t0ks steps down; havoK back in Risky

16-3-2017 14:39

Abdullah "t0ks" El Ghafari released a statement last night in which he announced he will hang his mouse up and retire from competitive gaming. To replace him will be former Risky player Love "havoK" Paras.

Risky have been struggling in an underdeveloped region, and were last seen just failing to qualify for the $50,000 ZEN League after coming in runners-up in both the East Asia and Last Chance qualifiers. Now, they will have to focus on the next Asia Minor qualifier, their next chance to play the biggest teams on the continent.

havoK will be active once again

A little bit over half a year since joining the team in Abdulaziz "⁠Nami⁠" Al-Hammadi’s stead, Abdullah "⁠t0ks⁠" Al-Ghafari will be stepping down in order to prioritize other obligations in life, as the prospects of becoming a full-time professional in UAE are slim. You can read his statement, here.

To replace him will be Love "⁠havoK⁠" Paras, who stepped down from the team in late November, when he gave a similar explanation as to why he was stepping down. After some time on the sideline, havoK tweeted he is now back on the active roster, and how he thinks this will be Risky’s year.

Risky's lineup now consists of:

Khalid "⁠KarriBob⁠" Al-Junaibi
Mohammed "⁠k1tkat⁠" Al-Nuaimi
Obaid "⁠breAker⁠" Al-Muhairi
Rashid "⁠GreeNz⁠" Al-Nuaimi
Love "⁠havoK⁠" Paras

Lel

2017-03-16 14:39

5 replies

Ez havoK

I am pretty sure he has better plans Good luck toks :)

2017-03-16 15:12

3 replies

Yeah. Drag race on a white gold lambo

2017-03-16 15:19

Thanks brother. Yes, better things to come hopefully!

2017-03-16 15:22

1 reply

wtf why did you leave fam?

2017-03-17 17:44

no more '~'

2017-03-16 14:40

27 replies

This always cracks me up XD

2017-03-16 14:44

26 replies

All the best t0ks. GL

2017-03-16 14:50

25 replies

Thanks brother. I appreciate it <3

2017-03-16 14:53

24 replies

You finally realized the team will not achieve anything? Good job bro I am proud of you.. better focus on getting a real job. #runSKG #VAMOSSK

2017-03-16 15:01

15 replies

The team did achieve something but the Region isn't achieving anything.

2017-03-16 15:03

13 replies

GL my friend :)

2017-03-16 15:07

Thanks mate [=

Achieve locally only you mean.. also won ESL India which wasn't a big deal since India scene is just as dead. #runSKG #VAMOSSK

2017-03-16 15:10

10 replies

Being able to travel and compete internationally coming from a dead region is an achievement by itself. Not to mention placing 3rd in ASUS ROG. It's not a big achievement but many teams would hope to qualify for tournaments and compete outside their country.

2017-03-16 15:13

9 replies

good luck. You guys was else good, or did well when we practiced agaisnt u. :D

2017-03-16 15:17

6 replies

Thanks mate. Gotta love those high ping practice sessions XD

hahaha yeh. You would probably be even better with normal pings. :D

my ping not good as well, if we had a peace in the middle east, Valve could make a server for us that who lives in the middle east. :c

2017-03-16 16:06

Yeah, that will never happen (the peace part) xD

2017-03-16 16:08

2 replies

yeah :c because the ISIS, etc. the *palastine" argument and such...

2017-03-16 16:09

And Israel, USA, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, China, Pakistan, etc. ISIS and Palestine are irrelevant.

2017-03-16 20:43

Dont reply to this fake flagger retard. U achieved far more than he could ever have hoped for himself. Gl with your next step

LOL it's alright. I like trolls, they're fun to chat with. Thanks anyway, I appreciate it! =D

2017-03-16 15:23

I think that he has enough money to live his entire life bro xD

2017-03-16 15:09

All the best for your future, it's a Shame that the scene has not developed. Unlike our Brazilian friend here I would love to see every region be competitive, it can only be good for the game. But anyway, Good luck in your future endevors.

