The ESWC finals have historically been very good to the United States. A US team has placed in the top four at every ESWC finals event, except for last year, following the diaspora of some of the most talented players to CGS teams.

While the Counter-Strike scene is not exactly back to full health in North America, this year's ESWC Finals present a huge opportunity for the US. With the event being held in our own backyard, an unprecedented number of US teams will be attending. Statistically, this event will be the United States best chance at winning, ever.

Despite EG.usa having some decent international results last year, the US as a whole has yet to break through and win any international events since compLexity took ESWC in 2005. Will this year be the one for the US to finally break back and take itself off life support? Here are the teams who are hoping to do just that.


Matt "PaTyoJoN" Iantosca
Ben "TheNuT" Hui
Ediz "goodfornothing" Basol
Derrick "impulsivE" Truong
Dan "mehLer" Mehler

While no one can definitively say who the best team in North America currently is, x3o made a very strong case for themselves at last weekend's Dust-Off Championships. That event was the first time that all three of the top teams in the county had gotten the chance to face off, and x3o was unwavering throughout. Despite having a few very close matches, they were able to put all the pieces together and pull through.

x3o gained entrance to ESWC by winning the online qualifier over MoB. Since last year's ESWC, where they competed as turmoil, they have only played in two international events, failing to qualify behind EG. First was EM LA, where they lost in a heart breaker to fnatic, 16-14. More recently, they played at GameGune, where they took home fourth. Entering this ESWC, they look to greatly improve upon their first ESWC result, where they failed to exit the second group stage. With the easiest of the US group draws, they should have no problem tying their past result.

Interview with Matt "PaTyoJoN" Iantosca

What are your expectations heading into the event as far as your team's performance is concerned?

Top 3, our goal is to get out of the first 2 groups and then get at least 1 win in the bracket play. I think anything less than 3rd would be disappointing for us even though no one really expects us to place that high.

x3o just won the dust-off championships. How will winning that event affect your team heading into ESWC?

It just helps us know that were prepared. It's nice to have an event before a larger event so that you can see what needs to be changed/adjusted. The Dust-Off tournament let us know what we need to work on and hopefully we made some changes.

How do you think the US will stack up overall against the stronger international teams?

I think that us/EG/MoB can easily "upset" some of the higher ranked teams. Team34 has a shot, but I don't see them getting out of the first group. I hope that at least 2 of the U.S. teams progress to the bracket stage of the tournament.

What else does x3o have on the horizon other than ESWC?

WCG USA finals is coming up as well as some of the ESL events. Along with those we will continue to play in CEVO and hopefully any other LAN events that pop up.

If you had to rank the four US teams going to ESWC, what order would they be in?

x3o, EG, MoB, team34.

If you had to sum up the "state of the community" for North American CS 1.6 right now, what would you say about it?

I would say that its better than it was in the past few months, and hopefully more teams continue to progress and show up to more tournaments.


Michael "chE" Guevara
Fadil "Nepo-" Canovic
Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert
Ryan "NineSpot" Bell
Nazar "steno" Vynnytsky

A few weeks ago, you would be hard pressed to pick any team, aside from EG, as the top team in the nation. They had been the countries sole international representative since EM LA last year, winning all of the qualifiers for international event over teams like x3o. They have had streaky results internationally, where they have gone from placing fourth at WCG '07 to failing to place at ESWC Masters.

At GameGune, they placed 5-8th, one spot behind x3o who was playing their first international event since EM LA. Most recently, they participated in the Dust-Off Championships, where they won 3 of 4 preliminaries, and took second at the finals. While second to x3o was a disappointment, it should serve as a wake up call for them, giving them additional motivation heading into this event. With a week's worth of bootcamping in California under their belts, they should be poised for a solid run. In their way will be emulate and roccat, a pretty tough draw.

Interview with EG manager Alex Garfield

What are your expectations heading into the event as far as your team's performance is concerned?

I'm not a big fan of predicting your own matches. We have a challenging group, but it's nothing that the core of this group of players hasn't faced before. They've been bootcamping in San Diego since the Dust-Off finals, so they should be quite sharp heading into the tournament, as well as used to the time zone. I expect them to enter with confidence and play their best.

While EG placed second at last weekend's x3o finals, it was the first time that the team had lost an event to x3o. Does that tournament mark a changing of the guard so to speak in North American CS?

No, not really. I know we didn't play our best Counter-Strike at that tournament; we were quite messy, in fact. I think we could've snuck a win in if we could've held, or taken, catwalk on dust2. I don't think MoB played their best either - they seemed pretty tired to me (cross-country flight the night before). To be honest, I don't know if x3o played their best either. With the way we were playing, I think that they were upset with themselves for giving up nuke against us. So, I think that x3o played the best on that given day, and it was a well-deserved victory for them. I really don't know if we're going to see a team come out and sweep US events like we did for a while. Our run of North American championships over the past calendar year was really something special, and that's not to say that it couldn't happen again for any of these teams, but I think the three of us (EG, x3o, MoB) will really go at each other from hereon out. We're all strong teams and we all have a legitimate shot at winning any US championship out there.

How do you guys judge your performance at that event? How will your performance at x3o finals influence your play at ESWC?

I thought we played pretty terrible Counter-Strike, to be honest. We were much sloppier than people are used to seeing us (even though our normal playstyle is quite frantic, and fans sometimes mistake that for not being organized), but we had some really clutch play in 1vX's, and that helped carry us to the last map of the tournament. I'll say again that if we could've had some kind of control at catwalk on either side of dust2, we very well might've won the tournament, but x3o had great control of that part of the map on both sides. In any case, nobody was happy with second place; Steno was actually quite upset. The team's been practicing hard this past week, and there's nothing like an x3o banner across the front of GotFrag to get EG Counter-Strike motivated :).

How do you think the US will stack up overall against the stronger international teams?

I think at least two of our three powerhouse teams will go deeper than expected; I wouldn't be surprised if we have several teams in bracket play. Once you get past the second group, anything can happen. I think we'll all turn some heads. These are experienced players - they aren't scared of international players, and so this tournament more than any other this year will be America's test against the rest of the world.

What else does EG have on the horizon other than ESWC?

WCG, as well as all of the Intel Extreme Masters North America events and anything else that comes up :).

If you had to rank the four US teams going to ESWC, what order would they be in?

Not counting my own team, I'd say 1) x3o 2) MoB 3) Team 34.

If you had to sum up the "state of the community" for North American CS 1.6 right now, what would you say about it?

I would use the word "underrated" to describe the teams and "frustrated" to describe the NA community as a whole. I think everyone is dying for one of our teams to bring their A-game to a big international, and that's why everyone was so excited with how we did at KODE5, and then so massively disappointed with how we did at ESWC Masters. GameGune for North America was kind of "eh" - nothing to be too angry about, but really nothing special, either. Everyone's waiting for a team to break out again like we did back in Moscow. What I don't think people realize is that we have three great teams to root for and to have confidence in. Hopefully, that will show at this tournament.