Gamer Company - masternook, ph33r, hanes, exodus, DarK

A lot of people have forgotten just how good GamerCo was last year due to their lackluster performance during WEG's first season, but have a look at this. Only five teams have ever managed to place in the top three at consecutive CPL Dallas events, and they are: SK, 3D, GoL, EYE, and GamerCo. That is a very short and very impressive list, and the fact that GamerCo is on it shows you just how good this team was at one point.

What happened to them? It's hard to say. Perhaps they simply weren't prepared to play in the very unique environment that is the Korean gaming scene. Maybe living life as a pro gamer and nothing else left the team in a state of shell-shock. Or perhaps having medrano replace Medias really was as huge a blow to the team as some would have us believe. We'll never know, and neither will GamerCo, but they can't dwell on what didn't go right at WEG season 1. They have to concentrate on getting things back on track for future events, and the pick-up of DarK shows that they are doing just that.

GamerCo had always played with a signature style, where it almost seemed like the team was running around the map in random directions at times, playing a game of CSDM while the other team did nothing but die over and over and over again. GamerCo's fast-paced, chaotic style didn't seem to work very well during WEG's previous season. Whether it was other teams practicing rigorously and finding ways to counter it, or GamerCo's inability to properly execute it as they did in Dallas last year, it just didn't get the job done. DarK is more an old school leader who will bring a much more orderly feel to the team. Expect to see GamerCo playing a much more organized and deliberate style then ever before. Will this help them? Only time will tell. An even bigger question may be whether or not DarK is still the same world class player that he once was after his long break from the competitive scene. While we've seen some players take sizeable breaks only to return and have great success, it certainly hasn't worked out that way for all those who have gone that route.

If GamerCo embraces the style that DarK imposes on them, and if DarK is able to return to his former top form, and if the other members of GamerCo are able to play like they did throughout last year, we may finally see the Rival team we all know and love. Because really, who likes the name "GamerCo". Rival was so much better.

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SSV Lehnitz - Magix, MegatoN, Snajdan, solido, diGitaL

SSV Lehnitz looked to have a lot of potential upon their founding, but that has been the case with all of Magix and MegatoN's recent teams. The greatly skilled Swedish duo have gone from team to team ever since the glory days of Highland Online, trying to find the perfect fit. It looked like SSV Lehnitz would be just another failed experiment after their sub par performance at Rixhack, where the team ended up placing 17th-24th with a loss to Incredible Teamaction and a major upset loss to local team Bevara. A couple roster changes were made however, as faken left the team and Snajdan joined up, and this seemed to make all the difference in the world. The team stormed their way through the ACON5 Nordic pre-qualifier and main qualifier, beating such teams as Wings, Ex Infernis, Team 9, and eventually Ninjas in Pyjamas to earn their spot in the ACON5 world finals. The showing was nothing less then very impressive, and it looked like Magix and MegatoN may have finally found a stable team which could properly utilize their talents and had a great supporting cast to back them up.

The sky seems to be the limit for this SSV Lehnitz team after their ACON5 Nordic win, although they did take a bit of a hit recently as zet was revealed to be unable to attend CPL Brazil. In his place, the team has temporarily picked up Finnish all-star diGitaL. The team has had a decent amount of time to properly integrate diGitaL into the line-up, although many were disappointed, and rightfully so, that zet would not be attending with the team after his stellar performance in the ACON5 qualifier. Still, diGitaL is a great player who should be able to hold his own, and after seeing SSV Lehnitz dominate against some great opposition at the ACON5 qualifier, I wouldn't be at all be surprised to see this team finish in the top three in Brazil. At the same time, you have to remember just how flat the team played at Rixhack, so don't be too surprised if the team drops a couple of quick games early on and finds themselves eliminated.

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Game Crashers - btt, rdz, ton, cky, lance

While you may not recognize the name, you might recognize the tag and some of the players on this team. Game Crashers were once known as the Global Challengers. GC has long been one of the top teams in the Brazilian scene, often coming up just short to teams like mibr and g3x when it comes to qualifying for international events. Now, however, the big event has come to Brazil, and GC will finally get their chance to shine.

This is a team that no one should underestimate. Players like btt and rdz are arguably just as skilled as any other player competing in this tournament. GC has looked really good lately, and during the CPL Brazil qualifier they attended, they managed to pick up a 16-9 win over top Brazilian team Semxorah as well as a dominating win over mibr, 16-3, which qualified them for the tournament this weekend. That second result should show you just how dangerous GC really is, and if anyone matched up against these guys is expecting an easy game; they're going to be in for a big surprise. As long as GC can stay focused and worry about playing their own game, not who they're up against, they could make a serious run at the finals.

