Begrip.se - IsKall, Calippo, forrest, Tentpole, RobbaN

The new Swedish Begrip squad certainly has a lot to live up to. The team which attended CPL Winter 2004 essentially put the Begrip name on the map with their surprising 4th place finish there. Only two members from that Begrip.se team still remain: former Gamers.nu member Calippo and a former member of the Eyeballers team that won CPL Summer 2004, IsKall. These are two very capable players with a good deal of international experience who are now joined by three strong players relatively new to the international scene.

Tentpole, RobbaN, and forrest all hail from the Swedish team Embrace, who stormed onto the scene late last year with their impressive play in Sweden. This will be the first time that these three players have attended an event outside of Sweden, and it will certainly be a tough test of their abilities considering the opposition. With IsKall and Calippo (the crazy pirate that he is) there to keep the team calm, cool, and controlled, that lack of experience should not be too big of a problem. So while the team certainly does have a lot to live up to, it seems that they have the tools to do it, if only they can come together as a team and execute properly.

Mortal Teamwork - Robin, rwa, iLight, crypt, zaffe

Mortal Teamwork's Swedish division has seen many line-ups come and go in the past. A few achieved limited success but found more lucrative sponsorship offers elsewhere, while others were unable to live up to their own expectations and could not deal with failure. The mTw.swe name was rekindled late last year to offer sponsorship to a young Swedish team by the name of ICSU. ICSU had just placed 2nd at Nollevla, beating out such teams as Eyeballers and Virtus.pro until losing two out of three games to the old SK Sweden team who went on to win the event. Only one player still remains from that ICSU team, and that is Robin. Mixed performances and internal disagreements lead to progressive roster changes over the past few months, building up to the team that will be in attendance in Korea.

This particular mTw roster certainly looks strong on paper. Big name players like rwa and zaffe are the ones who really jump out initially, while Robin, iLight, and crypt have all proven to be very capable players in their own right with their past teams ICSU and Spixel. The real question here will be whether or not this mTw team is able to properly gel together. They certainly should be able to as they've had plenty of time to do it. And if they do come together properly as a unit, they will surely be a daunting opponent for any of the other teams in attendance.