The NGL ONE bids farewell to its Counter-Strike division this weekend with the LAN Finals for its 2007/08 season. The top four placing teams of the regular season will now take one on another in a double elimination bracket that will feature $35,000 in cash prizes. Fnatic are the returning champions and will have the second seed as they try to defend that title. Standing in their way are the top seeded ALTERNATE aTTaX who finished the regular season with just one loss. Joining them are Mousesports and Roccat, both of whom had 5-3 records.

As mentioned, the tournament will be a double elimination format with ALTERNATE aTTaX opening their tournament against their national rivals, Mousesports. Fnatic will begin their quest for back-to-back titles against Roccat. The winner of the tournament will take home $20,000 while the runner up grabs $10,000. The third place team will get $5,000.

Team Alternate (8-1-0)

Manuel "approx" Zeitz
David "CHEF-KOCH" Nagel
Jan "mooN" Stolle
Benjamin "paN" von Mulert
Roman "Roman R." Reinhardt

It's been almost two years since Team Alternate really broke out on the international scene as a powerhouse and, despite having several roster overhauls, they have maintained this status. It has been a little over a year since the latest version of the Alternate roster was assembled and have made only one minor move: adding Roman "Roman R." Reinhardt in place of Roman "roman" Ausserdorfer.

Since picking up Roman R. in January, the team have had some mixed results beating teams like mouz and Gravitas but also dropping games to CMAX.gg and losing a map to emuLate. Roman R. has been playing admirably since stepping in but roman was playing very well at the time he was replaced. That is a tough void to fill for anyone. In fact, in roman's last fifteen matches he only had a negative kill:death ratio once.

Strengths: Experience. Every player in Alternate has his share of success, which makes this a fearsome line-up. Moreover, this is the team that has the least to prove considering the recent roster swaps, so they will have less pressure.

Weaknesses: Roman R. for roman. At the end of January the team swapped Roman's. Even a slight change in a team can cause some growing pains and although they have played at this level, that can be the difference between a win and a loss.

Recent Results: 5-8 ESWC 2007, 3rd Intel Challenge Cup, 4th KODE5 Holland, 3rd KODE5 Germany, 1st EPS Germany XI

Prediction: Second. Losing roman was pretty big for aTTaX as he was playing very well for them. And anytime there is even a one player swap it can affect the chemistry of a team and that in itself could be enough for Fnatic to pounce on.

Fnatic (6-3-0)

Oscar "Archi" Torgersen
Patrik "cArn" Sättermon
Harley "dsn" Örwall
Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg
Oskar "ins" Holm

What is there to say about Fnatic? They are back to defend their NGL ONE title and is a team that has been on top of the Counter-Strike World for quite some time now. This team was put together by the organization just over two years ago and have since put up some very impressive finishes. Not only they have had consistent success, but they have also had a very consistent line-up as well. In fact, since the team was first put together in January of 2006, it has made just one change with Tentpole being replaced by ins.

Over the last year this team has kept its roster intact and has once again played quite well despite having had a disappointing WCG. They have also seemed to improve on their previous weakness, Dust2, as they have picked up wins on that map against SK, MYM (former PGS), aAa and mTw in the past months since it cost them a title shot at the World Cyber Games in October. They also played below expectations at the DreamHack 07 WGT tournament where they placed 5-6th after losing matches to MiBR and SK.

Strengths: Confidence. As previously, no matter how poorly Fnatic plays leading into an event, they just know deep down that they are the team to beat. It really is no different for this event.

Weaknesses: Fnatic has struggled just a tiny bit, if you can call it that, in the past couple of months. They placed poorly at DreamHack, lost their recent match with Virtus.pro and also dropped maps against mTw and SoA.

Recent Results: 1st Extreme Masters Supercup, 3rd ESWC 2007, 1st Extreme Masters LA, 5-6 DreamHack 07 WGT

Prediction: First. I would say it's really never a good idea to bet against Fnatic no matter what kind of a slump they may appear to be in. This team knows exactly what it takes to be number one and this definitely helps them prepare for the tournament.