Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to watch the first CS2 LAN Final of the BeNeLux Premier. The competition hopes to revive the Benelux Scene. Technical difficulties made things a little difficult at first, but once everything was up and running, the matches were solid and the atmosphere good.

The final was between Soul’s Heart Academy and ECV Esports, and after four maps, ECV emerged as the victor with a 3-1 scoreline. After the event, I sat down with Selmer (OzoSelmer), the man behind the league and CEO of Senshi eSports, to discuss what drives him, what he’s developing, and where he wants to take things next.

Who are you? And, what do you do?  

I’m Selmer (OzoSelmer) am 23 years young, But I do a lot within Esports. I arrange tournaments, But I also have my own organization. I help with other projects like the Esports Defense Cup, I help behind the scenes there. Then I also do things for team NL. I also have my own project together with Sem, which is a public database of the entire Benelux scene, which Benelux teams there are and which divisions they play in and who they are. So with that I also help Casters to get more information.  

 

What does Esports and Counter strike mean to you?  

Esports is really just what I’ve never been able to do myself, but very much experienced or really enjoyed because I really like to watch am very fanatical. Mainly because I was doing high level sports myself for 8 years but stopped during Covid and just started watching more Esports and from there my passion really came from. I really like Shooters. Before Call of Duty and then when I got into Csgo. Yes that was the perfect game.  

 

We are here at the BNL premier. So what was the moment for you when you thought, OK, this is what I am going to do. 

We had an online test event before this. From Senshi Events. That’s the company I’m behind and so from there this product came out. The test event was too see, like, can we actually do this? Could we complete it, could we recruit the teams, could we get the broadcasting right and could we eventually continue to grow? That is what turned out to be the case and that is why we made this product the BNL premier and so far I am very satisfied with it.  

  

Benelux has obviously been struggling in recent years. Why do you believe it is still worth making something out of this?  

Benelux has really taken a very big hit. I started watching when Elite series was still there. ESL Benelux was there and even very briefly Kayzr League, but unfortunately that all left then. I’ve always found it very unfortunate, but I’ve still seen the potential of what Benelux can do. So many people are motivated. There are a lot of people in the market who would also like to go further. And so I started thinking of hey, what can I do to do my part for the scene.   

 

You also see yourself as someone who fills the gap left by others?  

Yes, I think in that respect, I’m really trying to fill a hole that there is a kind of bright spot in the darkness for the Benelux scene, 100%.  

  

Is it also something you had always wanted to do, or is something that grew more organically from your own experience?  

Own experience, I guess, at school I organised events, so I do know how it all works. But I did find it organic myself like yes, I should do it. It does suit me. Why shouldn’t I do it?   

  

What do you personally hope to get out of this project?  

I hope that People see that Benelux is still alive. Unfortunately, on a lifeline but it’s still alive. I hope to get the commitment out of it that organizations can come back, but also to let sponsors know that it’s a new era. After Covid, everything is different, so we also want to show that the atmosphere is different. People are much more serious, and motivation is also at an always peak since Covid.  

 

Is there anything you miss or were missing in the scene that you want to change?  

What I miss in the scene and what I would still like to get behind myself is. You see some occasional organizations and players helping each other. A new initiative, for example, is that people start working together in the Benelux. Through these events, people get to know each other more and the more experienced players learn new people. As an example now and then, ExisteNce and FerSen talk to each other in consultation on certain things. It’s always very interesting to share your experiences to other players.  

  

Are there certain goals you want to tick off with Benelux Premier In the coming years?  

What I really want to tick off for Benelux Premier is that it runs with minimal to no errors and that an event hall can be filled, if 100 people come I’m very satisfied. Then you really see that Benelux is alive again. I hope to eventually grows towards that.  

  

How do you ensure that people follow the League? There are quite a few Dutch viewers, still few, but also internationally.  

We have a liquipedia page and in the broadcast we started doing everything in English. Benelux is not just Dutch or Flemish, there are other languages, so you prefer to have a language that everyone can understand. The same applies to Twitter. We want to make it appear accessible to everyone and That’s really what we do. We try to keep as much as possible in English, start getting a following and going to different communities to be able to create more interest.  

  

Benelux has had quite good players over those years, but very often we stayed quite under the radar. How do you think how do you break through this?  

The other day I saw a tweet about the top 100 teams on HLTV, here are currently also a Dutchman and a Belgian. So they started in the Netherlands and Belgium. Now they are at Fisher College in America and there they are playing for an American team. They are doing incredibly well at the moment, so they are breaking out there. But you also have, for example, Cruc1al and Keoz. They are now also playing together in Open qualifiers. They’ve come pretty far now. Like the Closed qualifiers of PGL Astana where they just didn’t make it, but you can see that potential. It’s just a matter of time. When it actually succeeds again.   

  

Is there a big media or content plan behind Benelux premier or is it now just building with the people who believe in it? 

Right now, it’s really a passion project. We are on a very small budget and we are trying to make the most of it. There is obviously a lot of passion and that applies to me but also the Casters and the volunteers. We have yet to find a full partner or sponsor who really wants to invest so that we can make it something even better than we already have.   

  

Do you think other regions or tournaments will also start looking at Benelux more as something serious so that, for example, DACH will also start looking at Benelux.  

 I do notice , for example, that if a Dutch player or a Benelux player plays somewhere else, such as the UK or DACH, the Benelux Community sees each other as one, so they already support each other there, so it could also be that those players can attract attention from there to eventually support us. Perhaps a German player will eventually join a Benelux team. Or a French one, you name it, it’s possible, so we hope that by means of support from other communities we can attract more people.  

What are the biggest obstacles you have encountered in starting the BNL premier?  

The biggest problem which I will remember for next time is that we are a small region so that makes it more difficult to be able to play at certain times. As an example, on day one there will be, say, two opening matches of Group A and then Group B, but for next time I will just keep that open so that it can be properly arranged that every team can just play whenever suits best for them. Especially little things like that you have to pay attention to. Then it will all work out. In the end this event went well.  

 

Where do you see Benelux premier in five years’ time?  

For Benelux we can do different things, especially if we have the budget, we can just do so much more. But with the little budget we have currently, we have already been able to achieve so much. Getting so many views. Getting a lot of coverage within the community is already very satisfying, but of course you want to go one step further even if it is just a bigger event. For Benelux premier we use all the feedback we get from the players, viewers and organizations to set up an even better event next time, the goal is the upgrade the experience every event.

The BNL Premier might not have had the flair of an S-tier event but what it lacked in scale, it made up for in passion. It showed that, despite everything, there’s still a group of people fighting for the Benelux CS scene — not just out of nostalgia, but out of genuine belief in its potential.

One thing is clear: the scene isn’t gone — it’s rebuilding. And maybe that’s exactly what it needs.