Christmas came early for the American Counter-Strike team. Gravitas Gaming drew arguably one of the least difficult opening groups in the tournament. The team qualified as X3O during E4All in Los Angeles a little over a month ago, taking out EG in the grand finals. At the same event but in the Extreme Masters tournament, they took a loss to SK and POV in bracket play, placing 7th-8th. Two weeks later in Montreal they captured fourth place behind SK, Fnatic, and MiBR.

The closest team in reputation placed in group F seems to be ExsequoR. The squad from Singapore last played notably at the KODE5 World Finals in May. There they took a close loss to the former Gravitas CS team from Denmark. They also took ten rounds from MYM and tied the Russian tp.uSports. An upset win over the American team could spell good things for their chances in bracket play.

Nextlevel is a new representative for Indonesia, making their first major appearance on the international level. Last year in Seattle, the island nation's representative, Xcn, took down GoodGame.

Rounding out the group we have the qualifiers from Montenegro, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka. Since Montenegro was recently established as a new country, they don't actually have a past performance on which to judge. Sri Lanka has never attended a WCG and Uzbekistan last year placed 3rd in their group, however they had a completely different roster. The question this poses to fans is whether or not the unknown status of these squads will be a benefit or a burden to themselves and their opponents.

GotFrag.com's Top 6 Prediction:

1. Gravitas Gaming
2. ExsequoR
3. Nextlevel
4. Just
5. Selected
6. Liquid





WCG 2008 CS Melee

bit: "We want to win Group C"
PUTb's Flatra in doubt for WCG
wNv to miss WCG

WCG CS Group Previews
   - Group A
   - Group B
   - Group C
   - Group D
   - Group E
   - Group F
   - Group G
   - Group H

Galleries
GotFrag goes on an adventure in Cologne!
Kolnmesse venue gallery
Rock stars, half-pipe bmx, and oprah. Just part of the Opening Ceremonies.