Contributors to this article include: James "jame^s" O'Connor, Jeff "JeFFY" Suckow, Brian Panchuk, Gabriel "UbinTubin" Ubatuba, Chris "decline" Allevi, Brent "bpex" Meeder, and Jon "Infernal_" Yacker

The best team from each country will be here in Seattle in order to claim the glory, as well as their piece of the prize pool. The event will feature some huge names from across the globe. While a few consider Pentagram or fnatic the favorites to win, there are a ton of teams with the potential upset them and end their tournaments shy of the podium.

Below are some of the top teams who will be in attendance. Almost all of the teams listed are world class and are capable of giving us some entertaining matches. Given the right conditions, nearly any of these teams are capable of defeating one another.

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Group A
Pentagram

Filip "Neo" Kubski
Lukasz "LUq" Wnek
Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas
Mariusz "lrd" Cybulski
Jakub "Kuben" Gurczyński

PGS is one of the most consistent teams in the world right now and definitely one of the favorites to win WCG 2007. Hailing from Poland, PGS is one of the most competitive teams in the Counter-Strike scene nowadays and has attended basically every major LAN tournament in the past two years, placing within the top three more often than not. Their all-star lineup contains one of the most notoriously outstanding players in the world, Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski, who boasts an amazing 1.1 FPR according to GameSense.

While NEO may be the X-Factor for PGS, they have many other facets of their game that allow them to perform well. Sometimes they are displayed through their teamwork and chemistry; other times they are evident through a player’s ability to lock down a particular spot on a map. PGS has the experience, chemistry, and adaptive ability that they need in order to place top three in this tournament, although they will not be satisfied with anything other than first place.


Evil Geniuses

Halston "teknikal Bellintani
Robert "blackpanther" Tyndale
Ian "royle" Royle
Jesse “quickshot” Stevenson
Evan “evaN” Ahlberg

It is not surprising to see that Evil Geniuses have made it to the WCG world stage to represent Canada yet again. It is surprising, however, to see that although EG qualified, names like Stevenson and Lari aren’t the ones shown on the roster. Now gracing the roster of EG are names like Evan, Teknikal, Royle, Blackpanther, and Quickshot.

Coming off of a near upset at the WCG Canada Finals, they have been playing every night to perfect their teamwork in preparation for the big event. However, a problem arose when Cole found out he would not be able to make the finals in Seattle. They have recently confirmed that Teknikal (from teams like DeadZone and Doctors/x6) is going to be taking his place, and they have picked up where they left off in terms of getting ready. While many place them as shoe-ins for advancement, they have to face a very tough Russian and Polish team in KPOBb and Pentagram. An upset over either of those two teams will, however, almost guarantee a spot for them in the double elimination round.


KPOBb

Viktor "Sally" Filimonchenko
Roman "ROMJkE" Makarov
Alexey "LeX" Kolesnikov
Viktor "Mosk" Moskvin
Vladimir "Tarlund" Perevolockij

While the Russians have assembled this pug team in lieu of virtus being unable to attend the qualifier, it consists of three of their strongest players in Alexey "LeX" Kolesnikov Viktor "Sally" Filimonchenko and Roman "ROMJkE" Makarov. Joining them are Viktor "Mosk" Moskvin and Vladimir "Tarlund" Perevolockij who have played in forZe together among other top Russian teams.

Anyone who sleeps on this team, especially EG during the group stage, is going to be in for a rude awakening. Virtus is back in top shape, so you can be sure that their individual talents rival those of any of the top players. They can easily be the team to prevent EG from advancing out their Group. Later down the line, they will probably suffer a bit, due to their pug status, but they should not be taken lightly by any of the teams in attendance.