This coming weekend, the very best the USA has to offer will be competing for one spot at the WCG Grand Finals to be held in Seattle, Washington in October. These ten players have qualified throughout the year from both online ladders, and LAN tournaments.

Group A is easily the most stacked, with three top Human players competing for only two spots. Among those, are both last year's winner and runner-up - Nilknarf, and SonKiE. They'll need to watch out for TechnoBoy though, as he's always made a run at WCG event. He's also been away from the scene for a little while, so the players might not be up to speed on his style.

The favorites for Group B are LongWalk and ShrieK. Both have had success at various LAN tournaments in the past - LongWalk with WCG USA '06 and DigitalLife, ShrieK with the Battle.net tournaments. The random stylings of Axslav will be looking to get in their way, as he tries to win his first major LAN event.

Here's a further look at each individual player:

WCG USA 2007 Group A

	The Favorite Franklin Pearsall mTw.Nilknarf		What is there to say about Nilknarf that hasn't already been said? He's been USA's only hope for a couple years now, being the sole representative for both the ESWC and WCG. The only thing that might hurt him here could be lack of motivation. Speaking with him at BlizzCon, he mentioned that he didn't even practice for the event, and it showed with his last place performance. If he continues to lose motivation, we might see another American rise to the top, but until then Nilknarf will remain the favorite.
	The Runner Up Nikolaus Cassidy SonKiE		SonKiE has been living in Nilknarf's shadow for as long as he's been atop of the American scene. In most recent events, SonKiE has placed second behind his rival in both the WCG and ESWC qualifiers this year. It seems as though it's only a matter of time before he'll have his breakthrough performance, and this tournament could be the one he's been waiting for.
	The Dark Horse Nick Pesu NWRS.HolyHuman		Hopping from team to team, HolyHuman has gained a ton of experience. He's never actually broken out of the amateur scene though, always being on the team that is just out of the WC3L or NGL ONE's reach. Regardless, he has been a great asset to whatever team he's been on. With a little mirror luck, advancing from this group is actually possible.
	The Sleeper Oscar Rivera H2O.TechnoBoy		While the three Human players seem to have the best chances to advance out of the group, you really can't count out TechnoBoy. He's been out of the limelight for a while, but has always performed quite well at LAN tournaments. Knowing he would have three Human players in his group ahead of time should help him significantly, as it enables him to narrow down his practice.
	Half Court Shot Mark Patterson iggy		The most least likely to advance from this all-star group would be iggy. He's always been a good player, but never really a top competitor - settling for a managing position back in the verGe days. To be fair, at last season's qualifier he took a map from nilk, so an upset from him isn't exactly out of the question.

Group B's preview is on the next page.