Despite its shortcomings, CDC4 was the first major Call of Duty 4 event to truly capture the imagination of the community. Amazing comebacks, shocking upsets, never-ending overtimes - CDC4 had it all. Europe's best showed up to play and justice was fast dispensed to those who weren't up to the challenge. The likes of Serious, Logitech.fi and Dignitas will have left Enschede facing hard truths about their ability in Call of Duty 4. The only shame was that the final match had to be cut short but, in the end, the best team won.

Yes that's right, fnatic were the best team and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. All credit to TLR, they defied expectations in getting to the final and I believe they will prove they are the UK's best team in a few weeks at i33 but they weren't the best team at CDC4. TLR did well to beat oXmoze in the semi finals but their previous victories over Speedlink, Logitech and DCC shouldn't be overestimated and neither should the excuse that they would have won the final had they played two maps.

fnatic beat three great teams to reach the final - SK, H2k and eSuba - and went on to beat TLR in overtime on mp_backlot. How one can conclude that TLR deserved to win the final escapes me. Don't take this as criticism however, TLR did do very well and they did deserve to get as far as they did. It's by no accident, for example, that they finished seven places above UK rivals Dignitas. On a side note, it will be interesting to see now if a team like MYM makes as rushed a decision as SK did and moves for TLR after this weekend's results.

Speaking of SK, the former 6DEVILS will perhaps be disappointed to not have made the top four but still have reasons to be positive. Unlike others, they did have a genuine excuse for a lack of preparation coming into this event and for that reason I don't believe we will have seen the real SK until they play at i33. A narrow loss to oXmoze hinted at inexperience on behalf of the German side but there is no doubt they have the dedication and talent to work on their mistakes and move on.

One would hope the same can be said for the likes of Serious-Gaming and LowLandLions, neither of whom made it past the group stage. The former in particular will be bitterly disappointed with their performance this weekend which included surprising losses to both Roskilde and Intense. Other underachievers included Logitech, Speedlink and perhaps Epsilon. As for Dignitas, their adventures are at least never lacking in drama. Let's just hope their upcoming roster change does them more good than harm.

It wasn't all doom and gloom in Enschede however. There were a number of heart-warming underdog stories and, aside from TLR, the most interesting involved Roskilde. Rated as competitive outsiders since their early days in Call of Duty 2, the Ravens really punched above their weight at CDC4 and hopefully will continue to do so. Inspired by "Champ" and "fRiJeC", the Danish side topped their group and even managed to give SK quite a scare in the opening playoffs round.

Another underdog that shone this weekend was Jyri "kammYz" Högman. Tek-9's "online hero" dismantled Dignitas over two maps and has certainly made one writer retract recent speculation as to his quality offline. Högman was the shining light for Tek-9 in a weekend that, while not being a disaster, doesn't really bare remembering. Defeat to eSuba in straight maps was disappointing but not the end of the world for Tek-9 and their quality should tell over the next few months if they can keep their roster stable.

This brings us to the end of our brief review of the weekend's action but, without wanting to sound cliché, this is really just the beginning. The opening exchanges have concluded but with a multitude of events to look forward to over the Spring and Summer, things are only getting started for Call of Duty 4. fnatic, TLR, eSuba and oXmoze can all be considered top five teams now but there is no guarantee that'll be the case in two months or even one months time. Their rivals just have too much quality and experience to stay down and you can bet the likes of SK, Tek-9 and H2k will be back and fighting come their next meeting.