This month in Brno

Dear partners, colleagues and friends, time really does fly. Our MČR gaming festival has grown and grown, and this year it finally turned fifteen — old enough to apply for an ID card. Like any teenager, it's not always easy to deal with, but my colleagues and I are genuinely proud of it. This year's three-day celebration will be exactly what a proper fifteen-year-old deserves. We'll compete, play plenty of games, and of course there will be music and a proper party too. I'd love to see you in Brno so we can mark this milestone together.

15 years of MČR

Over the years, the MČR gaming festival has produced a lot of stories, including one marriage proposal on stage. We've held the event in four different locations (Seč, Prague, and two pavilions in Brno). Tens of thousands of players have come through our tournaments and many went on to become global stars. Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács, the winner of the very first MČR we organised, reached two Major finals. David "frozen" Čerňanský won on home soil at just 14. He's 23 now and has spent most of his career in the starting lineups of elite teams. Matúš "MATYS" Šimko, the 2023 winner, beat the world's best team in a BLAST tournament final this year. But MČR isn't just about Counter-Strike. Plenty of successful players from other titles started their journey here too. Marek "Humanoid" Brázda and Matyáš "Carzzy" Orság first faced off in Brno and went on to become three-time European champions in League of Legends. Fun fact — Carzzy never actually won MČR. Erik "hakkiJunior" Leštach, a TrackMania legend, became the first esports player in history to sign a deal with Red Bull. I could fill a whole article with this stuff, so let me add just two more. No woman has won MČR yet, though in 2015 it was close — Simona "Karolínka" Procházková took silver in Hearthstone. And the youngest winner in our history was just 9 years old. You'll find plenty more at the 15-year anniversary exhibition we're preparing in Brno.

Number of the month: 15,024

As you probably know, Pavilion B became too small for us, so this year we once again picked the largest hall at the Brno Exhibition Centre. Pavilion P covers more than 15,000 square metres. That's enough space to park over 1,200 Hyundai IONIQ 5s.

Behind the scenes with Jakub

In this newsletter I'd like to introduce the colleague without whom the MČR gaming festival wouldn't be what it is today. Kuba Trulík is one of the longest-serving people at PLAYzone. He started as a writer and published his first article on our portal 18 years ago — back when we were still called United-Games. He moved into a managerial role in August 2009. This year marks his fifth time heading up the festival as its main organiser. What he enjoys most is that no edition is ever the same and he always has new challenges to tackle. Kuba is a crack shot in Counter-Strike, and he's also been into airsoft, firearms and other outdoor activities for years. Beyond CS, he has one more gaming soft spot — Fallout.

Caught our eye: The new Worlds anthem

It's not only the MČR gaming festival celebrating fifteen years — so is the biggest esports tournament in the world, Worlds. The League of Legends World Championship, to use its official name, gets a brand new anthem every year. This year's song carries a sad story. "Sacrifice" is a tribute to the first-ever world champion, Maciej "Shushei" Ratuszniak, who lost his battle with cancer this April. The final is this Sunday and, as usual, all eyes are on Faker, who has a chance to become world champion for the sixth time. That would make him not just the most successful League of Legends player in history, but in the eyes of many, the most successful esports player of all time.