Teams Invited by CGS General Managers

Check 6
Gary “Funshine” Laurita – Lodi, NJ
Stephen “Sasquatch” Csikos – Lake Hiawatha, NJ
Rich “sauce” Cannon – Havertown, PA
Carson “classified” Holt – Watsonville, CA
Albert “hahN” Hahn – Diamond Bar, CA

The former Team Devastation, Check-Six is a strong team on paper. Sasquatch is a very good in-game leader, and he has longtime teammates Funshine and sauce with him. Check-Six added former Zomblerz player and underrated rifle classified. hahN was picked up from the wreckage of United 5 to replace Andres "misty" Gunaratne, who is playing for rival team Guardians for this Combine. The lineup started coming together in the latter part of CEVO Season 5, overshadowed of course by the LA compLexity controversy. Each of the players can make a strong individual case to be drafted to a CGS franchise, and the better they do as a team, the more attractive they look to GMs. Check-Six, thusly, is a good pick to go far and fight with the CGS teams this weekend.

Recent Results: 3rd Place, Winter CPL 2007; 8th Place, CEVO-P CSS Season 5 (7-6)

Eximius Sports
Erik “da_bears” Stromberg – Loves Park, IL
Michael “Hare” O`Toole – Grand Rapids, MI
Jonathan “MessiaH” Hammond – Englewood, CO
Edelreich “br1cks” Deloslado – Englewood, CO
David “allbrook” Allbrook - Aurora, CO

Eximius Sports, formerly Team Luck, is not going to go far in this Tournament. Many people can call CEVO-P Season 5 a good measure of a team's chances at the Combine, despite the obvious difference of online vs. LAN play. Eximius just wasn't up to snuff, having a disappointing 4-9 regular season, including two 10-0 shutout losses (to Carolina and San Francisco). They picked up Chimera taxi player da_bears to shore up the lineup following the retirement of longtime Eximius player Brian "zuH" Smith. However, their chances this weekend are slim at best, and it's highly likely Eximius will see an early exit.

Recent Results: 5th Place, Summer CPL 2007; 8th Place, CEVO-P CSS Season 5 (4-9); 2nd Place, CAL-Invite Season 9

Guardians
Philippe Olivier “PEX” Crepin – Lery, Quebec, CA
Benedict “STRuK” Kaminski – Calgary, Alberta, CA
Michael “deciple” Baker – Aurora, CO
Justin “heatwave” Mckay – Phoenix, AZ
Andres “misty” Gunaratne - Arcadia, CA

The team from up North took the CSS scene by storm, completely dominating CEVO-P Season 5 with an amazing 12-1 record. The lineup features household names STRuK, deciple, and former Zomblerz heatwave and misty.recently stepped in in place of Keven "AZK" Lariviere (who cannot play due to age). Guardians had a rocky playoffs however, dropping their only two matches and joining LA as the only playoff seeds with an 0-2 record. The lineup with AZK only came together just before the CEVO regular season, and there hasn't been much of anything from the former eGe before then. They're a wild card, and they can surprise some teams, but without a more robust track record, it's hard to see how they will truly stack up.

Recent Results: 1st Place, CEVO-P CSS Season 5 (12-1); 5th Place, CEVO/NationVoice Season 5 Playoffs

Nexus Gaming
Lloyd “shaffer” Shaffer – Austin, TX
Samuel “CHewbacca” Tesh – Cupertino, CA
Quin “Ambusht” Little – Sanger, CA
Jimmy “Nikon” Pike – Colorado Springs, CO
Bryce “Mantik” Turney – Austin, TX

Now we come to Nexus Gaming, formerly The Last Resort, and the Team of 1,000 Lineups. They started CEVO-P with a bang, announcing the pickups of Matt "cheekZ" Csikos and Zach "cannoN" Cannon. But, by the time the season was over, both cheekz and cannoN had left the team, and en route to a horrible 3-10 finish, they used Kevin "vu" Vu, Joe "Foerster" Foerster, who were picked up by Nexus. Finally, they added Mantik and shaffer, as well as Nikon, who replaced Jon "haunt" Wilson. This lineup basically has no chance of getting far in the Combine tourney, as teams with more talent and more time together will walk all over them.

Recent Results: 11th Place, CEVO-P CSS Season 5 (3-10)

Pandemic
Jon “juan” Mumm – Hales Corners, WI
Kyle “Mustang” Cummings – Beavercreek, OH
Nick “n0it” Nowakowski – Brookfield, WI
Mike “paradox” Stanowski – Prospect Heights, IL
Grant “Griff” Hall – Milwaukee, WI

For the last 2 CEVO Seasons, Pandemic has seen the same starting five suiting up, as it were, for CSS. Even when paradox jumped ship to join the Turmoil organization, he eventually found his way back in time for CEVO Season 5. During Season 5, Pandemic went 8-5, good for the 6th seed, and in the playoffs, they really turned it on, knocking 2nd seed Carolina to the Lower Bracket, before dropping matches against San Francisco and Dallas, and finished in a respectable third place. "Steady As She Goes" is the theme song for Pandemic, and they'll be another non-CGS team fighting to the end.