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Schroet Kommando.dk - eGene, spx, calc, zonic, ziGa

This tournament could be a real turning point for the SK.dk team. The squad which was considered by many to be the best in the world just last year has really hit a wall recently. Things didn't look as bleak when the team placed 2nd overall a few months ago at the Samsung Euro Championship, beating teams like Astralis, Attax, and Good Game before falling to the eventual 1st place finishers Pentagram. But things seem to be getting worse and worse for the SK.dk team. Their 9th-12th place finish at CPL Spain was definitely below what they were aiming for, and while they can't be faulted for their close loss to eventual winners Mousesports, it's hard to explain the team getting beaten rather easily by Good Game, the same team SK.dk had handled without much trouble at the Samsung Euro Championship. The slide has only continued from there, as the team recently placed 3rd in a Danish XplayN Icemat tournament behind both Incredible Teamaction and Gamelaunch.

All it takes to turn things around is one good showing at a big tournament, and SK.dk has a chance to come up with that here. The team signed zonic to compensate for the official leaving of Drally from the active roster, and bringing zonic in on a full-time basis could be a good move for the team as he played well in Barcelona. The team also picked up top Danish player ziGa for this event, although one might question that move as he will be replacing whiMp in Brazil, and there's no questioning the kind of impact whiMp has made in the past. What SK.dk has to do is find a way to beat the top tier teams in the world again. Their only win in Spain came over one of the local Spanish teams, and while the odds are that they could beat some of the local Latin American teams in attendance at this event, they really need a big win over one of the major Brazilian teams or one of the other international teams to put themselves back on the map and prove to everyone that they still deserve to be considered a world powerhouse. A top three finish wouldn't hurt either.

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Made in Brazil - KIKO, cogu, pava, pred, xed

Made in Brazil is a team with a lot of question marks surrounding them entering this, the Brazilian stop on the CPL World Tour. The team made huge waves by picking up elemeNt weeks ago, only to drop him a very short time later. To replace him, mibr picked up Revoltz player xed, although the move was against his own wishes. How using a player who didn't want to join your team in the first place will affect mibr's chemistry, it's hard to say. You would think that xed would eventually acclimate himself to his new team, but since the move was only just recently made, there still may be some bitter feelings hanging around.

mibr, despite a solid 5th-6th place showing at CPL Spain, seems to be in a tough spot right now. The team struggled mightily to qualify for this tournament, getting blown out by Game Crashers 3-16 and barely winning games over Si-Eyes, 16-13, and Clan X, who they beat in overtime 19-16. Just a few weeks ago, mibr might have seemed like the favorite to win this, the biggest tournament ever to take place in their home country, but recent events have certainly called that possibility into question in a big way. With the tremendous amount of skill that is present on this mibr team, they are still obviously a dangerous team, but they certainly are looking more beatable heading into this tournament then they were only a few short weeks ago.

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United 5 - kmode, CuZ, patyojon, kEEN, BatMaN

The latest incarnation of the United 5 Counter-Strike division has gone through quite a few changes since initially picking up a few former Death is Eternal members, but the changes seem to have finally come full circle, as the u5 line-up for CPL Brazil shares the same exact line-up with the D!E team that came out of no where to place 5th at CPL Summer 2004. All they need now is to cut moses and to0L in favor of slick, and they'll be right back to where they started, except with some nice sponsors courtesy of their new name. Not that I heard them planning to do that or anything...

Anyway, there's no questioning the skill of this u5 team; on LAN. Their online results have been rather lackluster, but we have to remember that this is the former D!E team we're talking about. D!E was never an "online powerhouse", but they have always gotten it done on LAN, even when people doubted them or thought they might have just been a fluke team. I see no reason to think that this group will break up that tradition here. They'll be up against some stiff competition, but nothing worse then the kind of teams they beat at CPL Dallas events last year. Their Winter CPL run featured wins over some great teams, such as Begrip.se, Attax, and 3D, so I see no reason why they should have trouble competing with and toppling some of the bigger names at this tournament. While the u5 name may have faded from the world rankings picture for a short time, don't be surprised if the team jumps right back into the mix of things with a stellar performance in Brazil. Their raw skill and natural teamwork is very difficult to overcome, especially if they're able to send an opposing team reeling early on.