Hundreds of excited fans stare up at an ominous, darkened stage. They watch in silence at the lit faces staring intently forward and the silhouettes flickering against a back wall. Without any warning explosive wrist flicking and the loud barking of commands shatter the calm.

Monitors go black, one by one, as each player makes a fatal mistake. Blackness envelops the stage bit by bit, heaping more and more pressure and attention on those still living, until movement ceases and the stage rests in pitch-black. Seconds later it glows with monitor hue and a new round begins.

The Winter CPL 2004 proved the final arrival of a team that two years ago came up short. At the Winter CPL 2003, NoA came out of nowhere to defeat many top teams on the road to a disappointing finals loss against SK.swe. Last year saw a difference.

A championship sized difference.

“It’s amazing, such a good feeling,” said Griffin “Shaguar” Benger after winning Winter CPL 2004 on MFAVP Videos. “This is the seventh CPL I have been to and every single one I have come in and know our team could have done well but I never felt fully confident we could win until this CPL.”

Don’t be confused; it has been a rough journey for the only truly International team in Counter-Strike. At points last year they came within practically nothing of being just another road bump in the history of CS. From disappointing finishes at Summer CPL 2004 and Nollevla to very hard win at EverLAN, nothing was easy, and thus none of the players expected their first (of hopefully many) CPL Championship to be.

Before they can worry about future CPL’s, they’ll have to get past seven other teams in Korea for the World eSports Games, also known as WEG. The past CPL could hold the keys for either a success or failure in Korea.

Let’s start in the Championship game against EYEballers. While the second match on Inferno was a rout with a NoA victory, 16-5, the first map proved both intriguing and exciting, 16-14.