This weekend, the Samsung Experience Center in midtown New York City plays host to WCG's first US tournament of the year, the US Open. Four teams have been invited to compete for
autoberths and top seeds at September's US Finals, as well as the illustrious WCG PanAM tournament taking place at the end of June in beautiful Cancun, Mexico. On top of all that, are some additional prizes from event sponsors.

In attendance, are some of the top teams left in the US scene, after a large amount of teams made the switch to Counter-Strike Source. Those teams are eMg, MissedMe, Turmoil, and x3o. The event format is double elimination, best of three maps. The first round matches feature x3o versus m2, and turmoil versus eMg. With this format, expect to see hours of exciting matches coming from teams which are very close in skill. The maps to be played are the four main competitive maps; de_dust2, de_train, de_inferno, and de_nuke.

Below you can find some more information on the participating teams.


Nazar "steno" Vynnytsky
Matt "Lim" Beahan
Scott "evolution" Cavallero
Michael "chE" Guevara
Robert "Ph0bius" Irey

eMg as you may know is made up of former members of rS, flow, and fear factor. After many ups and downs, they can now call themselves the clear-cut top team from New York. They are signed up for CEVO's sixth pro season, finishing up last season 5-6th place with a .500 record (not including forfeit wins/losses). The members of the team have become a veritable who's who of the NY CS scene, especially after adding chE and ph0bius. Since they were unable to attend the buy.com event due to logistical reasons, this is their first major LAN event of the 2007 season. They are excited to play this event, and possibly look to improve upon their GotFrag NA ranking of 10th.

Team captain Nazar Vynnytsky was reached for a comment on this weekend's tournament:

"We are prepared to face everyone. We've been waiting for a chance to actually play turmoil on LAN and when both teams are prepared so we'll see how it goes. I expect that we will do well and hopefully take this whole thing."

Matthew "MxD" Chung
Brian Panchuk
Matt "phal" Krahling
Steve "shaky" Masse
Johnny Kim

With pandemic opting not to attend, MissedMe is taking their place. m2's lineup features some up-and-comers from the NY scene, along with a few familiar faces. Many of the players are from season 5 CEVO-Main team, Ka4. Led by Matt "my deagle cures cancer" Chung, this is the team's first LAN event with this roster. Even so, most of the players have been on the same team with each other before, and have participated in local events together. The team is signed up for CEVO's next semi-pro season, and has also been competing in the CAL placement tournament, boasting a 4-1 record so far. The team is currently outside of the top 10 in GotFrag's National rankings.

Team leader Matt Chung had this to say about the tournament:

"Our expectation is to win, like every other team's expectation should be. We've been preparing as much as we can in such short notice and are hoping for the best. I have faith in my team to give an impressive showing."