69°N-28°E

Juuso "contE" Sajakoski
Max "ruuit" Aspe
Niko "naSu" Kovanen
Joona Aleksi "natu" Leppanen
Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen

It was hard to choose which catergory 69N-28E should fall in, the Ultra Favourites or the Favourites. Finally I decided that should be here, but make no mistake, they are still able to beat every single one of the Ultra's. They have clearly shown it this week-end at the WSVG where no one was able to put up a proper fight against them. They have been in the scene for a while now, winning the KODE5 finals and finishing third in WCG 2006 under the hoorai tag. After that the hoorai management and the players took separate ways and, 69N-28E was created. Since then they finished top7 at the CPL winter, top8 at the shgOpen and decided to substitute toNppa, who was lacking motivation, with natu coming from 4K. This great addition of international experience has been a good thing for the ex-hoorai team. The rise begins here. They ranked top4 at SEC beating NoA and mouz and surprised almost everyone while winning the NGL One Finals beating fnatic twice and NoA. The two final achievements so far have been their victories at the ASUS Spring Cup and at the WSVG.
The key to these accomplishments? The first factor is the return of natu to Finland where he feels like a fish in the water, and secondlyyeh the individual skill of each of the players. Finally their style of gaming which is aggressive and well built helps them a lot. 69N-28E deserves a great performance at the ESWC and they will do everything they can to accomplish it.

MeetYourMakers

Sondre "REAL" Svanevik
Preben "prb" Gammelsæter
Ola "elemeNt" Moum
Geir-Stian "juve9le" Svendsen
Lars "Naikon" Olaisen

MYM have been invited to this ESWC, but if you consider their last games versus Convention and XpreZ, they deserve their ticket. The team, now looking like the legendary team9, is made up of stars such as REAL and elemeNt. Remember, the last time that Ola played regularly in a full Norwegian team was with eoLithic and we know their past. The biggest enemy of MYM will be themselves. The recent departure of DaY, replaced by another legend, Naikon, may influence the morale of the team. If they manage to get over this problem, they will be true favourites for this ESWC.
REAL is one of the world's best aimers, elemeNt is always getting the important frags, Naikon gives the team the needed aura and experience to get the win, and prb and juve9le are consistency it-self and are the hidden pillars of the team. Their recent attempts versus European teams have been tight matches which they have both won and lost but mainly show that with training, the team will be ready for ESWC. Four years after 2003, the Norwegians want to return home again with the trophy!

Begrip.ru

Ivan "XenitroN" Totsky
Aleksey "Flatra" Zobich
Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov
Denis "DiNGo" Kolomensky
Dmitry "ex" Pestin

The Russian level in the latest year has been quite random since they haven't have good internet connection. This year has been the year of growth and some Russian teams have come up to the foreground. Begrip is one of these and while forZe and Virtus.Pro, their principal opponents, have made some changes, Begrip has stayed together. It's their main strength and they can now assume their status as the best Russian team. Their performance in Eurocup has been very good since they have beaten aTTaX and Begrip.swe. It shows how they need to be considered for this ESWC. The only bad point on the board is their bad performances in the ASUS Winter and Spring Cup, but each time they played the eventual winner at the beginning of the play-off.
The lineup is a gathering of some great Russian talent. Hooch is a former Virtus.Pro player who has left a big hole in the team when he left, Flatra and ex are coming from Rush3D, Xenitron from forZe and Dingo is a former e-motion player. This lineup has been evolving together for more than a year and contains incredible Russian skills. The longevity of the team will be a great point and their chances at this ESWC are far from being lean.

Begrip

Fredrik "JAEGARN" Andersson
Björn "threat" Pers
Niklas "Niko" Johansson
Ruben "get" Hellberg
Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund

Beating NiP and fnatic; few are the teams who can boast such a performance. Begrip is one of them. Begrip represents the eternal dream of JAEGARN: surrounding him-self with great talent and leading them to the top. And he has managed to do that with these guys. It seems that the chemistry is good and after losing twice at Spixelania, and the ESWC Pre-qualifier, Begrip took their revenge on NiP and qualified for ESWC. It was surprising to see them at such a level since they changed their lineup one month ago kicking blomstar and azl. The arrival of Get_RighT and get! has been a really great add for the team.
Their style is fresh, innovative and the average skill is really high. JAEGARN is really comfortable with an awp, and the other players can kill two or three opponents before being fragged. Actually, Begrip may be the big surprise of this ESWC and they have already shown they have the power to perform well. It will be their first large scale international event and their biggest problem will be the stress!

mouz.wazap.com

Christian 'Blizzard' Chmiel
Navid 'Kapio' Javadi
Tim 'Silver' Hochgrebe
Franz 'gore' Burghardt
Manuel 'Tixo' Makohl

When the mouz lineup was announced, we read some comments like "mouz top1" and "mouz ESWC champion". And on the paper, some of the people were true. In fact, the trio Kapio-silver-Tixo coming from aTTaX was said to be the key to success for aTTaX and what is for sure is that Kapio is one of the best German players. But if you consider the results from this year, the balance is not positive for mouz. In their first appearence at the shgOpen, they finished top16 which was very unflattering. Since then, they have developed their game more and more and have reduced the gap that existed between them and the other good European teams. But they have still performed worse than aTTaX and they seem under the level of the CHEF-KOCH's fellows.
Where do the mouz's problem come from? First at all, from a gore that is far under his best form, as we've seen it this week-end at the WSVG. In Louisville, mouz won versus all the American teams they played but lost versus the Europeans. It clearly shows that their game lacks something and they'll need to be more efficient for Paris.

wNv.cn

Chao "Aqi" Zhang
Hao "bigun" Huo
Likan "K|ng'Z" Luo
Run Bo "sakula" Wu
Bin "Savage" Liu

When everybody was thinking that the domination of wNv has come to an end, they have decided to make a great come-back in the IEF 2007. They are playing instead of X7-Hacker who can't afford to pay the travel to Paris. Finshing third at the ESWC Qualifier, wNv.cn are taking the Chinese spot for ESWC and seems to be ready for the event after their recent victory at the IEF 2007 winning in final versus wNv.gm. Remember the WSVG China last month where wNv.cn managed to beat the incredible fnatic in Winner bracket final and in the overall final. Even if it was at home, it's still a great performance for wNv who has finally reached the stability. But we can forget they ranked last at the WSVG (with Pentagram), and have never been as much efficient at home as outside the Middle Kingdom.
Little by little, wNv.cn has surpassed their counterpart of wNv.gm and may be now the best Chinese team. Savage from Star.EX has taken the place of Perfect and supplies the team with a great and fresh team. Aqi, sakula and bigun are coming from wNv.gm and are playing with wNv.cn since September and in fact the five players are known for being hs machines.

eSTRO

Hyun "miffy" Jin Son
Jin Hee "hee" Park
Keun "solo" Chul Kang
Sung "bail" Jae Lee
Sun Ho "termi" Pyun

Better known as project_kr or Hacker.pk, this team has been in the Korean esport landscape for a while. They began this season with a top 8 finish in the WCG where they lost versus the unbeatable Pentagram in quarter-final. After that, just dropped by the Hacker organization, they attended the CPL Winter. They finished sixth in Dallas, losing versus MYM in the play-offs. Since this event, they have finished second in the previous KeSPA league losing versus LaVega and have joined the multigaming team eSTRO. Under this team name they have just began the new KeSPA season and went to an ESWC qualifier where they made no mistake.
However that may be, the young miffy integrated well in the group and they can trust in players like solo and termi who are the pillars of the team. The problem that remains is the recurrent problem that Asian teams have been facing: be strong outside of their continent. For example, we have seen project_kr play very well at the last WEG and less so at the CPL but they may be one of the strongest teams at the ESWC since they have been training together in a flat for a while.