The first huge upset at the CGS World Final became a near reality last night as a vibrant and ecstatic Mexico City Furia took Berlin to the limit and a few steps beyond. One of the biggest ever score spreads in CS:Source saved the European favorites and they squeaked by skin of their teeth losing 3 out of the 5 games playing in the CGS format. This means one out of two things; either Berlin does not pack the punch everybody say they do or they are having serious problems adjusting to the lights, the camera and action of playing on LIVE TV.

Carolina Core continues their march towards redemption for their Region 1 misery. London Mint was blown back across the Atlantic in a game that was not exciting to watch at all. Core is energy and excitement while London looked to be shaken and stirred before even taking the stage for the first game.

Ups:

- Berlin Allianz’ Counter-Strike: Source.

Mexico City was up by 6 points after winning 3 out of 4 games and it did not look as if anything could be done about the furious Furia. With the dreams and hopes of their failed team mates on their shoulders they brought it home when they had to. They did not even realize they were about to break the CGS scoring record for CS:S when they dropped the last round after they single handedly put Allianz over the top and into the semi-finals.

- It’s the guy everyone loves to hate: Nick “Peekay” DePalmer.

Yesterday he won his third CGS game, this time against the heavily favored Chris “ChrisyB” Bullard. DePalmer’s performance was in no way an exhibition of razor sharp skill but he should be commended for doing the right thing. He played smart and defensively, in many ways what many soccer teams do in the real world when they know they are inferior to their opponents in terms of raw skill. He tried to keep the score close and in the end he even got the penalty shootout he wanted. Those are a matter of skill with significant amounts of luck and randomness involved. Take nothing away from DePalmer though; he got the early victory that set the tone for his team mates and the rest of the match.

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Downs:

- Berlin’s PGR racers are billed as one of, if not the fastest duo in the world. They certainly did not look the part yesterday as their vulnerability to collisions got their entire team off to an awful 3-6 start against Mexico City.

- The London Mint collapsing like a house of cards. While they were outmatches on paper you would expect them to have the fortitude to at least fight for their right to a semi-final. Instead they rolled over and went belly up instantly. GM Sujoy Roy has a talented team but one that seem to lack the togetherness to support each other to get going when the going gets tough. Yesterday was disappointment for Britain’s finest across the board.

The big Qs:

- Can the Berlin Allianz players bring their A-game when they need to? After failing to race to their potential, not once, but twice (counting a dismal performance in the EU finals as well) all eyes will be on Philippe “Yggdrasil” Vaillant and Erno “Finpro” Kuronen during the semi-finals on Thursday.

- 0-5 for Livia “Liefje” Teernstra. Thus this struggling Berlin girl has yet to prove she can play with the other girls here. She needs to put points on the board if Berlin wants to derail the Core express and escape comparisons to other floundering females.

- How good is the Carolina Core? They have steamrolled two opponents in a row but they have yet to be put to the test – in any of the games. While their confidence from the blowouts is sure to be soaring how will they react to adversity? That interesting question will be answered on Thursday and it will determine their claim to another shot at a title, this time a much more coveted one than the Region 1 trophy.

- As Abdisamad “Spawn” Mohamad recently trash talked everyone playing CS: Source competitively it would be very interesting to see how the 1.6 star and able sniper could match up to Sam “Devour” Chamma with the big rifle. I got my money on a very dominant Chamma for that one.