day.

See you in 2021!

Yes, it’s true. We are recruiting!

Requirements for each game can be found below. Please note that we do not wish to receive requests from single players in team games. If you are NOT in a fully functioning team, please do not apply for team games.

In case your game is not listed below, feel free to apply anyway. We are open for new ideas and games.

We are looking for teams in the following games:

Counterstrike: Global Offensive (EU)
– 18 years or older
– European based team
– Consistent lineup (4 months +)

Leagues:
– ESEA Intermediate or higher (Open only with proven track record)
– EU tournaments and qualifiers
– Bonus: National league if available

—

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (EU)
– 18 years or older
– Consistent lineup (3 months +)

Leagues:
– PCS Open
– National league if available

—

DotA 2 (EU)
– 18 years or older
– Consistent lineup (3 months +)

Leagues:
– Open Qualifiers
– Tournaments & cups
– National league if available

—

Call of Duty ( EU / PS4)
– 18 years or older
– Consistent lineup (3 months +)
– Goal: Improving as a team, sticking together

Please no teams for just one event.

—

Trackmania (EU)
– 16 years or older
– Experience and track record in former TM or other racing games
– Able to compete in the TM Open Grand League

—

Super Smash Bros Ultimate (EU)
– 16 years or older
– Decent results in the past (Top 10’s in 50+ player tournaments)

—

To apply: DM us on Twitter or send an email to andre@wolves-esports.com / patrick@wolves-esports.com and include all relevant information about you and your team (who are you? where are you from? what are the goals?), as well as team profiles on league websites you participate in.

#KeepHowling

Today, we welcome back eXz-Hosting as a sponsor of Wolves Esports.

We’ve teamed up with eXz-Hosting in the past and after our previous term ended, there always has been contact. This new engagement will help us through the the tough times the world is facing at the moment with the COVID-19 pandemic and furthermore allows us to take a step forwards with Wolves.

About eXz-Hosting:
eXz-Hosting is a German company that was founded in May 2014 and concentrates on providing high quality hosting services for affordable prices. Among their services eXz-Hosting offers domain registration services, Webspace and dedicated servers.

Website: www.exz-hosting.de
Facebook: eXz-Hosting.de
Twitter: @eXzHosting

#KeepHowling

Exciting news for Wolves Esports as we are now a company, pushing the development of Wolves further than ever before!

Ever since we decided to take Wolves more serious and approached it with a professional mindset and set the goals we always have been striving for, we wanted to create a company when the time is right. That time, is right now.

From today on, Wolves Esports will be legally represented by the Howling Media UG, which will become a major partner. The people behind the Howling Media UG are the same that run Wolves Esports. This will allow us to push more aggressively when it comes to reaching our goals and will benefit our teams and players longterm. We have more things planned for Wolves Esports in the future and will share them as soon as we feel confident enough to share them with you. All we can say so far is that it’s going to be great!

Apart from the purpose of being the company behind Wolves Esports, the Howling Media UG will also provide several services to companies and individuals not affiliated with Wolves. These include event photography for LANs and esports related events, social media and stream designs, as well as esports consultancy for companies interested in entering esports and individuals looking to create and run their own esports teams.

Check out the Howling Media UG:
Website: http://howling-media.eu/
Twitter: @HowlingMediaUG
Discord: Howling Media UG

#KeepHowling

Another 12 months have passed, another 12 months under the belt for Wolves eSports. This is our 2019 recap.

It’s been an eventful year. We have been at DreamHack Leipzig 2019 with our former CSGO team in February. A fantastic experience with fantastic people we now call friends.

In March, we welcomed Apex Legends as a new game at Wolves eSports but also had to say goodbye to Fortnite, a game that never really took off for us. Wolves eSports CSGO started their 99Damage Liga season with the goal to finally make it to Division 2, which we unfortunately did not achieve.

During the next few months we have come back to Rainbow Six: Siege, had several roster and lineup changes in other games, have seen teams leave and rebuild. Our CSGO rebuild for Season 13 of the 99Damage Liga and ESEA Intermediate happened to be cursed however. Plenty of matches with stand-ins due to rules never allowed the team to pop off and ultimately ended in a disbanded team.

The second half of the year turned out to be the more enjoyable one. More success, more good news.

In August, we revived our Overwatch team who then moved on to play the best Open Division Season we have had so far here at Wolves. The new Rainbow Six team rocks the DeSBL Advanced League so far, we finally ventured into Rocket League for the first time and we welcomed two new partners in XOOSE and Skybox.

In December, we picked up a promising Counterstrike team again and can’t wait for them to pick up the action next year.

Our overall ambitions and plans for 2020 are coming along and in just a few days we will continue our grind to make Wolves eSports the best it can be.

From our side, a huge thank you to all of our current and former players for the ride we shared in 2019. Another thank you goes out to our partners and sponsors, current and former.

Thank you for 2019. Let’s make 2020 even better!

#KeepHowling

As of today, Wolves eSports is no longer affiliated with EXZ-Hosting and SUMMACUM due to insurmountable differences when it comes to the terms of a potentially prolonged partnership and other issues we simply deem non-acceptable.

The professionalism in esports is sadly not at the point where everyone wants it to be and some of the issues we faced are also happening on the very top of esports for players, organisations and talents alike. This is something nobody involved in esports should have to deal with.

After endless tries to salvage both partnerships, we have come to a point where we needed to make decisions. Wolves eSports won’t further comment on the issues mentioned as we move on with the plans for 2020, an incredibly busy and important year for us. Taking on our 2020 goals with us is XOOSE, a partner we haven’t had any issues with at all and one we trust in for the future.

Stay tuned for more information about Wolves eSports around the end of the year and in Q1 of 2020!

#KeepHowling