A Behind The Curtain Look At Running fl0m’s Mythical LAN

For many years, fans of North American Counter-Strike have complained about the lack of infrastructure in the local scene. For a while it seemed like nothing was going to happen on that front, but in 2026, an American streamer took it upon himself to change that. By hosting a LAN event in the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas, Erik “fl0m” Flom gave North American teams the chance to both compete for $30,000 and earn crucial VRS points ahead of this year’s first Major. 

The first fl0m Mythical LAN Las Vegas had over 500 people in attendance and thousands more watching online as M80 took down NRG in the Grand Final. Not only is this a great milestone for both fl0m and Monster Energy, it is also a sign for Counter-Strike as a whole that with the right infrastructure, NA CS can thrive.

With the successful event now complete, we sat down and spoke to fl0m about the experience. From some behind the scenes insights to his vision for the future, the American streamer reveals what it takes to run a North American Counter-Strike LAN event.

Based on your own expectations, how do you think the first fl0m’s Mythical LAN went?

Really fucking good. A lot of problems internally that didn't translate to the viewers in-person or online. As somebody that's never run events before, that was a new thing for me; being the face of something, but simultaneously doing all the stuff that's on fire in the background that is somehow still working. 

It was the most rewarding thing I've ever done with content. I'm not as tired as all the people that did insane work on the event for me, and they're just real troopers. I would love to do another one, even with how much I was going at both ends. Waking up early, ending late. But it was good, it was all worth it. 

Can you give some insight into the behind the scenes of organizing this event? 

One insight would be it almost didn't happen, because initially the arena did not know anything about me and they had never hosted a CS event. So when my team was reaching out to them, it seemed like things were going okay, and then they just fell flat. Then I literally just showed up at their doorstep.

Then they started to learn more about me, and what the goals were for the event and why I was doing it. From that point forward they were on the same page with us. After that, we were working through some of their “trauma” [laughs] with previous people going in there, trying to do similar things and just not really delivering or executing on things that they say they could. To toot my own horn a little bit, me and my team were able to exceed all expectations. I think that the event that we put on there was the most fun they've had running an event in that building — I don't want to say ever, but maybe pretty damn close.

An event you hosted has an impact on North American teams’ chances of going to a Major, how does it feel to have that impact?

It felt really cool, but honestly, I've been wanting to host the LAN event before VRS was a thing.

I had aspirations of running an event years and years ago, just before COVID started. There wasn't really any logical way to get into things without VRS. So when VRS came out, I explained to Monster and to the other sponsors of why this was so significant and it was basically the perfect storm to finally host my first LAN event with my team.

Now, I've spoken with NRG, so I don't feel too bad saying this... do I think they're almost a top 10 team in the world right now? No. Do I think our LAN helped propel them quite a bit forward, along with some other LANs like Fragadelphia? Yes. But they did this off their own merit as well — they absolutely deserve that ranking. They moved up nicely. So, yes, it feels really cool to see teams be impacted by the LAN. It also not only helps motivate other fans to be invested in the teams that came to the event, but it's helped me as well. I want to see teams that do well in my event succeed. 

Speaking of VRS, can you go through what the approval process was like?

VRS, in itself, has growing pains, but the approval process is easy because it's streamlined. As long as you play by Valve's rules, you're allowed to run tournaments as you please, basically. So from that aspect, it was incredibly easy and I think the VRS system does have its flaws, but it's been a benefit to Counter-Strike as a whole.

Does your experience as a Twitch streamer give a unique perspective that other organisers can’t have?

Absolutely. I'm a viewer at the end of the day. Even though, once upon a time — when dinosaurs were on earth — I played professionally for a little bit. At the end of the day, I'm the most dedicated Counter-Strike viewer due to the co-streams. I'm watching every single event live that I can with my own community, and I get to see in real time what does and doesn't work. 

Whereas, unfortunately for ESL and BLAST, they are so massive that some of that feedback can be incredibly difficult to receive. It's hard to see how people react to different things in real time, but I get to see that, whether it's skits or overlays or HUDs or casters or anything. I get to categorize and catalog that information. That helped me a lot in creating the authentic feel, which is what we were going for. 

What do you hope the impact of this tournament will be on NA CS? 

Showing people it's not just a European esport. While Europe is where most of the players are and where most of the viewers are, we sold out the venue in a few hours for teams that were not even in the top 30 of Counter-Strike. I don't care what region you're in. That is actually insane. That is how much North American people would love to be invested in North American Counter-Strike if they were just given the opportunity.

A lot of companies don't believe me when I tell them that the people that watch me are North American. Every single time it's a new company, they say, "but we heard a lot about how it's only Europeans that watch Counter Strike.” Then they see my demographics, and they say "oh, shit, no, we were wrong, there are North American people that care about this." There's definitely brands that are starting to get it. There's some that already do — shout out to Monster for that. This event is one of hopefully many, and that's gonna be a constant battle, but it's a great starting point. 

What do you feel are the major issues facing NA CS right now? 

There were a lot of things in place, pre-COVID, that existed in Counter-Strike that enabled and encouraged teams to play, participate, and even live in North America for months.

We won a Major in North America and we had the Grand Slam with Liquid 2018 - 2019. North American Counter-Strike was probably the strongest it's ever been, as it had two contenders that were always within top 5 or top 10.

During the COVID time, the European events were basically running without a hitch, all online, doing their thing. But there were way less North American tournaments with way less viewership, because you only had a small amount of teams playing each other, and that was the same with the other regions. 

Once international competition started happening again, and when the fans were able to come back to the venue, most of the events stayed in Europe, and that infrastructure that existed before, the North American Pro League, was now gone. So ideally, through FML, with more frequent tournaments in the region, we can encourage more teams to play in North America on a more frequent basis, which would help the players and teams get better. 

What do you feel about the NA CS scene needs more right now? 

I think as more tournaments happen, and more fans are engaged, more organizations have room to come in. I think there already is room for orgs to come in, but a lot of them are scared. That's not just necessarily [NA] Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike salaries [in general] used to be astronomical. They're not anymore, but you have to tell teams that. They don't really understand how the system works, so they don't realize how open it is and how available it is for them to make a real impact. 

A lot of them just saw what happened pre-COVID with that agreement, where a lot of teams participate, and then overnight they were told to politely fuck off. A lot of them don't know the best way back in. That's fine if you don't want to get into North American Counter-Strike, but we're going to keep running events, and people are going to keep showing up, and they're going to keep wondering, “Why the hell don't you have a team?”

What do you hope the future holds for Fl0m's Mythical LAN? 

I've thought about that a lot. Even before we finished the first one, people were saying "when's the next one?" It's really flattering, but also it's pretty nerve-wracking. So my hope for the LAN is that we do more. I thought about this first one for so long, and I knew every aspect of what I wanted it to be, so it wasn't hard telling people how I wanted it to be. When you're dealing with so many different pieces, that's the hard part. 

Ideally, for now: run more FML's, help NA CS, bring in more attention, bring in more fans, connect fans to organizations, get these organizations to pull their heads out of their asses and realize what an opportunity they have in Counter-Strike right now.