13th - Kezham : The Pistol "King" - podbots
Kezham infamously leads the stat of least kills in pistol rounds out of the top 20 teams, a torrid performance. However, aside from that disappointment he has had a great season. Podbots were able to do the impossible , stopping KCL Lions from doing the double and dethroning them after 3 straight titles. Kezham is somewhat of a name chameleon, shifting between Kezham, Callum and Hamshanks. However one thing that hasn't changed is Callum constantly leading in the First Kills leading to won rounds, being an influential cog in the machine of podbots’ success. In the past season, Callum has been playing the supportive roles, filling spots, entering when needed and secondary calling so while his raw fragging stats may be lacklustre , he has been a key part of the team’s success.
Previous to this year, Callum has been farming in the lower tiers of University CS. Playing for some of Southampton’s most legendary teams; Soton Savages and ELO Recovery service, getting to play under some of the greatest minds in BlahBlahRudra and Doaky, both having shaped him into the well rounded player he is today. In Winter 22, he was called up to podbots and there were a few hiccups to start, culminating in losing to UoN Archers after a dominant display by Maza. However, this season has been a massive improvement. Callum was disappointed with NUEL this season, impaired by the deadly Southampton NUEL curse coming back to strike the team and Callum having a quite poor performance in finals. NSE on the other hand was exceptional, managing to beat KCL Lions 2-1 on LAN , a team most would have thought near invincible. However, podbots had known this was always possible for a while, back in NSE’s Swiss qualifications stage they achieved a 16-8 victory over KCL and this really helped fuel them with confidence for the season, evidently paying off.
Callum hopes that the team will stay together and have the chance to battle against some of the current titans of University CS such as KCL Lions and UoN Archers, also some of the resurging forces in UWE and Sussex. Unfortunately it seems the podbots roster is in a state of imbalance with players potentially going different ways, it will be interesting to see if the reigning champions continue or if Callum reunites with ERS, where he first made a name for himself.
Callum first came upon Southampton CSGO after coming across SVGE through google. He also met Frosty at a fresher’s night where Frosty promised he would play with him, eventually this would finally happen. He is now at the end of his second year and has massively improved, both in team cs and going from a FACEIT Level 8 to now 3k elo. He gets a lot of stick and while his pistol rounds are horrific (averaging 1 kill every 10 pistol rounds) , he is underrated. He’s a player with a lot of potential, and is an exciting prospect and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.
