An already great start to the 2009 season gets even better for American powerhouse x3o as they become the first team invited to the KODE5 USA Finals being held on March 14.

This announcement comes shortly after an impressive run at the x3o Winter Classic, which saw the team come from behind to take out Gravitas Gaming in the finals and secure their first title of 2009.

Commenting on the announcement of the team being added to the qualifier, Thomas Kuhlenbach of KODE5 had this to say, "X3O is one of the best teams in the entire US, with strong performances in previous tournaments. We are happy to have them compete at our final USA event of the season and help put on a great show for gaming fans everywhere."

Joining x3o at the US Finals in March will be LG KODE5 Qualifier champion, EG.usa, as well as two other teams to be announced in the coming days, leaving fans to guess as to who might be added on to the final four.

Shortly after the announcement, GotFrag spoke with Nick Fitzsimmons, Executive Director of x3o Gaming, to ask him a few questions about the upcoming qualifier.

The team has had an impressive start to 2009, seemingly getting better and better as time goes on. Do you feel that x3o, in their current state, is prepared to capture the US Qualifier in March and move on to Russia for the Grand Finals in May?

I feel that while we are a great team now, we will be even better each and every time we play. Prior to this event the team will be in Germany for the ESL Global Finals where we will compete against the best teams in the world. This experience will push us even further, and will definitely help us bring our "A Game" to the KODE5 USA Finals.

EG.USA already has secured their spot alongside x3o in the US qualifiers. Two more teams will be announced in the coming days. Do you feel confident that with the recent x3o winter classic, and current CEVO P season, that your team will be ready for any suprises that may come?

When you reach the level of competitive gaming that these guys are at, its very difficult to predict the outcome of matches. There are so many outside factors from rest, emotions, mental stamina to who is just hitting their shots that can affect the outcome. With that in mind, to really consider yourself the best you look at a team's consistency. As an organization and as this CS team we have shown the most consistency of any North American team coming from November 2008 - Today. We haven't had the opportunity to play EG.usa on LAN prior to this event, but with the amount of experience we have, there aren't really too many surprises that can come our way.

CS 1.6 in the United States is rapidly rising again in an effort to recapture the prominence which the scene once held. How does the team feel about having a chance to play in the qualifier and maybe represent the country on an international stage?

We are very excited about the opportunity. It is always a great honor to represent our country to the rest of the world. If we do get the chance, I know that we will do our best to exceed the expectations of our fans and the community and hopefully bring some glory back to North American e-Sports.

Finally, is there anything you'd like to say to the fans, or any shout outs you'd like to make?

I definitely want to thank our fans for their continued support over the years, and our sponsors Razer - www.razerzone.com, Next Generation Servers - www.nextgenservers.com and NationVoice - www.nationvoice.com.