This truly is a remarkable step forward for the North American Call of Duty community. Only four months on from the game's official release and we find ourselves one day away from a 29 team LAN. This isn't WSVG, CPL or any other large scale multigaming tour; instead it's just a LAN sponsored tournament in east Pennsylvania. What's more is that this LAN is being attended by three more teams than were at the WSVG at Dallas. It's important to note that three of the 26 WSVG attendees were international teams which means only 23 North American teams attended. So, four months after Call of Duty 4's release, six more North American teams than attended the $20,000 prize pool World Series of Video Games will be battling it out for the top prize in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The event is scheduled to begin at 9am EST this Saturday, March 8. In order to get ahead of schedule and to allow for extra time, four first round matches are slated to get underway Friday night. Many of the CyberHub and CyberZone LANs that occurred quarter-yearly during CoD2 were only attended by two or three top teams and maybe five full teams. This NERV LAN tournament is completely the opposite. Of the sixteen teams in CEVO-Professional, nice will be in attendance this weekend. Several CAL-main, a few CAL-open, and a handful of pugs constitute the remaining sides. The top team presence at LAN coupled with the never-before-seen parity in top competitive online play makes the excitement and anticipation all the greater.

The bracket structure with seeds based on past experience and online records makes for even distribution amongst the top teams. The double elimination format gives everybody a chance, though, so it would be imprudent to say anybody is out before they're out. Champions from the Michigan LAN, PowerHouse Gaming, will be in attendance. As will CEVO:FTF champions Guardians, Xfire champions Pandemic, and the rest of those that remain in TGL. MakeSHIFT had to drop out at the last minute so they will not be at the event and their spot will be turned into a bye. GotFrag will be live in Pennsylvania for the entire weekend bringing you up to the minute scores alongside analysis and interviews.

Read on for an in-depth look at the teams attending NERV LAN.