2017-03-16 17:32

7 replies

Thank you for the kind words. I honestly hope the scene develops as well because there are a few good teams that can do damage internationally. With proper funding, an EU or Asian bootcamp will benefit the team largely. Let's hope for the best =]

2017-03-16 17:51

gl m8, wish you the best in future endeavours Out of curiosity do you think any ME players have a chance to 'make it'. I remember c5 once beat mousesports and I think Issa is playing with EU players every now and then?

2017-03-16 19:04

Issa is a name that can definitely make it. He plays in FPL so he learned alot from the pros and definitely improved big time. He will consider a move once he's done with his studies. Besides him, Havok is definitely one of the people that can also do damage but I see it tough due to him having a proper job with a great salary. Frankly, many names to be listed but it's tough coming from the ME region as most of us either study or work. So, gaming is more of a hobby rather than a full time job. I do hope someone goes out there and represents ME in an international team.

2017-03-17 10:28

is your entire team that fluent in English? if so, I'd see it possible to pursue a career internationally

2017-03-16 20:18

Actually, no. It's basically me and Havok who speak english fluently. The rest can barely make up a sentence. We've both been taught in American based schools and universities.

2017-03-17 10:30

Time for you to teach English and make UAE great?

2017-03-17 17:47

If only E-sports 101 exists as a subject, I'd teach that for life.

2017-03-17 19:17

KarriBob what a name xD

Love "havoK" Paras come on this guys first name is literally love and u make fun of karribob?

2017-03-16 14:58

4 replies

And "Paras" means best in finnish

2017-03-16 15:46

vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/pokemon/ima.. this is paras in german xD

2017-03-16 15:57

lmfao

2017-03-16 21:18

+1 best name i've ever seen

2017-03-16 15:56

expected

Not the real Havok...i miss the beard

Big if true

2017-03-16 14:41

havoK doesn't look like indian

Lol I am from the north and almost everyone looks like that here. Even fairer maybe

2017-03-16 17:33

2017-03-17 15:38

Bye t0ks </3

2017-03-16 14:42

anyone interesed in this team ?

2017-03-16 14:43

better than any chezch slovak team so be quiet

lul czech and slovaks wining cis tournament :D :D they are 100x better then this

2017-03-16 15:00

Even tho i dont like any of the local teams, we for sure have better teams rofl

2017-03-16 15:53

not the havoc I was expecting to see

i see what u did there..

2017-03-16 15:28

nice name bro

they have a good t side now

2017-03-16 14:45

People saying "who" but this is probably the best team from, if you don't include Turkey in the Middle East, the Middle East and Central Asia.

2017-03-16 14:48

Isn't Gambit Kazakh?

2017-03-16 15:27

You know what, that is absolutely true. I forgot about them. I thank you. Risky is probably the second best Central Asia and Middle East, not including Turkey.

2017-03-16 15:34

I never watched them playing, are they any good?

2017-03-16 15:35

They're good for there region. It's like comparing apples to oranges a little bit. Obviously they aren't really that good, compared to even premier NA teams, but if you watch a Indian only league or Middle East only league they usually win or place high.

2017-03-16 15:40

first my thought was about this havoc hltv.org/?pageid=173&playerid=8083

2017-03-16 14:49

I'm in love with havoK 4Head

Al-Junaibi Al-Nuaimi Al-Muhairi Al-Nuaimi

2017-03-16 14:59

-havoc + miracle ez 9k mmr

GL t0ks... :(

thank you bro <3

2017-03-16 15:38

GL t0ks, despite what people are saying in this thread being part of the best team in an entire region is an achievement to be proud of.

2017-03-16 15:21

Thanks for the motivational words. I understand the negativity but it's meaningless. Proud of the achievements we made and I'm sure they'll achieve more this year.

2017-03-16 15:31

gl launders

2017-03-16 15:24

rip mobb deep

These teams are all the same thing. Great T-side, awful CT.

2017-03-16 15:44

team langauge?

