The Counter-Strike finals is just hours away here in Seoul. X7-Hacker from China will play Fnatic from Sweden on stage in the Olympic Gymnastics Stadium in Seoul for a prize pool of 35 000 dollars.

Both teams emerged from group play with five points, they won one map a piece in their match against each other. Fnatic did come out ahead though with five more rounds won.

The format for the finals is a familiar best of three maps setup. Late last night the captains for both teams participated in the drawing of these scenarios and the coin tosses to determine who starts as Terrorists.

X7-Hacker was charged with the ungrateful task of attacking the Swedish defense on de_nuke. The Swedes will also have to stop the rampaging Chinese on what has been their worst map so far, de_dust2 (loss against Hacker and MIBR).

If the score is level after two maps de_inferno will server as the tie breaker. This map is balanced but the Counter-Terrorist side is usually favored by the players. Fnatic will defend first again.

- I hope we will win in two straight maps, Harley "dsn" Örwall says prior to Fnatics departure for the venue.

- I think de_dust2 and de_inferno are our weakest maps against a team like Hacker. We need to build momentum from the first map de_nuke, that's a must win for us today.

During the group phase Fnatic lost a very close game against X7-Hacker on de_dust2 (16-14) after coming back from 3-12 at half time. Against MIBR the Swedes lost again on that same map, this time by 16-13. Surprisingly Ôrwall does not seem to have a problem playing the map that thus far has been Fnatic's Achillies heel.

- I think de_inferno will be the hardest if this becomes a three map series. On de_dust2 it would be great to win the pistol round as CT, that could make our play a little bit more relaxed but I really don't mind playing the map again, he said.

"Dsn", which is short for "design" or "delusion" (pending the players mood), attributes their poor de_dust2 play of late to the lack of consistent individual performances. Fnatic were up 1-0 against PGS in their ESWC semi-finals and in the lead on d2 before the Polish team took the map back and ultimately won. Örwall refuses to think of it as a curse.

- Our team play has been good as usual but we haven't been able to put up big individual numbers. I had an off day against MIBR and I think that if I would have done a little bit better that could have put us over the top instead of losing the map.

- Counter-Strike is a lot about winning the key rounds that will sustain your teams economy. For some reason we have lost more key rounds on de_dust2 than on any other map, the Swedish star player explains.

According to Örwall, Fnatic has been led by an outstanding individual performance by their star player Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg.

- "f0rest" has been really good for us here. The rest of us has had our matches too but he has been the most consistent.

Harley "dsn" Örwall has a confident outlook on the final match. It's a trait that familiarizes his Swedish team. Fnatic prefers to focus on their own play, but they are not totally indifferent as to the tactical predispositions of others either.

- We will change our pistol rounds and I think it's pretty obvious that we will change some of our CT setups on de_dust2.

Will Fnatic break their "curse?" Can X7-Hacker win this tournament through their amazing aiming abilities? Have the Chinese found an answer to Fnatics aggressive CT play on de_nuke?

E-Stars Seoul 2007 culminates at 5:00 AM EDT with the exciting final match between these two great teams.