At an event with such an impressive lineup of teams in attendance there is no telling who will win. There are simply too many moguls with ambitions to be the world's best. We have picked out eight of the ones we think have the biggest shot at the title. Here is the preview:

THE BIG SHOTS

fnatic
Lineup: f0rest, cArn, dsn, Archi, ins

Goal: Anything other than first place will be a disappointment for Fnatic but the Swedes will have an extremely hard time winning this time. They can neither count on being underestimated nor bank on their opponents not knowing their most recent strategies. In addition, they lost much of the fear factor after after Extreme Masters where they only won one out of four games.

After winning glamorously at the Samsung Euro Championship and losing badly at EM at the same weekend, Fnatic probably do not know what really to expect from Kode5 themselves. They will be fighting to regain their composure and balance in Moscow.

Key man: cArn
Everything will depend on his touch and whether or not he can make Fnatic execute the new strategies perfectly.
Man to watch: f0rest
F0rest is literally the man to watch in Fnatic as he delivers much excitement to the fans.
Practice:
Two weeks online, interrupted by Archi's illness.

MIBR
Lineup: fnx, bit, nak, bruno, cogu

Goal: With their golden boys back from Rio Sinistro, MIBR recreated their best lineup in history. And with hours upon hours of training, there is no way that the Brazilians could be beaten because they played badly. You have to play a great game yourself to defeat them. Everything these boys need is provided for them and they need to worry about nothing – their only goal is to reach the final.

Key man: cogu
Cogu is MIBR's talismanic player – without their strat caller the Brazillians are not half as dangerous.
Man to watch: fnx
One of the new school players in Brazil, the youngster will deliver the firepower MIBR need to frag.
Practice:
6 hours a day plus deathmatch and mixes for 2-3 weeks.

Meet Your Makers
Lineup: NEO, LUq, Loord, kuben, TaZ

Goal: MYM entered 2008 bruised and battered after a disastrous WCG and an even worse Extreme Masters L.A. and problems with their former management at PGS. But a second place at the Samsung Euro Championship tournament has proven that the days of this team are not over. Just like in MIBR's case, their only worry in the world is to play well and the Poles do know how to. A second place is never enough for them. Their goal is to REALLY come back now.

Key man: NEO
Unlike in many other teams, the pivotal player in MYM is not a strat caller but the man with the power to single-handedly turn entire games around.
Man to watch: TaZ
With a few good calls, TaZ could make a world of a difference for MYM.
Practice:
6-8 hours a day for 12 days in Denmark.

mousesports
Lineup: Kapio, tixo, cyx, Gore, gob

Goal: It is the same case every time a new champion comes around. No one expected Mousesports to win Extreme Masters, the most important event in the first part of the year. And no one will give them full credit for that until they remove all doubt with another top performance. Mousesports will be looking to earn the respect they should have been given back at CeBIT.

Key man: Kapio is probably the best and most experienced player and will need to carry the relative newcomers gob and cyx in difficult moments.
Man to watch: tixo
Tixo was hands down one of the main architects of Mouz's EM final victory taking a large bulk of scoring on his shoulders.
Practice:
Regular training four times a week plus cramming – their boot camp was called off.

mTw.dk
Lineup: zonic, whiMp, Sunde, ave, mJe

Goal: Where is the team that placed second at the ESWC and WCG last year? Did losing hpx kill it? Losing to Vatos Locos from Greece at the Samsung Euro Championship may have been a huge bite of WTF to swallow, but if whiMp added anything to the team, it most certainly was not unreliability. The Danes are to be feared more so than most teams as they can be top 3 contenders.

Key man: zonic
By many, zonic was considered the best player for mTw in the ESWC and WCG. When he plays well, his team usually wins.
Man to watch: whiMp
This event will decide whether or not he fits and is a worthwhile replacement for hpx.
Practice:
5 days with online partners.

Roccat
Lineup: lurppis, tihOp, ruuit, contE, naSu

Goal: Roccat has the reputation of a strong team that does good things but rarely ever does it reach greatness. They can spoil any team's day big time - the Finns beating the world's best lineup in a tournament is not a surprise, but them winning an event is. This is one of the reasons why they removed plastE and replaced him with tihOp. Their aim at this event is to be something more than a team that can only rain on one parade. In fact, Roccat want to be the parade.

Key man: lurppis
The team's captain and the Finnish team's lynchpin is Roccat's most important player.
Man to watch: tihOp
All eyes will be on the veteran – will the new man in Roccat take the team a notch up?
Practice:
Several days of online practice.

SK Gaming
Lineup: tentpole, Walle, SpawN, allen, RobbaN

Goal: The 2003 SK Gaming team is the asymptote that every next SK lineup tries to reach so the goal is always to win the event. The potential seems to be there - SK seemed to have gelled into a powerhouse killing everything that moved in the group stage of Extreme Masters only to bomb right out out the event in the playoffs. It seemed like a chemistry problem.

The lineup changed again and SpawN was reinstated. SK are fighting for stability and a peace of mind. If they fumble at Kode5, then it may be back to the drawing board and someone will have to piece the puzzle together with a different set of players.

Key man: Walle
One of the best strat callers in the modern game, walle calls the shots in SK Gaming.
Man to watch: SpawN
Insanely skilled and experienced, SpawN will give us the answer whether or not it was he that was missing at the EM finals.
Practice:
One week of bootcamping at Tentpole's place.

Virtus.pro
Lineup: LeX, Sally, ROMJkE, Edward, Zeus

Goal: The only reason VP find themselves in this preview is because they are a Russian team and dangerous as hell on LAN. Their performance at the Extreme Masters finals disappointed them greatly and they have been practicing like hell for a month, so they will be the European MIBR. Hell knows what they can do with the support of the home fans behind them. It their goal to make them proud.

Key man: Alexei "LeX" Kolesnikov
LeX is VP's team captain, most experienced player, remembering as far back as the Russians' victory over HeatoN&Co at ESWC 2004. He is Virtus.pro.
Man to watch: Ioan EDWARD Sukhariev
The Ukrainian player is said to be one of the stars of the future.
Practice: 6 hours a day since April 7.

UNDERDOGS AND UKNOWNS


Carmac's guess
With a little bit too many teams with huge ambitions, one simply has to bet for consistency as it is the safest bet. Only the top teams with experience that practiced the most will be able to avoid major slipups. Having said that, I think that MIBR, MYM and Virtus.pro – focused on the individual skills of their players and with weeks of practice to get their aims as sharp as possible – will be the most dangerous teams.

I am not sure if Mousesports, mTw or Roccat can produce enough consistency in order to shine in Moscow. This leaves us with Fnatic and SK Gaming, teams that could possibly produce the highest standards of Counter-Strike – those two are definitely title contenders.

I know one thing for sure – if you do not want to follow the Kode5 Global Final, then you do not like Counter-Strike at all.

More Kode5 pre-coverage:
* Jimmy "allen" Allen interview (CS player, SK Gaming)
* Egor "MARKEL_OFF" Markelov interview (CS player, Hell Raisers)
* Jonas "whiMp" Svendsen interview (CS player, mTw.dk)
* Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen interview (CS player, Team Roccat)

--
photos of lurppis and Kapio by readmore.de