Abit Strike - Freestyle, Kyurc, 117, WoW, LaiXiLaiXi, szero

Abit Strike was probably the biggest surprise from WEG season 1. The group came up from out of nowhere to upset 4K in the opening week of play, and that game would end up being the only blemish on 4K's regular season record. Abit Strike narrowly missed out on the playoffs, losing their final two games to Mousesports and Four Kings, both by a score of 11-13. So close, yet so far.

The experience against some international teams had to help Abit Strike though, and you know that the team has been refining and tweaking their play style to better compete with teams from around the world. While few people will talk about Abit Strike going into this event, don't underestimate these guys. Lead by LaiXiLaiXi, who may be the most underrated player in the world, this team could make a serious charge for the finals if they can make a few of those close matches against the best teams in attendance go in their favor.

Astralis - bloodR, Gaurdian, natu, tihOp, NicoustiE

Astralis is almost like the Ryan Leaf of Counter-Strike at this point, except not nearly as obnoxious and annoying. If you don't know who Ryan Leaf is, then understand that my point is that Astralis looks great on paper, has a lot of potential, knows that everyone else knows they have a lot of potential, but they never capitalize on it. Ever. Someday, I might challenge myself to write a piece on Astralis without using the word "potential", but I'll probably fail.

These guys got off to a nice start at CPL Spain, beating Good Game in overtime (even if the victory was due to a flash bug), but things went downhill from there as they suffered consecutive losses to Complexity and Catch Gamer. Certainly not bad teams to lose to, but if you simply resign yourself to beating average teams and losing to really good teams, you're not going to win anything. I don't really know what else to say about Astralis to be honest. It's just the same old deal. They're a good team with a lot of talent blah blah blah Astralis blah Finland potential natu blah blah. I'd like to see them place in the top three just to get that monkey off of their back. And I know they've got the potential to do it.

Catch Gamer - bsl, juve9le, Juzam, DaY, zevy

Catch Gamer has had a very good year so far in 2005, and while they're certainly a well known team at this point, I still think they've gone a bit under the radar. They took 1st place at CPL Turkey, dominated the Norwegian LAN scene, and had a nice 7th-8th place showing at CPL Spain where they picked up wins over Astralis and Darkzone before being knocked out of the tournament by Mousesports and Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Catch comes into this event without much pressure on them, at least in comparison to teams like NoA and GamerCo, and I think that plays to Catch's advantage. Despite having accomplished much and beating a good number of top tier teams this year, you still get the feeling that Catch isn't regarded by most as a truly elite team, even if they do deserve such recognition. A big showing in WEG's second season would certainly change all of that in the blink of an eye.

Team EG - stevenson, LaRi, tyndale, kolach, bechdholt

A lot of people questioned EG's being invited to compete in this event in the first place, and with good reason. While online results are generally taken with a grain of salt when you're a proven LAN team, that begins to change when you haven't posted a decent LAN result in close to a year. The only action EG has seen the past several months has been online, and they've at times looked just plain terrible. Many fans and even the members of the team pointed to a lack of practice for this huge drop in their results, but how often do you think teams like GamerCo used to practice for their online games? EG played so poorly in the previous season of CAL-Invite, that CAL chose to move them down, and it was hard to disagree with the decision considering how EG had played.

Regardless, EG will be playing strictly on LAN for the next six weeks, and since they won't have anything to do but play CS, the old "we don't practice" excuse won't be doing them much good. EG has indeed proven in the past that they are a very capable team, placing 9th-12th at CPL Summer 2004 and 2nd at last year's EverLAN event. Neither of those results are the kind you can look at and say, "See, I'm hardcore, look what I did". Not that you can really say that about anything you accomplish through playing CS, but you get the point. I would love to see EG go back to their old winning ways, but it's going to be very difficult for them. They'll have a lot to adjust to in Korea, and at this level of competition, there will be no time for warming up or getting back into the groove of things. EG will have to be ready to play right from the start if they want to make a serious dent in this competition.

Does the sword still shine bright under the glare of the pale moon light? We shallst surely find outeth on thine eve of WEG season 2.