Mousesports

Mousesports can be considered the darkhorse of the LAN finals. They have never won any major titles as a team; but with their current roster, they most probably could.

They proved that they could take down a top-2 favorite in WC3L which they can very well do again in an NGL format. The only mountain they have to climb is SK Gaming – aka the effing Mount Everest.

The team has a formidable roster that doesn’t have the burden of high expectations that MYM has to lug around every time they enter a match. Instead of playing solely to win, they’ll end up playing their best.

Team Statistics

SASE	HAPPY	FLY100%	HASUOBS	TOD
YanE Strifecro FoCuS Lucifer Susiria Protois Grubby KnoFf Paladyn ShrieK 5-4	StrifeCro apm Kowi Diesel Satiini Susiria Storm Nightwolf Protois LiiLD.C Grubby ShrieK Tresh XlorD ReMinD Rotter SonkiE Lose DowaQ   14-5	Susiria KiwiKaKi hanf Nightworlf Grubby LiiLD.C ReMinD Sein Bringer   5-4	Bringer elfittaja Naniwa 2-1	DowaQ Naniwa 2-0

Strengths: ToD and Fly100% are two of the best players in their race. Luckily for mouz, ToD left his former clan early enough to be able to attend the finals, unlike Grubby and MYM. ToD can win very convincingly against any player – he’s unabashed to use whatever tactic required to win the game. Fly100% is an average player online, but turns into a beast offline. He’s another player who can take more than just one player down. Happy is the player under the radar – but as can be seen by his stats, he’s the player that lifted Mousesports up during the online leg of NGL.

Weaknesses: There are blind spots in the mouz roster. SaSe is talented but inconsistent, so his performance depends on his level of training prior to the event. Happy’s stats are impressive – but only two of them actually will attend the finals, Susiria and ReMinD, and he lost against the latter. HasuObs impressed for a time when he won EPS and a couple of his incredible performances in other tournaments, but his hype died down. We can’t tell what he’s capable of, or if he will be even used in the lineup.

Prediction: They probably can take 2nd or 3rd place with their lineup; although I won’t be surprised if they managed to take the championship.

Mortal Teamwork

mTw finished 5th in the online race, but the Four Kings decided to disband, leaving an empty finals spot for the next deserving team. mTw has a very diverse lineup – Protois and hanf come from the old “mTw”, KaKi from an absorbed former sCa/hoorai team, while Satiini was recruited from ex-fnatic and Rainbow came from Defining Stars.

This mishmash of players is touted as one of the next best European-mix teams, although the addition of Rainbow surprised the rest. Nevertheless, the team lacked a good Human player after Nilknarf decided to retire and focus on his academic pursuits.

Team Statistics

PROTOIS	HANF	KIWIKAKI	RAINBOW	NIGHTWOLF
EVE FoCuS FuRy Grubby Bringer elfittaja Happy SaSe Paladyn Shriek LongWalk Casin Boo apm SoJu 1-5	Lucifer Fly100% Tresh Paladyn ReiGn 2-3	Lucifer EVE elfittaja DNA Fly100% KnoFf Tresh 3-4	SonKiE DowaQ Rotter ReiGn SoJu 3-2	DNA Fly100% Happy 1-2   SATIINI   Rotter Lose ReiGn   2-1

Strengths: Protois and hanf appear to be quite formidable talents, especially in the very competitive German scene. As the “lesser” team in the finals, they will be underestimated by their opponents, so this might work to their benefit.

Weaknesses: Roster-wise, they are at a disadvantage against SK, MYM and mouz. Most of their enemies are used to this kind of LAN pressure, compared to this young team.

Prediction: As much as I like underdogs, I can’t predict mTw to take anything more than last place.