2017-03-16 15:47

t0ks must be one of the nicest cs professionals out there. Look at him greeting every person in this thread and answering everyone's questions. He was also one of the people in Risky who was most internationally known and the one who usually was a representative of his team. It's really sad to see him retire.

I appreciate the kind words bro. This surely isn't the end of me in the Esports scene. I'll be back (terminator voice)

2017-03-17 10:35

Good luck with real life, hope it works out well for you!

2017-03-16 16:00

Thanks mate. Much appreciated.

All these people who type "who" and "Who cares?" thinking they are funny. You're just proving you're narrow-minded and know nothing about competitive CS except tier1 teams. Show some respect to the guy for gods sake, if you don't care just dont post

2017-03-16 16:03

2017-03-16 16:15

2017-03-16 20:05

2017-03-16 16:04

Let's go india

lul this wont change anything tho

2017-03-16 16:29

GL! let's hope these 5 time major winners take it to the top again

2017-03-16 16:46

Best of luck man, it's tough having 130ms life, i know dat feel.., hopefully the arabic scene in general rise stronger than ever.

2017-03-16 16:58

Thanks mate. Hopefully the rich arabs be useful for once in their life. :)

2017-03-16 17:54

rich figures in arab countries are not interested in investing in MENA Esports

2017-03-16 20:02

More interest in Horse beauty contests and Camel racing, sadly.

2017-03-17 10:36

yup :( lets hope that will change in the next months so you can make a comeback <3 gl bro

2017-03-17 16:43

Thanks bro, hope so too <3

2017-03-17 17:41

wtf.-----. what is this team? top 150?

2017-03-16 17:19

ah nooo, gl with future plans toks :(

2017-03-16 17:57

While the scene internationally has grown, the sad truth is that for many countries there still is very little support for getting them competing against the mainstays of the game. This was what kept a lot of people from attempting to go Pro back in 1.6, it simply wasn't lucrative and only viable if you were young. The scene will hopefully continue to grow, but there will always be outliers like this. Can't blame t0ks reasoning.

2017-03-16 20:12

2017-03-17 01:09

Totally agree. The thing is, even if its an era of the internet, Esports should be televised and written on newspapers some more. Social media as well should have a big impact on advertising Esports. In a rich city like Dubai, people have no idea what Esports is. No achievements no accomplishments in that field. Once we, Risky Gaming, got out there and represented Dubai internationally, word spread around. People got interested for a while. We were on newspapers and such. But then tournaments stop. Then comes another qualifier in which we are forced to play high ping due to geographical reasons and that's always tough to win. People start forgetting and the scene goes back to dead again. Let's hope ME teams accomplish things this year in hopes of attracting sponsors to be able to fund them and help teams reach higher places.

2017-03-17 10:43

I live in a country that hardly supports the notion of E-Sports, but in truth the conditions are still far better than what you're dealing with. So the fact that you tried to make it work means you have my respect. I totally get where you're coming from, and I absolutely agree that being unable to raise the awareness level is a huge detriment to the success of the profession. Ideally, it'd be great if we had more international teams out there. There's a lot of dialogue that can be accomplished through common ground, and honestly E-Sports has been one of the better proponents of that (no matter how ridiculous HLTV can be sometimes). Good luck in the future, man.

2017-03-17 19:07

We live in a rich country that is filled with very rich sheikhs. The UAE cares a lot about being number 1 in every field there is. Whether it is in building skyscrapers, largest malls, fanciest restaurants and also sports. We basically got a team for every field in sports except for E-sports because people here think it's non-existent. We represented UAE 5 times internationally last year and it caused attention here. Newspapers and social media were talking about us. It was all great, we expected this year to be even bigger and more sponsors to be interested in building a team that achieves more internationally but this wasn't the case sadly. We do have sponsors (Nvidia, Benq/Zowie, etc..) but they mainly provide gear which is great don't get me wrong. What we lack is a bootcamp whether in Asia or EU where we can practice against good teams on a neutral ping basis. This only will help the team improve and be noticed more. I still believe this year will be bigger. I just hope ME teams, whether it's RiskyGaming or another, can qualify and achieve something worthy of being funded. (sorry for the long post xD)

