(Note: this is the article that was published on ESReality)

As the Quake series nations cup is about to start i thought i would post some predictions on the Quakeworld action in this tournament. It has been a while since the last Quakeworld nations cup tournament which was hosted back in 2005 right before the Quakeworld.nu crash if i remember correctly. Many of the national teams consists of players who have played together for a long time though, so some of these teams will know eachother inside out.

You all know the prerequisites: there are 16 teams divided into four groups and the two best teams in each group advance into the playoff stage where best of three maps knockout games decides the winner. The rules used in the tournament are the standard Quakeworld 4on4 deathmatch rules used by reputable leagues such as European Quake League and Nations Quake Rank. The battle grounds where the games are going to be settled upon are the big three - DM2, DM3 and E1M2.

Now let's take a look at those teams. I will go through the groups with some comments on each one of them. Make sure to let me know about my misplaced bets in the comments.


Group A
1. United Kingdom - batfink, ser, marvelforce, keys
2. Russia A - xpr, starling, zepp, dot, doom, blaze, gor, unknown
3. Poland B - pooll, lan, predator, highlander, equalek, panczo
4. Austria - Defcon 5, slash, hoshi, watzl, ori

As in all groups the top spot is rather easy to predict. UK comes with a strong lineup consisting of the tag team Batfink and Marvel. Along with the solid Serox and also Keyser from Firing Squad, it will be tough to break this team, especially on DM3. This team will win all their games with a solid 6-0 map record given that they actually play their games. Key players are Serox and Batfink but their performance will also depend on whether Keyser's connection is decent or not. During Firing Squad's quarterfinal game in European Quake League he had some problems on the popular Wargamez servers. Firing Squad still managed to win though, so maybe it's not that big of a problem. On a second note i think it's a bit sad to always have to take "activity" into consideration when writing predictions like this, but from experience it often really affects the outcome in online tournaments.

Anyway, the second place team will be Russia. Gor, Xpr and Doom are all solid players and along with the other sneaky russians i think they will defeat Poland in a three mapper. DM2 will be tight against Poland, but i think DM3 and E1M2 will be in favour of the russians. Poland will have to rely on their solid teamplay as the Polish B team is really the clan Demolition Crew, who have played together for as many seasons in European Quake League and Nations Quake Rank as i can remember. We all know that Polacks loves DM2 too.

Poland will find themselves ending up at third place after having taken a map from Russia and a win against Austria, a team that will struggle to keep the scores down i'm afraid. They need a really good day if they are going to win against Russia or Poland, but maybe they can pull it off with some hardcore practice in time for the tournament.


Group B
1. Finland - anza, fifi, fix, milton, blaze, mirage, skisso, ihminen, diki
2. Hungary - zero, milamber, orion, crash, stevens
3. Czech - JohnNy_cz, Flamer, itmik, shpeq, jebak, Fr4g, moris, cuky
4. Portugal - nOrules, dib, nosferatu, CHK, Trinca, HeCtiC, nitemare, mushi

In group B we see something of a dream team when Finland, lead by coach Anza, mobilize their army. What we have here is a complete Viper Squad in Milton, Blaze, Mirage, Skisso, Ihminen and Diki. Along with the dynamic duo from Fifi and Fix from Clan Malfunction this team will be competing for the golden trophy in the whole tournament. The group stages will be a walk in the park for this team without a single map lost. DM3 will be a treat to watch and the dream team in this finnish squad would be Fifi, Fix, Milton and...either Ihminen or Blaze, although Diki has been playing OK lately. Make sure to tune in the games from this team in the tournament, almost no matter what lineup they field.

The second place in the group will be snatched by the Hungarians, lead by their star player Zero, who's made himself a name since he joined the Slackers squad last year. The rest of the team is the regular Paranoids team that have played together for quite some time, so they will know how to secure the Abandoned Base properly. They will lose heavily to Finland, as all teams in the group, but win by a just as huge margin against Czech and Portugal.

Third and fourth are Czech and Portugal. The Czech team will need to be on their toes if they're not going to lose against Portugal. Their young rising star Jebak, who's only 14 years old, need to pull some hot shit out of his ass and deliver a good performance in this game.


