The tournament season is alive and kicking giving our gamers a lot of work. These tournaments give us a great opportunity to help our fans get to know our players a little better. After all, the career of the "Golden Five" didn't start from WCG 2009 nor did it start during WCG 2006. So the question remains, how and when did their careers start? I'd like to welcome you to an article featuring Jakub "kuben" Gurczyński - the Frag eXecutors in-game leader!

Since the inception of the team Pentagram.ConneXion up until 2006, Neo and co. knew exactly how important the role of a "fifth player" was in a Counter-Strike team. During these two years the future "Golden Five" played with many different players including pitrik, miRRi, napalm, ruloN and motyw amongst others. Every time a different problem came up and the fifth player had to leave the team just so they could start over again. Finally when the team started playing under the name Pentagram G-Shock and everything was looking like it would be the same, one of the current members proposed they start playing with his long-time friend. Even though not everyone wanted to play together from the very beginning this would be the team that would prove the Cinderella story on a certain Italian race track a few months later. This fifth player that joined the team is the hero of my first article - Jakub Gurczyński!


A journey with Quake in the background

Kuben got his start in Counter-Strike in a familiar way to us all - an internet cafe in his home town of Toruń. The year was 2002 and Kuba was 14 years old. His visit at the internet cafe wasn't supposed to end up with him landing any "headshots" that day. - I came to chat with friends and to play a ski jumping computer game - says kuben. - During one of my visits there was a 4/4 tournament on cs_italy and the game interested me. This young beginner quickly found his first teammates in the form of the local internet cafe clan called c13. This might seem silly to some of the younger individuals reading this article, but when kuben was starting his career, the most popular game was not Counter-Strike; the game to play was Quake III: Arena. Kuba could not run away from this game and also had a lot of experience with the game: - Two players from c13 played Q3 - Morley and Yassir. They didn't present an amazingly high level, however for me they were very good quake players.

Additionally, the first compeitive team that kuben was on was The BMF Clan which many of you might remember for their great play in the Challenge ProMode Arena. This team featured players such as set, gero, mess and zik. In the c13 internet cafe we also could see j4m who together with Robert "tox1c" Kopczyński and Maciek "av3k" Krzykowski played in a great Quake team called h00ligans which dominated the Polish Quake scene in 2004. Kuba decided to stick with Counter-Strike however which has proven to be a good decision. Not long after, iD Software started disappearing from the tournament scene as they lacked the proper backing which Counter-Strike benefitted on. Who knows however - maybe if kuben remained with Quake he'd remain our national pride along with av3k? This brings up the fact that to accomplish what he has in his CS career, kuben had to put aside another opportunity.


Hockey Player

Already when he was 10 years old, Kuba showed interested in an unusual sport (when it comes to Poles) which was field hockey. Kuba quickly discovered that he has a certain talent for the game and his house started sporting more and more trophies from the sport. During his six years of play kuben was able to earn a National Champion award and a silver and bronze medal in open stadium competition!

kuben?s hockey team ? he is also on this picture. Seriously.

His list of accomplishments in field hockey is quite impressive, and even more so when we add that Kuba was one step away from representing Poland at the European Finals! It turned out however that his biggest chance turned into a major disappointment. Just as it usually is in Poland - those who had friends in high places received precendence. - There was a conflict between the coaches because none of the players from our team got to go, which is interesting considering we were "top 3" in Poland. I didn't get into the national team and I stopped playing - says kuben who up until this day has a collection of trophies and medals from his hockey playing days.


When kuben met Loord

The decision to retire from hockey came hand in hand with Kuba's first successes in Counter-Strike. At the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004 kuben was no longer an unknown in the CS scene. The teams kuben played for were some of the best upcoming teams in Poland. In March of 2004 kuben left his team fragworks to join ULTRA where he met up with BMF Longbow, smit and none other than Loord. None of them knew it yet, but this new friendship would have a major impact on the Polish and on the international Counter-Strike scene.

Kuben's teams also had ties to foreign multi-gaming organizations. His team fragworks for a short time represented the colors of biowar while ULTRA worked with #e.yam. With the second team it was kuben who helped out with joining the organization even though he knew that his team wasn?t of the highest caliber yet. - The organization was only supposed to give us a BNC, a CS Server and a Ventrilo server - reminds Kuba - so we really didn't predict a long term relationship with German multi-gaming teams. Those were the times however when a "foreign" tag added to a clans image maybe stronger than today?s pensions and all expenses paid trips.

Can you recognize? Loord and kuben a little younger with ULTRA ? PGA 2004.

Before the summer of 2004 there was a series of tournaments lead by Michał "SweepeR" Dudek called "Spring Cup ProGames". This was supposed to be a giant gaming festival with qualifications in many cities and a giant LAN final. Unfortunately in the end this is not what it looked like as the LAN finals were cancelled and the tournament ended with the qualification tournaments. In one of these tournaments - in Gdańsk - kuben's team playing under the name of t4u won in which we were able to see Filip "pionas" Pionka. This victory wasn't a hard one for the boys however as they were the only team signed up for the event!

