CC5: Who's going to win CC5?

The Crossfire Challenge 5 is up this weekend and the question on everyone’s lips is who’s going to win it? Both tournaments have a strong field and today we’re going to look at who’s likely to take home gold in both tournaments.

Enemy Territory
This is the harder of the two tournaments to call, the Eurocup has been a good gauge of where the teams are but you’d not have got good odds on Mamut and BB being where they (that’s in the final).
Looking at BB first, these guys know exactly what it takes to win in Enschede they’ve done it so many times before. Their lineup is strong but its not as well oiled a machine as they’d have liked. Xylos has been playing CoD and despite the teams activity his brain will be split in half this weekend as he has to compete with Cubesports in Call of Duty. mAus has had exams and the hell has no fury worse than a pre-occupied mAus. They’re favourites and rightly so, but its not impossible to beat them.

Mamut are right on their tales and they’re a team that will get better throughout the event. When they’re in the zone they can return to their former glories, they’re a team with talent and they’re a team with experience. However without feruS they lack the unrivaled firepower that a player like mAus brings, and the game has moved to a point where that is a bigger fact than it was when idle were kings of the world. Mamut will grow through the event, the team that will face BB in the Eurocup final may be in stronger form the next day. Expect Sunday to be to day of Mamut.

Outside of the Eurocup finalists there are a number of strong lineups out there filled with top level experience. VAE have a lineup that is capable of winning the event, finnish power through and through but something is holding VAE back, they’ve come this far and they’ve some top notch players they’re more than capable of beating either of the two aforementioned teams but form would suggest they wont. Impact have a lineup that will benefit immensely from Toxic being on LAN rather than being in Malta, but line-up changes and organisation changes haven’t helped them – they’ll play better at LAN than they do online that’s for sure, the question is whether that’s enough to bring them into a range capable of winning the event and I don’t think they will. Lastly Epsilon have a fantastic lineup but are they ready for this? Did they ever intend to win the event? I don’t think so, I think they’d be more than happy with a top three placing and they’ve a lineup very much capable of doing so.

The ET tournament is again really interesting, because whilst some might tire at seeing the same names in the final, the battles earlier on the tournament wont be easy at all. There are a lot of teams with some top players in their rosters throughout the tournament, players/teams who on their map can give anyone a run for their money. Expect many of the early ET matches to be exceedingly interesting.

Call of Duty

For a game that went several LAN events with different winners, things have become a little more predictable in Call of Duty. ButtonBashers waltzed to victory in Rome this past weekend and with only a slightly varied field of teams they’ll be expected to do so again.

The Dutch side are very well organized, those not my words, but those of Fatgames after Gamerland. Rightly so considering for them motivation is still extremely high and they sorted out their roster problems a while before most of their opponents. The thing that hurt them the most in their final against Pandemic at AEF was inexperience on the big stage, they were underdogs and they felt the pressure. At Gamerland though with the experience of Stevy and zem in their rosters the ship steadied and made it into the harbor with the loot. Something most expect to happen again.

Trying to stop them will be Fatgames who have had numerous roster problems and that is a trend set to continue into CC5. There is the possibility of a change from the team that played in Rome, however it’s a top player out and an allstar in, if it happens. Instability seems to have only strengthened the team and for players like rze and Diablo who have grown accustomed to adversity its nothing new, they are talented and adaptable players who will face a challenge in Enschede.

That challenge may well come from Reason Gaming, not present in Rome the lineup has some big firepower. I’ve said this a thousand times and I’ll say it again, KammYz can win a game on his own anyone who watched CDC4 will know where that sentiment has come from. However I’m clinging onto that performance on vacant against Dignitas because I’ve not seen something close to that since. With rze out, the Finn will pick up the sniper and that constitutes a big step up for Reason. Not because of who he’s replacing but because of the balance it brings to the team, instead of having two scopes and a one of them trying to have to fit a circle into the box now Broken will fill the void left by rze (the second scope) and the team will have a better balance.

I’m really keen to see how KomaCrew perform this weekend because for me if some of these players had some more stability in the earlier parts of the game, they could well have gone a lot further than they did. The surprise package of the seeding tournament was VAE, the Swedes took a top seeding spot against all predictions whilst I don’t rate them highly going into the tournament, I’ll admit that’s partly through ignorance and a top seed is a top seed regardless.

Despite being a small field, there are some big names out there to be claimed. This preview makes no reference to Dignitas because without they’re missing 2 of their i35 winning 5, outside of that tm from Poland will thrive on LAN conditions, don’t be surprised so see them take a podium position.

TosspoT’s predictions –

ET

ButtonBashers
Mamut
VAE

Call of Duty

ButtonBashers
Reason
FatGames