Los Angeles, California - In the rush to get qualified for CGS many of the top teams that have yet to qualify for the national tournament are going to be attending The Bridge in L.A. this weekend. The LAN was announced at the last minute, but it seems that there will be a decent turn out regardless. Here is a look at some of the major contenders.

VisualGaming
New team, old faces, the VG lineup consists of four members of the old TEoS squad that surprised the community with a strong placing at EverLAN in 2006. With the addition of Jonathan "Messiah" Hammond, who was a standout player for Forbidden for years, they have only improved their chances of returning as a top team. This team thrives on coordination and strategy, add to that their ability to take sites with crisp rifle play and you have a serious threat to take first place. This team competed in the first CGS Online qualifier and despite a strong run, they fell just short of qualifying with a second place finish. Look for this team to play conservatively early to test for weaknesses, but to build up speed as the matches progress. Fallen will be their primary awper and will be supporting their strong rushes while also adding weight to their fakes.

Look for this team to make some waves even if they are unable to qualify this time. VG defeated my pick to win this tournament (zEx) during the online qualifiers in a close match, I think they are a shoe in for the top four.

VisualGaming Roster:
Chris "Fallen" Shively
Cory "badapples" Branagan
Jonathan "Messiah" Hammond
Ryan "reffaroo" Reffner
Derek "Mr. Clark" Meacham


Pandemic
This former 1.6 heavy weight has been practicing hard for source in the past couple months. They are no strangers to strong competition and exciting LAN play. With the recent departure of keen and Ph33r, Pandemic has brought in two of the top Source players available. No stranger to this squad, Adam "elusive" Messner is returning to his roots and hoping to rebound from a disappointing finish at buy.com. Sam "devour" Chamma really broke out as a dominant player during EverLAN and hasn't looked back since. With strong performances on teams such as verGe and Devastation, his next team was sure to be a strong one. This lineup exited fairly early from the CGS Eastern Online qualifier, but only lost to the team that eventually won it all (United5).

The best description that I have heard of this team's play style of late is "crazy aggressive". They will flash push and be in your face all the time on just about every map. They do not allow the opponent to set up strats or get comfortable with what they are doing. This type of play is easy to stop if you are expecting it right? Wrong. The coordination that they display in their pushes is astounding, often the opposing force will be hit from multiple directions simultaneously. Only a team with comparable coordination will be able to stop Pandemic. With the added impact of a dominant awper like Devour this team might have found the missing piece they need to dominate in Source.

Look for their superior coordination and chemistry to shine through in the LAN environment. I expect Pandemic to at least reach the top four.

Pandemic Roster:
Mark "masternook" Torrez
Chad "DAFF" White
Hoang "s0nNy" Tran
Adam "elusive" Messner
Sam "devour" Chamma


eMg
With a brand new lineup, eMg is looking to make a splash at this tournament. With three members from the former power house verGe, this team can do some damage. Helix will not be in attendance at this event, which could hurt eMg's chances, but don't expect them to go down without a fight. Alpha was a strong presence for rSports in CEVO-P last season, and Euan has a wealth of experience from 1.6 play. Cannon was long considered one of the best awpers in Source, and although we haven't seen him around much lately, I doubt he has lost much, if any, of his skill. It is much the same with AC, once one of the better players in the game, we haven't really seen much of him in the past couple seasons.

I expect a slower, more methodical play style than most of the other teams attending. eMg will likely try to set Cannon and Alpha up for impact awp frags while their colters play more of a supporting role. Helix had this to say about his team's chances at the event "well, the lineup that is attending has only had a 1 night of scrimming, as our invitation to the tournament was kind of last minute. But there are some really talented players on that lineup, and I can easily see them surprising some more established teams."

This team definitely has talent, and while they could upset a team or two, consistency is hard to maintain with a new lineup. Look for them to do well, but to fall short of qualifying, but they will definitely learn from this experience and could be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

eMg Roster:
Adam "AC" Clark
Jeff "Alpha" Lada
Zach "cannon" Cannon
Euan "EUAN" Holden
Eddie "philco" Wilkinson