Group C
1. Netherlands - purity, reppie, murdoc, dragon, skillah, mja
2. Germany - anni, 123, spoink, raptor, uig, iba, mae, Soma
3. Sweden B - nas, djevulsk, nakoz, fnosk, hagge, score, madmax
4. Denmark - Zalon, ParadokS, nEmo, eMbAh, Shadow, pwr

Group C is one of the tougher groups to predict the outcome of. We have the obvious high seed in Netherlands who will grab the number one spot. They have a solid team with Reppie and Murdoc who will lead the way, backed up by Dragon along with a fourth name who really could be anyone of Purity, Mja or the improving Skillah. Their strongest map will be DM3, and E1M2 as their Achilles' heel. This team will definitely be one of the contenders for place 1-3 in the whole tournament. The big question is if they can shake teams like Finland and Sweden A.

The rest of the teams in this group are hard to divide. By a brief look i think Germany has the best overall team if they put in some practice. A good foundation is Spoink and 123 from Firing Squad along with Soma and Raptor or Uig. I think 123 and Spoink will have to get in shape if they are going to survive the group stages though, as the rest of the teams aren't clueless either.

Sweden B is a team that consists of players from the Swedish clan Oblivion, so this team won't have to put in a lot of practice to get the teamplay going. What they lack is a solid star player who can rip apart the opposing team when being below in a game. They will need a Madmax and Nas in shape to avoid missing the playoff train. What speaks for this team is that their home map is E1M2 - a map that is often neglected by the opposing team. On E1M2 Sweden B will advance at least one division in skill, which will be important in such a close group.

The last team Denmark have their star player in Paradoks, but the team isn't as coherent as he would probably wish. I think this makes it tough against the more complete German team, but i could see Paradoks pulling off one hell of a game against Sweden B and lead his team to victory in that game. I'm not quite sure who are best as support players to the danish frag machine, but i bet embah will be in there along with Shadow and maybe also Tec, who isn't listed on the roster, but coach Zalon said he is going to make a few phone calls...

At the end of the day any of the last three teams have a decent chance at getting the last playoff spot, so this group will be interesting to follow.


Group D
1. Sweden A - XantoM, bps, riker, nabbe, lakso, phrenic, molecule, razor
2. Sweden C - Mille, Ake Vader, Krab, Theevildog
3. Poland A - cpe, billy, blasp, derek, insane, plast, slabi
4. Russia B - VVD, bubliG, SS[3b], bulat, bonez, disconnect, XN

In group D we see two Swedish teams fielding pretty good lineups. If we begin with Sweden A we can see quite a few big names like Xantom, Nabbe, Riker and Razor. Along with a few backup players and Bps, who's improved quite alot the past few years, this is one killer team that will compete for the top three spots in the tournament. They have pace (Xantom, Razor), sneakiness (Bps, Nabbe) and craziness (Riker) in a lovely mix. Xantom and Riker will want to show what they're made of in this tournament after the heavy loss in the European Quake League quarterfinal earlier this week. What could be troublesome for both Swedish teams, that are used to playing with very low pings, is the server choice and ping rules. The game against Poland should be extra hard because of this.

Their top contender for the first place in this group will be the Swedish C team, which isn't as bad as it sounds with the C in the end. This is a team which features Your's Truly and we will do our best to make it to the playoffs. The Swedish A team will probably be one size too big for us, but we have very good chances against Poland and Russia. Speaking for myself i've played with all three players in my squad before and they are all very good players. We will pull off some crazy shit on the Abandoned Base, so make sure to watch our games.

Poland will end up at third place after a depressing lost against us at DM2. They will have to rely on Cpe (if he quit whining!), Insane (if he pracs and gets a decent computer) and Plast (if he even plays) to show some of the good stuff. The Polish strength is as always DM2 - they get spoon fed tactics about that map as infants. Their weak part is probably their poor patience.

The Russia B team will end up at last place in this group even if they feature good players like Disconnect, XN and Bulat, who's a top Russian 1on1 player. I don't think XN have played that much, or even will play that much, and the rest of the players won't be able to carry the load on their shoulders. The Polacks will psyche them to death and they're out after a 0-2 loss on DM3 and DM2.

That's my initial take on this nations cup and i hope we will see some nice action coming out of it. If all players can get their act together and actually play the games, then it should be quite a solid tournament!