The start of the final qualifying event for the x3o championship is just hours away. With EG.usa and MoB along with tons of local talent in attendance, this tournament should prove to be very entertaining.

Saturday sparks the beginning of the group play portion of the event. Regardless of how they perform in their group, EG will advance to double elimination as they have an autoberth from winning the last event. The top two teams from each of the three groups, and one or two wild cards (depending on EG's performance) will also advance to double elimination.

A few of the top teams attending the event have been previewed below:

Evil Geniuses (USA)

Michael "chE" Guevara
Scott "evolution" Cavallero
Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert
Ryan "NineSpot" Bell
Nazar "steno" Vynnytsky

EG is the obvious team to beat for this event. They are entering the tournament trying to secure their seventh win in a row at the x3o center. That means that since last August, no other CS team has won at x3o besides EG/eMg. With all of the east coast pride which EG carries, the last thing they will want to do is have their streak cut short by MoB.

Other than dominating the east coast LAN scene, EG has been pretty busy representing the states at international events. Despite having a disappointing showing at ESWC masters, EG has proven time and time again that very few North American teams have what it takes to stand up to them on LAN.

Strengths Teamwork and strong individual players. While EG works extremely well together as a unit, any single one of their players can turn up the heat and have a dominating half.

Weaknesses While it happens rarely, some of the players on EG can tend to lose focus and start LMSing. When this takes place, it weighs on the whole team and it can take a few rounds to get things moving again.

Prediction First. With so many consecutive tournament wins at x3o, EG has figuratively peed in the corners and claimed the LAN center as their own.


MoB Gaming

Noah "StrikeR" Alvarado
Thomas "thoMz" Garcia
Shaun "hostile" Catron
Joe "perez" Perez
Ryan "phamtastik" Pham

Coming all the way from sunny California, MoB is on a mission to prove that they are able to contend with EG. Their lineup is pretty scary looking. With pham coming back to 1.6 and hostile having the biggest year of his career, MoB has some of the most talented players from the west coast.

With first place finishes at GRT #2 and CEVO OCZ, MoB is on a roll now. While they were known for making several roster changes last season in CEVO, they have kept the same core of players for a while now, and the current roster appears to be much more stable than those before.

Strengths More than abundant talent. MoB is chock full of monsters from the west coast scene.

Weaknesses Inconsistent against top teams. While MoB is clearly in the top three of North American CS, they have been unable to really show that they can consistently beat either EG or x3o. Maybe this event will help them finally and clearly break through against EG.

Prediction Second. It's hard to come in as the underdog and beat a team on their home turf.


50 Calibre

Jacob "flashback" Carter
Vince "fr3aK" DeCarlo
Mike "mkpro" Rogers
Jasper "sfX" Ko
Don "b33f" Frain

You may recognize several of the players on this team from i95 and Confederacy. They have all come back together after spending some time on other squads, and are now experiencing some serious success this time around. After placing second behind EG at the last x3o event, 50 Cal has some work to do if they are going to repeat or improve on that performance. That task will be much more difficult with MoB in attendance. Also this is the first event they are playing with new fifth, b33f.

With EG already qualifying, 50 cal received the autoberth into the double elimination bracket for the finals, set for late August. In addition, the team qualified to participate in the WCG Atlantic regional finals also taking place in August. Finally, 50 cal is competing in CEVO-P this season, getting off to a bit of a rocky start at 1-2, despite recently defeating compLexity.

Strengths Old chemistry with new experience. The time apart has treated these players well, and now they can put together everything they have learned while away and add it to their old teamwork.

Weaknesses New fifth. Although b33f was on Confederacy with many of these guys, he has still only been on the team for a week and their success will depend largely on how well he has been reintegrated into the team.

Prediction Win their group and take third. This team is bursting with talent and they can certainly bring the noise when they need to.