With the ClanBase Enemy Territory NationsCup IX approaching it's finale we prepare for a battle of the titans as two of the remaining three teams clash in the second semi-final. The first semifinal game, played out on Thursday, saw a much fancied Finland team - traditionally one of the strongest nations in Enemy Territory - fall to the forces of the Netherlands in something many saw as a shock result. Now Estonia and Germany must step up to the plate to determine who will be opposing the Dutch in the battle for NationsCup gold.
Estonia have, over the past year, grown increasingly dominant in Enemy Territory in Europe and worldwide, taking gold in NationsCup VIII while Estonian teams have claimed gold in Eurocup XI, silver in Eurocup XII and both gold and bronze in the QuakeCon 2005 Enemy Territory tournament. The Estonian scene is notable for three things - a remarkable community spirit, a far higher than average quota of skilled players and the rising multigaming clan that is idle.ee.
Germany's form of late has been somewhat patchier - although knocked out of the last NationsCup in the quarter finals by the Estonian team, they were the only team to take a round victory over the all conquering Eesti team. The Germans do, however, have something of a NationsCup 'curse' hanging over the team - the only nation to have reached the playoffs in every Enemy Territory NationsCup so far but not obtain one of the covetted medals.
GERMANY
[img|left]http://dl.vpclan.de/images/de_flag_for_fag.gif[/img]The Team Germany captain, Benjamin 'biqq' Ramser, is expecting a tough game. "They're the team which kicked us out of the tournament last season, and besides that they overpowered good teams like belgium," he reminds me, "they'll be a challenging opponent". When asked if his team is up to the task, biqq is uncertain, "rumours say that they don't practise that much but we may practise even less, so I can't really say".
The task Germany face is certainly a daunting one - they avoided defeat in the quarter finals against what many thought a relatively weak UK side by the narrowest of margins to reach this game, although prior to that they hadn't dropped a round in the competition. Germany plans on running the same lineup against Estonia they used against the UK, and the talent is undoubtedly there - the question is if they can get the teamplay working with, as biqq freely admits, very limited preparation.
ESTONIA
In the Estonian camp, Hannes 'galahad' Kranich (a member of the national squad, as well as being the 'CEO' of idle.ee) is more optimistic. While not sounding overconfident, galahad says, "I believe that if we manage to play our own game then we have a good chance of advancing", despite the fact that he cannot recall the last time the team practiced.
Certainly with the roster available to the Estonian team - effectively a rollcall of idle.ee players past and present, with only a couple of players who have never been in the team - is extremely impressive, and if they can field the best six on the night they could be nigh unstopable.
OVERVIEW
The game is due to kick off at 21:00 CET tonight (Sunday, 9th April). Over 1000 slots of ETTV have been confirmed by gamestv.org, and shoutcasts will be available in English (from FlyingDJ of gamestv.org) and Estonian (from #raadio, tbc). And iTG`TosspoT Server2
THE FINAL
The winner of this game is due to face the Netherlands in a grand final scheduled to occur in a fortnight. While Germany believes that game to be the easier of the two, biqq stating, "I think [if] we manage to win [vs the strong Estonia team] we also stand a good chance [against the Netherlands]". galahad is more reserved, "The dutch team has a lot of talented players and they seem to have found quite the teamplay," he says, "both Estonia and the Netherlands are very skilled teams and any given match could go either way."
NationsCup IX Semi Final 2 - Estonia vs Germany
ClanBase ET Nationscup IX
THE TEAMS
Estonia have, over the past year, grown increasingly dominant in Enemy Territory in Europe and worldwide, taking gold in NationsCup VIII while Estonian teams have claimed gold in Eurocup XI, silver in Eurocup XII and both gold and bronze in the QuakeCon 2005 Enemy Territory tournament. The Estonian scene is notable for three things - a remarkable community spirit, a far higher than average quota of skilled players and the rising multigaming clan that is idle.ee.
Germany's form of late has been somewhat patchier - although knocked out of the last NationsCup in the quarter finals by the Estonian team, they were the only team to take a round victory over the all conquering Eesti team. The Germans do, however, have something of a NationsCup 'curse' hanging over the team - the only nation to have reached the playoffs in every Enemy Territory NationsCup so far but not obtain one of the covetted medals.
GERMANY
[img|left]http://dl.vpclan.de/images/de_flag_for_fag.gif[/img]The Team Germany captain, Benjamin 'biqq' Ramser, is expecting a tough game. "They're the team which kicked us out of the tournament last season, and besides that they overpowered good teams like belgium," he reminds me, "they'll be a challenging opponent". When asked if his team is up to the task, biqq is uncertain, "rumours say that they don't practise that much but we may practise even less, so I can't really say".
The task Germany face is certainly a daunting one - they avoided defeat in the quarter finals against what many thought a relatively weak UK side by the narrowest of margins to reach this game, although prior to that they hadn't dropped a round in the competition. Germany plans on running the same lineup against Estonia they used against the UK, and the talent is undoubtedly there - the question is if they can get the teamplay working with, as biqq freely admits, very limited preparation.
ESTONIA
In the Estonian camp, Hannes 'galahad' Kranich (a member of the national squad, as well as being the 'CEO' of idle.ee) is more optimistic. While not sounding overconfident, galahad says, "I believe that if we manage to play our own game then we have a good chance of advancing", despite the fact that he cannot recall the last time the team practiced.
Certainly with the roster available to the Estonian team - effectively a rollcall of idle.ee players past and present, with only a couple of players who have never been in the team - is extremely impressive, and if they can field the best six on the night they could be nigh unstopable.
OVERVIEW
The game is due to kick off at 21:00 CET tonight (Sunday, 9th April). Over 1000 slots of ETTV have been confirmed by gamestv.org, and shoutcasts will be available in English (from FlyingDJ of gamestv.org) and Estonian (from #raadio, tbc). And iTG`TosspoT Server2
THE FINAL
The winner of this game is due to face the Netherlands in a grand final scheduled to occur in a fortnight. While Germany believes that game to be the easier of the two, biqq stating, "I think [if] we manage to win [vs the strong Estonia team] we also stand a good chance [against the Netherlands]". galahad is more reserved, "The dutch team has a lot of talented players and they seem to have found quite the teamplay," he says, "both Estonia and the Netherlands are very skilled teams and any given match could go either way."