2017-03-17 19:29

I'm generally long-winded on these forums, so it's nice to actually see real discourse. I agree. I feel as though the passion and drive are there (for lesser-known areas), but not always the resources or exposure. It true that Dubai is host to a large amount of wealth, so it would make sense that there would be an argument to be made for sponsorship. How that conversation is started, I'm not entirely sure, but it would be good to find a way to create that dialogue. Like you said, you managed to push those boundaries, which is exactly what needs to happen, but unfortunately without strong success it's hard to motivate people to care. All of this said, I think the hardest sell for Dubai is not money, but location. Region is playing a strong factor into this, from what I can tell, which is unfortunate. Europeans don't understand this, and generally take it for granted, but the saturation of Europe is immense. They have a great infrastructure for the internet, and while there are a number of smaller countries they're all capable of playing against one another. If we look at the US, for instance, we have a large continental area, but a good majority of the population is nearly 4 hours apart. Europe is much more dense in this respect. Dubai, I imagine, simply doesn't have the density surrounding it, hence the need for travel. Population size really is only a minor thing when it comes to all of this, location is a huge factor. Okay, maybe now I'm the one who's long-winded! Also, if you ever want to just talk back and forth, by all means PM. It's pretty cool to not have hostility for once on HLTV.

2017-03-17 23:32

Hard to see teams like this improving enough to be relevant without moving into a region where they can pracc vs good opponents. Probably not very easy to move to Europe, NA, Asia right now either, so this is a very tricky situation. Dry practice only gets you so far.

2017-03-16 20:45

We were on a constant level of improvement but yes, not being able to play on a fair ping against EU / Asian / NA teams will always restrict the level of improvement. Even when we were part of Asian leagues, teams would always have an upper hand due to the ping and most of the time we lose very close games. It's not that big of an excuse but it does affect us, even mentally. In my opinion, if sponsors don't fund teams here, the only solution is to find a proper routing to EU and that's the job of the internet companies here. Let's hope science can work its magic.

2017-03-17 10:49

Good luck guys. And gl t0ks, hope you enjoyed competitive gaming and will still be attached and helping the scene in some way.

2017-03-17 07:26

Thanks a lot mate. Looking forward to what the future of Esports holds for us.

2017-03-17 10:51

Risky's lineup now consists of: Khalid "KarriBob" Al-Junaibi Mohammed "k1tkat" Al-Nuaimi Obaid "breAker" Al-Muhairi Rashid "GreeNz" Al-Nuaimi Love "havoK" Paras Time to change Navne to Al-Paras? Or else he dont have a chanse

2017-03-17 08:45

Top Beard

2017-03-17 10:37

this toks guy has nearly replied to everyone who has commented on this post, big ups to you toks paying attention to your fans bro

2017-03-17 10:46

You get a reply too haha. I've always appreciated support and criticism. It helps in building you up as a player and an individual. Thanks for the message though. I will surely miss playing this beautiful game.

2017-03-17 10:52

you are amazing in terms of answering to your fans. my respect to you. and i wish you best of luck in your future plans.

2017-03-17 15:40

Thanks mate. I really appreciate it. Best of luck to you too!

2017-03-17 17:40

who cares?

2017-03-17 13:07

who are these nabz? they step out step in ? hahah never heard of them nabz

2017-03-17 15:08

allah's finest

2017-03-17 15:42

its like your country has a better scene? lul

yeah it does we have players that actually beat tier 1 teams on lan and online and tbh never heard of algerian players ever?

when did you actually even have the chance to beat a tier 2 team lan? and i must admit our scene is still too small but you can't just trashtalk a scene that is devloping when your scene is also fucked up and filled with cheaters

2017-03-17 17:49

Good luck <3 el w7sh

2017-03-18 05:51

Its really sad to see the lack of good organisations interested in Esports in a country like UAE even though it has a relatively good gaming scene. Let's just hope for the brighter future. Gl toKs, I really hope you come back with a project in favor of the scene in ME or even a league would be a blessing <3 <3

2017-03-18 06:35