Most people expected wNv to be a semifinalist team but Catch Gamer was predicted to finish behind SK.swe. Those expectations turned out to be far from right as Catch Gamer decimated SK.swe in one of the most impressive wins of the tournament so far.

The Norwegians started their improbable win with a 16-0 victory. So surprising was this win that no team in the history of SK.swe has ever beaten that team 16-0. Catch Gamer can now claim that unique title and will go for another one today with a Group One 1st place.

In order to do so, Catch will have to beat a hot Chinese wNv team who has all five players in the top 15 for the main statistical category FPR (Frags Per Round). Still with nice stats for all of the team, they have looked beatable at points. Both of their previous matches in the tournament featured lost maps including SK.swe on Nuke and 4Kings on Dust2.

On the other hand Catch Gamer hasn't had as much trouble with the same competition winning both matches 2-0. That's not the whole story though. 4Kings gave the Norwegians plenty of trouble taking them to overtime in their first map, Dust2, before Catch won 19-16 and the second map ended in a very close 16-14 score on Inferno. Statistically Catch Gamer has also looked very solid.

Two of Catch's pick-ups from the former Team 9 squad at the beginning of the year have proven themselves well. Sondre “REAL” Svanevik and Preben “OOPS” Josdal sit third and fourth in FPR for the entire tournament just ahead of wNv's Ke Fei “Jungle” Yang (fifth) and Jiang “Mikk” Pu (sixth). Their strong play along with solid efforts in key rounds from the rest of Catch Gamer has been the key to their good start at the WEG Masters tournament.

While the match will feature both teams who will advance to the semifinal of the WEG Masters, both will know how important this match is for their hopes in the next round. The winner could miss the very impressive Complexity team, at least for the first round, assuming they don't lose to Hacker.PK in their final match. The Americans haven't looked challenged yet in this tournament and would be a tough first round opponent for the loser of this match between Catch and wNv.

With the added incentive both teams should look to come out strong on Dust2, a map both have looked shaky on during the tournament. Catch's overtime win against 4Kings and wNv's loss to 4Kings on that map should set up a very interesting battle.

Notes

Yang has two of the four aces in the tournament so far...Svanevik is currently second DAR (Damage Average per Round) for the entire tournament with a 98.0...Svanevik and Josdal were picked up New Years Day (01/01/06) by Catch Gamer when their contracts ran out with Team 9...These two teams have the highest rounds won to lost in the tournament with a 1.718 for Catch and a 1.571 for wNv.