Today, the Scorched Earth tournament will conclude, pitting two of the world's top Quake Wars teams against eachother in a sequel to the QuakeCon 2007 Quake Wars Finals. In that competition, Dignitas fought back from the Lower Bracket to take the Grand Finals match into the early hours of the morning, and win both sets very convincingly.

This will be the first time the two teams have met since that night. Both have had more time to play the game and learn eachother's play styles. Though both teams have mainly been playing other maps than Valley, today's battle will surely be a clash of the titans. Their performances, thus far in the tournament, have been nothing short of extraordinary and have highlighted each team's level of skill. But only one team will finish on top tomorrow.

Personally, I'm going with HOT to win the match and take the first place finish. Though Dignitas was the much more skilled team in August, I believe HOT has grown as a team and learned the game a bit more since QuakeCon. Their showing in the Siege of September was nothing short of flawless and I don't think they'll bring anything less than their most perfect game tomorrow. It's not going to be complete shutout, but I think HOT extremely strong offense will just be too much, and I predict them edging out a win and avenging their 2nd place QuakeCon finish against the Europeans only a short time ago.

This isn't to say Dignitas will take this game lying down. They are one of the most talented teams in the world and can win against any opponent at any time. I was able to speak with Dignitas team member Björn "BruceLee" Rombaut and he told me "Due to the earlier release date of ETQW in Europe, we haven't practiced Valley as much as we should for such a big final, yet we feel prepared and we look forward to an exciting and good match."

Be sure to stay locked to GotFrag for up to the minute scores and information to come from the Scorched Earth event. Also, be sure to set your Personal Timezone so that you can be informed what time matches will kick off in your area

Update: After almost 5 HOURS of combined play, Team HOT has managed to defeat Team Dignitas in one of the most exciting finals matches of Quake Wars yet. Congratulations to both teams for making it to the finals and good luck to both as they go into next week's Intel Championship event, also sponsored by TGL.

TGL Scorched Earth Grand Finals