GotFrag eSports

A long list of teams of potential WC3L teams was unveiled by ESL today when they announced the list of teams for the qualification tournament. Hoorai, Verge and mTw, who finished at the wrong end of last season's table will be joined by some illustrious names and will not have an easy task to reclaim a WC3L place. They will face the likes of Serious Gaming, wNv and KoW3 to name but a few from a whole host of talented teams. The two American teams in particular will have one or two nerves about these fixtures as their recent form has been abysmal. For mTw this could be the end of a long run of WC3L seasons, dating right back to season five when they won the league. In recent seasons, however, they have fallen steadily into decline and for a second year in a row they will have to face the dreaded "playdowns".

With such a vast array of talent and with the bracket not finalised until Monday the tournament is tough to predict. Still, there are one or two favourites. I spoke to Shad from one of the hopefuls, Serious Gaming. He said there are "approximately six teams with a very strong chance to qualify, and Srs is one of them." Despite his confidence, he also went on to say he expected wNv to win the tournament. Certainly, with the likes of FoV and XiaOt in the team this seems like a smart bet.

The Chinese team is building a good reputation for itself but they won't have it easy. Solid opposition comes from NGL-one and two teams especially but every team is anxious for the chance to qualify for the world's most prestigious online Warcraft league, WC3L. The complete list of teams looks like this: