This weekend ET's focus heads to Poland as some of ET's finest do battle for 2,500 Euros. All eyes are on German speaking zeroPoint for the victory, but in truth the competition is a long way from conclusive.
Its been a horrific week in Poland following a mining accident, its effects have spread across the country with sporting events called off and even rumours of sponsors pulling from PGA, but the gaming must go on with international eyes on Poznan this weekend, and ET once again.
The tournament structure saw two teams qualify for the event from Europe and 4 from Poland for a 6 team 2500 euro tournament. The two from Europe are zeroPoint and surprisingly CDAP.PI. Both sides scored victories over aMenti and Idle.ee, whilst aMenti's may have been textbook given their status, however circumstance aside, zeroPoint dropped Idle without bother and CDAP followed up with an impressive win themselves, that sent the ET world into freefall.
CDAP have since dropped influential dutch star, Perfo for the trip to Poland and called on home talent nrs for backup. Nrs is the latest in a long line of Polish talent that evolved in Poland since the days of their Nations cup victory over Finland 3 seasons ago. Nrs sits alone from the Polish side that couldn’t make it to the Crossfire Lan due to financial promises not being kept by their management and will now go head to head with his former comrades.
CDAP have surprised many, a multi national lineup that maybe had 2 weeks written all over it have united to silence their critics and now travel to Poland to fight for gold. The side will bank on the Quakecon experience of Kris. Coming third with KiH at Quakecon and third again at the Crossfire Lan with NL, he's a history of success on LAN that the younger names in CDAP will rely on.
CDAP fall into the same bracket that many of their opponents will do, the Hungarian combination of fobje and logic will get their opportunity to prove, just like the Polish, what they can do without the hindrance of weaker connections.
Polish teams have often been the brunt of many a snide comment regarding their ping, but on LAN its all about their ability now, players like wiesiek, Wrobel and Kot who have all made strong names for themselves online will now the same opportunity that players like Reload had at Quakecon and Crossfire and show their true worth to any side.
Looking at the Polish sides, to any witness of Nations Cup VII will remember Lock and d0ktor vividly. Their contributions saw Poland take a massive victory over an allstar Finnish side featuring DSky, Broken and Parodia legends. Who would say they cant do it again? The two of them lineup for Logitech this weekend who missed a Eurocup invite this season, and sit in the premier group of Open Cup. Ranking suggests they're in trouble, but d0ktor is the man that sided in Dignitas once upon a time and could well roll back the years this weekend.
Netrunners are possibly the Polish hot shots of the moment, however their warmup was hardly Idle..al, yes what a horrible pun, but Idle this week took the poles apart in the ESL IPS. They've players that will surely pack a punch, names like Kot have undoubted talent, but do they have the experience of high end success to take them all the way? They'll take heart from their final IPS position and they may well be Poland's best bet for success.
FearFactory had an impressive impact last season, They've some players capable of hitting hard and will benefit from being one of the longest lasting rosters in the competition. They lineup as the 4th team in the competition from this seasons Eurocup and will pose a threat to no matter who they face. A good day and they have the potential to go a long way.
The final Polish team is inVert, who I wont beat around the bush with, I know little to nothing about. They qualified, and featuring Robol namesake brother of Wrobel from FF (and former teammate) so, they've talent but cannot be expected to go all the way.
Last but not least we lineup with zeroPoint, who after beating Idle qualified first from the two team European qualifiers, with half the Crossfire side that placed 2nd at Quakecon they're going in with plenty of top end experience. The side arrive in Poland with the weight of expectation on their shoulder and that could play heavily on them. The tournament is just one day long and with that, the side know they've got to be effective off the go otherwise there are teams out in the competition that can hit them hard. If I were a bookie, I'd give this team favorites and wouldn’t expect them to drop many maps in the process.
However, I'm no bookie, I'm a commentator who has seen some amazing things in ET this year and whilst I expect to see zeroPoint win, I don’t expect the beating they'd give some of these teams online.
Foonr from Crossfire is on location and will be keeping the site updated regularly as the tournament unfolds.
Its been a horrific week in Poland following a mining accident, its effects have spread across the country with sporting events called off and even rumours of sponsors pulling from PGA, but the gaming must go on with international eyes on Poznan this weekend, and ET once again.
The tournament structure saw two teams qualify for the event from Europe and 4 from Poland for a 6 team 2500 euro tournament. The two from Europe are zeroPoint and surprisingly CDAP.PI. Both sides scored victories over aMenti and Idle.ee, whilst aMenti's may have been textbook given their status, however circumstance aside, zeroPoint dropped Idle without bother and CDAP followed up with an impressive win themselves, that sent the ET world into freefall.
CDAP have since dropped influential dutch star, Perfo for the trip to Poland and called on home talent nrs for backup. Nrs is the latest in a long line of Polish talent that evolved in Poland since the days of their Nations cup victory over Finland 3 seasons ago. Nrs sits alone from the Polish side that couldn’t make it to the Crossfire Lan due to financial promises not being kept by their management and will now go head to head with his former comrades.
CDAP have surprised many, a multi national lineup that maybe had 2 weeks written all over it have united to silence their critics and now travel to Poland to fight for gold. The side will bank on the Quakecon experience of Kris. Coming third with KiH at Quakecon and third again at the Crossfire Lan with NL, he's a history of success on LAN that the younger names in CDAP will rely on.
CDAP fall into the same bracket that many of their opponents will do, the Hungarian combination of fobje and logic will get their opportunity to prove, just like the Polish, what they can do without the hindrance of weaker connections.
Polish teams have often been the brunt of many a snide comment regarding their ping, but on LAN its all about their ability now, players like wiesiek, Wrobel and Kot who have all made strong names for themselves online will now the same opportunity that players like Reload had at Quakecon and Crossfire and show their true worth to any side.
Looking at the Polish sides, to any witness of Nations Cup VII will remember Lock and d0ktor vividly. Their contributions saw Poland take a massive victory over an allstar Finnish side featuring DSky, Broken and Parodia legends. Who would say they cant do it again? The two of them lineup for Logitech this weekend who missed a Eurocup invite this season, and sit in the premier group of Open Cup. Ranking suggests they're in trouble, but d0ktor is the man that sided in Dignitas once upon a time and could well roll back the years this weekend.
Netrunners are possibly the Polish hot shots of the moment, however their warmup was hardly Idle..al, yes what a horrible pun, but Idle this week took the poles apart in the ESL IPS. They've players that will surely pack a punch, names like Kot have undoubted talent, but do they have the experience of high end success to take them all the way? They'll take heart from their final IPS position and they may well be Poland's best bet for success.
FearFactory had an impressive impact last season, They've some players capable of hitting hard and will benefit from being one of the longest lasting rosters in the competition. They lineup as the 4th team in the competition from this seasons Eurocup and will pose a threat to no matter who they face. A good day and they have the potential to go a long way.
The final Polish team is inVert, who I wont beat around the bush with, I know little to nothing about. They qualified, and featuring Robol namesake brother of Wrobel from FF (and former teammate) so, they've talent but cannot be expected to go all the way.
Last but not least we lineup with zeroPoint, who after beating Idle qualified first from the two team European qualifiers, with half the Crossfire side that placed 2nd at Quakecon they're going in with plenty of top end experience. The side arrive in Poland with the weight of expectation on their shoulder and that could play heavily on them. The tournament is just one day long and with that, the side know they've got to be effective off the go otherwise there are teams out in the competition that can hit them hard. If I were a bookie, I'd give this team favorites and wouldn’t expect them to drop many maps in the process.
However, I'm no bookie, I'm a commentator who has seen some amazing things in ET this year and whilst I expect to see zeroPoint win, I don’t expect the beating they'd give some of these teams online.
Foonr from Crossfire is on location and will be keeping the site updated regularly as the tournament unfolds.
edit: first!