It was much harder that same June in Warsaw. The tournament Warsaw Games Day attracted the best teams from around the country and as a result apiC (another German multi-gaming team) had to be there. The tournament had its fair share of problems such as starting a few hours late because of internet issues however this did not ruin the form of the team which came from the coast. - We were close to losing a map against CNN, the rest of the tournament we dominated - remembers Kuba for whom this was his first major success in CS. ApiC consisted of many great players - other than kuben we could see players such as ADi, napalm, Loord, smite and RedruM.


"SKY is the limit"

The great results of team apiC didn't go unnoticed. In January of 2005 a new power was formed in the Polish e-sports scene: Team SKY. Its brand new website and great slogan ("SKY is the limit") in addition to their great team intimidated many. The Counter-Strike division of SKY was apiC with the following five: ADi, kuben, Loord, RedruM, ruloN. Even today these five players in the same line-up would leave a mark. - We joined Team SKY as a full team. This was the first organization that wasn't ran by US, the players - says Kuba. - SKY wasn't any different from the German teams other than the fact that they paid us for our LAN's, or more precisely LAN as there was only PGA.

The mentioned above PGA was supposed to prove that Team SKY was the best however before this LAN took place SKY was able to achieve other promising results. The players played great matches in the ClanBase OpenCup and Arctic Esports Challenge playing successful matches with many top European teams such as a very strong German Team 64.AMD (a minimal loss 14:16) and the Russian team of Begrip (tie). As everything was going as planned, PGA 2005 quickly came about. SKY was eliminated in the first phase of the competition which did not go unnoticed by the owner of SKY... he released all of the players other than RedruM. However streetstyle was never well liked by kuben: - He promised a lot, did little, and gave little. This is why kuben left SKY without any regrets, especially since there were other interesting offers on the horizon.


Give this five a brain!

ADi and napalm ended up returning to Team SKY however kuben and Loord along with dRK, Scythe and motyw ended up forming a team called God Give Me a Brain (Daj Boże Rozum). In my opinion, this was one of the best organizationless teams in Polish Counter-Strike. I had the chance to watch them play in the qualification for the Heyah Cybersport in Poznań and in comparison to the professionals from Team Pentagram and there was a big difference between these two teams. DBR was relaxed and happy and in the end went on to place a high second place at the WCG 2005 qualifier.

In the AMD CyberCup 2005, DBR became the first team in Poland to win a map against Team Pentagram. There were also the fondly remembered eliminations in the Cybersport professional qualifiers in Poznań. DBR played there on the second day and earned a spot in the professional league without a problem. - The times spent at DBR are very short compared to the ones of my current team, however I think of them quite fondly - explains kuben. - One of the reasons was because we were young and had no other commitments which weigh us down now.

It could seem that the team which is trying to compete with the top professionals would need a proper training system. In the meantime... we didn't have set days to practice, nor did we have practice hours. Every day we'd choose a time that would just work - remembers Kuba. - We treated the game in a relaxed manner which allowed us to have a great time playing it. We understood each other as teammates very well. As is usually the case in such teams, there were a lot of disagreements in DBR. One of these disagreements took right before the ACON5 tournament where because of Pentagram attending other events, it was the second place team which would earn the spot in China.

The trip was earned by Frag eXecutors who defeated the squad of DBR which was playing with a weaker team. Why weaker? Not long before the tournament, the team decided to switch out one of their top players - Loord! This wasn't the first time this had happened. Kuben: - Mariusz used to have a completely different mindset to the game. When he rarely showed up to practice and couldn't get along with others he was thrown out of the team. This happened right before the tournament which was supposed to take place in Poznań. - We threw him out right before ACON5 in Poznań. This was the tournament where we lost to Fx for a trip to China. We were missing Loord - admits kuben.

DBR disappointed at the first finals of the Heyah Cybersport league where they placed fourth (last) place amongst the professionals. Shortly after the team disbanded; Loord and motyw joined Team Pentagram in place of ruloN and zibi while scythe joined Frag eXecutors and ADi and kuben went to STEELHAND.


STEELHAND, invisible walls

The strongest team SH put together: ADi, kuben, RedruM, ruloN, scythe was a strong Counter-Strike team on the Polish scene. The team lead by kuben had success in the ClanBase OpenCup and at the HDC LAN in February 2006. The cherry on top however was their great showing at the first ESWC Poland of 2006. STEELHAND travelled to the event as one of the favorites and rightfully so. In the final they defeated NetGaming.pl, zCore, Fx and Wilde. Their great game was ruined by their loss in the grand final? 1:16 against none other than Team Pentagram.

STEELHAND: ruloN, kuben, scyth, n3ck i RedruM.

