Let’s face it, CEVO-Professional season one for Call of Duty 4 has been a long time coming. Between the seventy round Finish the Fight tournament, the pro placement tournament, and the pro placement extension, the top teams in North America have been putting forth their best efforts to pin down one of sixteen professional invitations. With all that in the past, we finally have our sixteen teams and are set to begin week one this Thursday night on the beloved mp_citystreets. What better day to begin CEVO-P, the object of our lasciviousness, than on Valentine’s Day? The quest for $4250 has begun; here is a look at the contenders.

20id
Sure, go after the underdog first, right? Well not exactly. 20id comes first in the alphabetized team listing and that’s good enough for me. The ability of this 20id group is under strict scrutiny. They were one of the original eight teams to gain entrance into CEVO-P, doing so by way of fishing 1st-8th in the FTF tournament. A look at their trek through that event, though, is not particularly awe inspiring. In round one they took a 13-7 victory over Rival. They followed this up with perhaps their most impressive match, a 13-9 win over Death is Not an Option. DNO has earned a reputation as a strong, inconsistent team (more on this later) who is best known for beating the Doctors twice in placement events and for their denim enamored team leader. With their Professional bid secure in accordance with the Finish the Fight event rules, 20id proceeded to be beaten badly by makeSHIFT 13-7. Part of the reason I’m not 100 percent convinced that this group has what it takes to compete in CEVO-P has a lot to do with the fact that they have matched very little since FTF. Of course, they haven’t needed to, but I’m not about to let a little thing like logical observation get in the way of my assessment. The other reason I have my reserves about this team lies in their roster which has a grand total of zero recognizable names from competitive CoD2. I get it, they played another game. Don “credible” O’Connor was notorious for spamming CAL-m results threads with his little message: “Welcome to main.” Well 20id, welcome to the main stage. You have every opportunity to prove you belong, good luck sirs.

Roster:

Will "eemz" Lovelock
Gabriel "SpEc-" Beltre
Taz "SpAz" Carper
Oscar "abZ" Salazar
Jon "copeland" Golan

Projected Record: 4-11

50 Calibre Gaming
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the only team with the unique distinction of having finished both second and third in the CEVO: Finish the Fight tournament. The merger between 50cal and sinister resulted in the first CEVO-P team “death” but that is no longer an issue and, for better or for worse, this new group has a dedicated, LAN-oriented focus. They are a dynamic group who’s always got it out for somebody (see: enforcer vs. the world, theimpaler vs. rizzi, or craFter vs. puberty) and I expect them to be in top form for CEVO-Professional. 50cal’s biggest strength is the ability of their mg’s to consistently threaten bomb sites with entry kills. Saurus is a top mg who, if I let him, would likely upload his entire demo library to the GotFrag archive, and craFter is known the world over as the luckiest gun in franchise history. Their frag-finding talent coupled with enforcer’s direction, caastor’s reliable scope, and theimpaler’s pleasant personality are keys to this team’s success. Are they a top three team in the game, though? The answer, at present, is no. That said, it isn’t a stretch to put them in the top five. I expect big things from this team provided they stick together and improve as a unit.

Roster:

Max “enforcer`” Smith
Mike “craFter” Pugnetti
Brian “saurus” Buchwald
Chase “bigTuck” Tucker
Andrew “theimpaler” Coons

Projected Record: 10-5

Death is Not an Option
Ah, good ol’ DNO. If there’s one team in the game that I wouldn’t feel comfortable putting some money on, it is DNO. Maybe I’m being a touch unfair labeling them inconsistent, then again, since when is anybody questioning my fairness? These guys burst onto the scene in FTF with a surprise 13-9 win over internal revolution only to be sent packing in round two 13-9 by 20id. After waiting for the placement tournament to commence, DNO came off their bye week with a huge 13-9 win over the Doctors. Then wouldn’t you know, they lost in the next round to Platoon X. They then had another bye week followed by a rematch with the Doctors which ended in a 13-5 DNO victory. I think it has something to do with preparation. Every time DNO has more than a week to prepare for a match, the win. Unfortunately for them, the CEVO season isn’t three years long. DNO consists of a strong core that has shown they can hang with some of the best in CoD4. I’m not sure if any of them have CEVO-Professional experience, though, and that won’t make the first season any easier. A potential sleeper team, keep an eye out for DNO.

Roster:

Tim "sheLF" Coyle
Hiu Lam "dmasteR" Ip
Tyler "sparx" Lovitt
Kevin "starbuck" Koch
Chad "HipshoT" LaFitte

Projected Record: 8-7

Eximius Sports
You have to give credit where credit is due. Despite his reputation and ridiculous antics, Brad Dick is one of the few honest guys in eSports. With that out of the way, let’s focus on the team. Similar to the 50cal and sinister situation, this Eximius team is an amalgamation of the former Area51 and Nexus: Team Gruffalo squads. Area51 decided to split up after their hopes of a CEVO-P berth of their own were crushed after their pro-placement overtime loss to the Doctors. The Eximius Sports professional bid was earned by Gruffalo as they eliminated the other Nexus team in the FTF event (only to lose 13-1 to 50cal in the next round.) Since the merge, the team has seen very little in the way of competitive action. Their first true test came in the form of a semi-rematch in CAL against the reformed Nexus team which didn’t turn out to well. The “First CoD4 Rivalry” got underway with Nexus taking an 18-6 win…close. Eximius is all smiles though as they head into CEVO-P and I would be too with their first half schedule. There’s competition around every corner in this league, but if they don’t get it done in the first few weeks then there won’t be any hope of a playoff run. We saw a flicker of brilliance in their 13-11 win over Nexus many weeks ago, can any of that magic be rekindled with this made over roster?

Roster:

Brian "bzegs" Zegers
Stephen "Mav" Groat
Matt "sullybear" Sullivan
Theo "d_-rkkLP" Tijssen
Jared "riskk" Mikkelsen
Joe "Melkor" DeMarco

Projected Record: 5-10