Group A:
PGS.MYM
pro100 (Virtus.pro)
Dragon
Nice One
Team 34

Group A has got the 2007 champions PGS.MYM and the revelation of the 2004 ESWC, Virtus.pro (pro100). Both teams have had trouble qualifying – the Poles had a disastrous ESWC Masters of Paris and were given the berth by their previous organization PGS; the Ukrainian partner of the ESWC tried to oust Virtus.pro from their qualifier because the organisation is a Russian one, hence its different name for San Jose.

Prediction: After a Chinese team (Dragon) once again fails to travel to USA this group is a game of two; Virtus.pro vs MYM. At their last event MYM suffered losses vs Alternate and Mouz while Virtus.pro's only real test with their renewed lineup has been winning a show match for $5000 vs fnatic. That being said, I think Virtus will upset MYM like 10 months 800 miles up north and this tournament will come to an end quickly for Team 34 and the weakest team, Nice One.

Group B:
Made in Brazil
Dignitas
Millenium
Mindless

Arguably the weakest group of the ESWC Grand Final, but it still has got the 2006 winner from Bercy in the Brazilians. The team has undergone many changes since then but it still remains a formidable rival for anyone. They won GameGune in Bilbao several weeks ago.

Prediction: Group B is one of the weaker groups in the San Jose event. MIBR should walk away warmed up and ready to play in second group stage. The first stage should not be more than a warmup for them. Millenium showed promise vs emuLate in ESWC France and should beat a weak dignitas team, who will leave Mindless in fourth place.

Group C:
mousesports
LowLandLions
Winners
qTp

Group C is another one of the weaker ones, this time due to the Russian team EYESports having to cancel its attendance. Mousesports are the Extreme Masters II champions, came third at ESWC Masters of Paris and second at GameGune.

Prediction: This group should be cannon fodder for Mouz who has had a pretty solid year with top three finishes at EM Finals, ESWC Masters and GameGune. LowLandLions should come in second and get to play three more games only thanks to EYESports not showing up while Winners and qTp will be sent packing quickly.

Group D:
mTw
Frag eXecutors
Motus
Assassin List

This group has got the number one favourites of the tournament. mTw are last year’s runners up and winners of this year’s Kode5 Global Final and ESWC Masters tournaments. Clearly on a roll. The other teams in the group cannot hold a candle to the Danes.

Prediction: The easiest group in the Counter-Strike tournament. mTw should have no trouble against anyone even if Frag eXecutors might put up some rounds. The latter will easily advance as second while Motus should edge out Assassin List for a meaningless third place.

Group E:
fnatic
Team Alternate
Vatos Locos
Speeder

Fnatic are the 2006 ESWC runners up and last year’s bronze medalists. They are missing a first place and this is what they came for to San Jose. The other known team in the pool is Alternate, a strong team that never goes neither below a certain level nor above it.

Prediction: Fnatic comes to ESWC red hot after beating mTw for the invitational Kode5 qualifier and shouldn't have too much trouble defeating Alternate who have struggled recently and even lost against n!faculty in the last EPS finals. Vatos Locos surprised everyone at SEC by beating mTw but I don't see them doing anything else than beating the two Japanese team.

Group F:
roccat
emuLate
Evil Geniuses
Make it Happen

Group F gathers three teams of comparable prowess. Roccat had decent and good results (4th place at ESWC Masters and 2nd at DreamHack Summer), so did emuLate (5th at Masters and 3rd at the Samsung Euro Championship) and Americans always seem to do well on their home turf.

Prediction: Arguably the toughest group, Roccat absolutely demolished emuLate in ESWC Masters and shouldn't have too much trouble here either. It's down to the wildcard team EG to upset emuLate if they don't want to continue where they left off in Paris. Make it Happen has no business in this group, tough luck.

Group G:
SK Gaming
wNv
Mafia of Brothers
Defining Stars

A healthy mix of countries from three continents should be entertaining to watch in the competition. Representing Europe and Sweden, SK Gaming come to San Jose after a 5th place at the Masters in Paris, a 3rd place at Kode5 in Moscow and a 4th in Hannover at Extreme Masters II. wNv and MoB cannot strut similar results but they are not weak teams.

Prediction: I've called SK to win a few events now but Boole&co have always let me down... Anyways I'm continuing from there and calling that SK will win ESWC. That being said, I don't see wNv or MoB having much of a chance here to upset the big dog but will make for an entertaining game for the second place. wNv's form is a huge question mark and MoB played horribly at X3O Finals few weeks ago. But I'm still going to go with MoB upsetting the Chinese.

Group H:
e-STRO
x3o
n!faculty
xuxan

The eighth group of the tournament is also one of the weak ones with the unpredictable Korean team that finished second at Extreme Masters II and fifth at the ESWC Masters seemingly the favourites. The other teams are not more than decent.

Prediction: e-STRO is somewhat of a question mark, their only recent matches have been winning the Korean WCG qualifier and beating MYM but losing a close game vs fnatic for e-Stars, which should be enough for this group. X3O and n!faculty tied in the group stage at GameGune but after that X3O showed they were clearly better (4th vs 9th place) and recently took the throne from EG as USA's finest by winning X3O Finals a few weeks back.

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eSTRO's photo by readmore.de