Recent Results: 1st Place, CPL Summer 2007; 3rd Place, Digital Life 2007; 4th Place, Newegg Lanfest 2k7; 6th Place, CEVO-P CSS Season 5 (8-5); 3rd Place, CEVO/NationVoice Season 5 Playoffs

x3o
Justin “sunman” Summy – Grantville, PA
Tarik “rockyte” Elkhatib – Burke, VA
Mason “n0s4m” Dickens – Deer Park, TX
Todd “anger” Williams – Beaufort, SC
Ryan “NineSpot” Bell – Bristow, VA

Team x3o, during CEVO Season 5, started off very slow, with a 0-4 record through two weeks of play. The original lineup, with current Eximius player da_bears, as well as cbz, wasn't clicking. x3o dropped da_bears and cbz (who were both inactive at the time), and picked up Todd "anger" Williams, as well as the brother of coL.css player Warden, Mason "n0s4m" Dickens. This new lineup propelled them to an amazing 8-1 finish, the only loss coming from 3D.NY. They finished just out of the playoff seeding, in 7th place. Sunman is a CGS vet, having played with da_bears for the Chimera, and x3o will need that experience this weekend, where they hope to put in a good showing and impress the CGS GMs.

Recent Results: 7th Place, CEVO-P CSS Season 5 (8-5)

CGS 2008 North America Online Challenge Winners

Rebels Gaming
Matt “cheekZ” Csikos – Lake Hiawatha, NJ
David “Puddleglum” Reese - Westminster, CO
George “Arc” Althouse - Mullica Hill, NJ
Wes “Dream” Richards – Austin, TX
Jon “jonnYj” Jelley - Lockport, IL

Rebels Gaming is the first of the CGS Online Qualifier Teams who were able to win the travel stipend and an invite to this season's Combine. Rebels features the brother of Check-Six leader sasquatcH, Matt "cheekZ" Csikos. Outside of Cheekz, however, there aren't really any names that stick out in the professional circles, at least for the last two seasons. Rebels is a good team, no doubt, but they're not going to be able to weather the assault that powerhouses like San Francisco, Carolina, or Pandemic will be able to dish out. It's an early exit for this squad, unfortunately.

GX
Josh “Bentley” Manning - Grand Island, NE
Eric “StrykeR” Posen – Thousand Oaks, CA
Jarred “Street” Miller – Bend, OR
Luke “Selik” Tittle – Modesto, CA
Cory “Badapples” Branagan – Lynnwood, WA

GX is the second team to make it to the Combine via the Online Qualifiers. Their lineup begins with the only Zomblerz player not mentioned until now, Cory "badapples" Branagan. Badapples had taken a break from competitive CS following the breakup of the Zomblerz, but was convinced to join the GX roster for the Online Qualifiers. While they may have the advantage of being a wild card team, I don't see much happening for GX this weekend, save one or two of their players possibly getting drafted.

J1N
Jon “Shredder” Hayes – Toronto, Ontario, CA
Josh “Daemos” Hayes – Toronto, Ontario, CA
Kurt “K187” Langjahr – Philadelphia, PA
Chris “MoFfA64” Moffa – Long Island, NY
Sean “Tuned” Portis – Toronto, Ontario, CA

J1n is another team who earned their place in the tourney via the CGS Online Qualifiers. Three names on the roster should be immediately recognizable from the old Hyper! squad: Shredder, Daemos (pulled out of retirement), and MoFfA64. K187 and Tuned fill out the remaining spots. Like most of the CGS Online Qualier teams, I'm rooting for them, but there's a big difference between dominating CEVO-A and other amateur teams, and stepping up to the CGS. Add to that the supposed "curse" of Hyper! never doing well on LAN, and you have all the makings of a disappointing Combine for j1n.

Team XFX *invited following competitive challenge in late 2007
Chris “deppy” Depaul – Stow, OH
Joe “dubs” Wishnia – Morristown, NJ
Carlo “aL|ve” Ortega – Carson, CA
Joshua “haqshot^” Lanigan – San Diego, CA
Arvin “tech” Wang – San Francisco, CA

Team XFX came onto the scene as an attempt by the XFX company (they make computer hardware!) to take five fraggers and turn them into a professional CSS team. Early results were positive, as they shocked LA compLexity during the CGS World Finals by beating them 10-9 in Overtime, and following that with a 1st Place finish at Winter CPL 2007. They were added to the CEVO-P team list after United 5 dropped for the second straight season, and that's where things turned very sour, very quickly. XFX had an absolutely AWFUL CEVO season, finishing in 12th Place (just above Mexico City Furia) with a 2-11 record. It's not very likely that they'll be able to go far this weekend, so look for the lineup to get shook up by individual players (deppy and haqshot^ most likely) getting drafted to CGS franchises.

Recent Results: 1st Place, Winter CPL 2007; 12th Place; CEVO-P CSS Season 5 (2-11)