Sunday marks the beginning of the CGS individual games finals. The top team/player from each CGS game will be in attendance to battle it out for the best in the World. With five representatives from Counter-Strike: Source, the Europeans started the event off early, where the London Mint took on the Berlin Allianz for the fourth spot in the event. The Allianz were able to come out on top in that match, inking their place along with the LA compLexity, Singapore Sword, and Rio Sinistro in the semifinals of the individual games tournament.

The tournament will be single elimination bracket style with the winners taking home $25,000 USD. The semifinals will feature matches between the LA compLexity and the Berlin Allianz, and the Singapore Sword and the Rio Sinistro. So without further adieu, here is a preview of the four teams participating.


LA Complexity

Danny "fRoD" Montaner
Ronald "Rambo" Kim
Tyler "Storm" Wood
Matt "Warden" Dickens
Marcus "zet" Sundstrom

LA compLexity has been simply dominant here in the States. Following their number one CSS ranking in the first season of the CGS, coL has gone on to win the Newegg LANFest2k7, Digital Life, and CEVO's latest season. They have a pretty unique edge on the other teams in that four of the team's members currently live together. While Dickens returned back to his home, which is close to the coL apartment, the other players still live under the same roof, which has helped their teamwork immensely. Having a year round boot camp has undeniably pushed this team to the forefront of the North American teams, if not the world.
This tournament will serve to solidify compLexities status globally.

Strengths:

Consistency. LA is not just consistent, but they are consistently fantastic. Winning every tournament they have participated in since the end of the CGS season sends a pretty clear message. They have predetermined lofty goals, and will stop at nothing to try and achieve them. Having most of the members living together during the off season does not hurt either.

Weaknesses:

Inexperience playing against European teams. Complexity is used to playing against North American teams, and has only played one European CSS team with this lineup. While they completely dominated the MTW squad, the teams in attendance at this event are at a much higher caliber. If they are able to play their own game and force teams to adapt to their play style, this weakness should be minimal. It also does not hurt having one of the most sensational European stars playing on your squad.

Prediction:

Anything but first place would be a disappointment for compLexity. This team was put together for one purpose: to win. After losing out on CGS playoffs despite putting up the best record out of all of the CSS teams, coL was no doubt unsatisfied. While winning tons of tournaments in the past few months, coL is still hungry for a big win in the CGS spotlight, as well as the fat paycheck which accompanies it. They will feed off of this desire and probably pull out the top spot here.


Berlin Allianz

Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson
Ted "haunted" Svensson
Joacim "majk" Kroon
Jonas "nordQvist" Nordqvist
David "olander" Olander-Persson

Berlin General Manager Jonas "bsl" Vikan received some criticism when he drafted the all Swedish NoA CSS roster over the much more hyped fnatic.css squad. Regardless of his prior ties to the NoA brand, with fnatic winning nearly all of the CSS tournaments abroad, many found it appalling that the team was not drafted by either European franchise. Entering the match against Stockholm with the franchise score tied at twenty-all, the Allianz CSS squad would have to prove their worth in order to bring the win home to Berlin. After a 6-3 first half score in favor of Magnetik, the Allianz ended up pulling out a 10-8 win, due in part to some great individual play by Nordqvist and Olander.

Entering the individual event, Berlin needed to play against the top team from the United Kingdom, the London Mint in order to advance to the semifinals. After a very close half, Berlin ran away with the match, allowing only one round on their defensive side of dust2.

Strengths:

Momentum and stable roster. Unlike the other teams competing, Berlin already has one match win under their belts, where they were able to simply dominate their opponents in the second half of play. If they can harness the momentum from that match, and carry it into the LA match, they may just be able to find an edge. Also, this team has been comprised of the same core players for well over a year. During that time, they have claimed top three placings at several events.

Weaknesses:

Pressure. Berlin has a ton of fans with very high hopes for them at this tournament. But with "American fanboys" claiming that the US teams are on a whole new level above the rest of the world, Nordqvist has taken it upon himself to dispel that rumor, giving the team something else to prove. If they are able to rise to the challenge, and filter this pressure into positive energy, they can turn this slight weakness into a huge weapon.


Predictions:

Beating compLexity is a very tall task. Unfortunately for the Allianz, they have drawn coL first, which presents a serious threat to their advancement. If they are able to pull out a win against LA, they will become the new favorite to win the entire tournament, however, that is a huge if. More likely than not, they will find themselves losing a close one to LA, landing them in 3-4th place.