Unfortunately kuben has been more remembered for his STEELHAND days in a less glamorous role than his great game. In May of 2006 after an ESL match between SH and Team Reebok a huge affair burst out with Kuba Gurczyński in the main role! What happened? - I went onto a higher CS level in the last half of the match against Team Reebok in which "demo" was playing, the player known for cheating. My program was better and we won the match :) - says Kuba. However using a wallhack against a cheater is still cheating - the scene was shocked and kuben was thrown out of the Polish national team and banned by the ESL for five years. His entire career was under a big question mark. I can bet that no one could predict what would happen in less than two months...


The birth of the Golden Five

July of 2006 was an important year for Polish Counter-Strike. After a poor showing at the Electronic Sports World Cup 2006 by Team Pentagram (they were eliminated in the group stage after tying against Lunatic-Hai and losing to MiBR) a small disagreement took place within the team where Neo was supposed to leave. Filip was supposed to join one of the German teams, however after a few practices he decided to go back to Pentagram. One spot in the squad however was opened up in the team however and for about two weeks no one knew who would fill it.

A golden moment for Polish e-sport: kuben with his friends on the podium in Monza.

Finally an official post was published - the fifth player of Pentagram was to be kuben! This was a surprise for many because the "cheating affair" was still fresh in everyone's mind and no one support kuben really... other than Loord! - It was Mariusz who proposed that I should play even though the rest hated me - remembers Kuba. My tryout went well and no one had any doubts whether or not I should play.

The only factor was the unlucky ESL ban. The severity of the ban and the scenes reaction hinted that kuben was closer to retiring than starting fresh with a new team. - If you accuse a politician of corruption he will deny it. Maybe this is not the best comparison however I didn't care much about denying since it would be the end of my career - he says. Joining Pentagram G-Shock changed the situation 180 degrees. The management stood like a firm wall behind kuben, even though he had a bad reputation with the Counter-Strike scene. The player himself wrote an apology letter to the ESL. The ESL lifted his ban and nothing stood in the way of kuben and Pentagram.

Celebration: TaZ, Neo, kuben, Loord i LUq with trophies from WCG 2006.

The LAN debut of the five: kuben, Loord, Luq, Neo, TaZ was WCG Poland 2006. The team won the tournament on an unprecedented level. However at international events, the team wasn't so hot. At the NGL One qualifications, PGS lost to MYM 6:16 and to 4Kings 0:16! This was shocking, however some still had hope for WCG in Italy. The team didn't lose hope either and travelled to the World Series of Video Games in London certain of their capabilities.


The best team in the world

The team in London played great. They took their chance at revenge against 4Kings (16:3) and in the final they met the great Finnish team of hooray. The team lead by kuben and TaZ won the match effectively. Even with this victory, the team did not travel to Monza as a favorite however Poles put huge hope with PGS.

WCG 2006 was PGS' tournament. From A-Z the team played with great style and showing great form in each match. The final against Ninjas in Pyjamas has become legendary thanks in part to great commentary. The last frag was earned by... kuben, and a moment later all of the players were hugging each other and celebrating their gold medal! The amount of success surprised even Kuba: - I of course hoped that we would be able to go to international tournaments, and if we won anything that would be great. However after just two months a World Championship?!

Uff! A close victory at ESWC 2007 against NoA and now a press conference...

After WCG, Pentagram G-Shock was considered a world power and the scores by which the Golden Five were defeating their opponents were comparable to what Na'Vi and fnatic are doing today. - According to me this was caused by our hunger for the game which took us by storm after I joined the team. The rest of the team knew they were able to accomplish much more however some kind of element was missing which would make the team complete! - explains kuben. Their approach to the game also changed however. From semi-professional players, PGS became full blown professionals. - Since we achieved such great success, we had to put more time into the game than ever before to prove that we are still in form!

WCG 2006 was just the beginning of the winning "dynasty" of the five, we all know how they would continue to dominate: four time world champions, many victories and top placings at international tournaments, individual honors by all of our players. Legendary matches such as defeating mousesports 16:0 at ESWC 2008 (- This was one of my favorites that I can remember - says Kuban) or the WCG 2009 final against fnatic. The time of great "prosperity" at Meet Your Makers and then having to find a new team. Finally they found their home at Frag eXecutors and kuben won an award from the President of the city of Toruń for promoting the city. In short, a huge part of Polish e-sport history.

Kuba with the World Championship trophy.

Along the way, Kuba Gurczyński only missed two events with his team. A serious virus stopped him from attending PGA 2006, and in the beginning of 2009 he was shortly removed for Filip "pionas" Pionka. A moment of doubt? Sure. - We all have such moments - says kuben - When you suddenly are out of shape and there are life issues, you sometimes want to finish playing the game. However you have to keep your head up, keep your sight to the future and not go back in time.

I don't think there are any better words that can be said to end this text and the unique career of kuben.


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