KODE5 has tremendously improved over the years, and this year is no exception with the announcement of KODE5 HLTV and also the seeds to be drawn live for everyone to see.

This is an opportunity to look a little closer at each team participating to speculate or analyse their potential in winning one of this years most exciting events. To start of, here is the full list of attendees for the KODE5 Global Finals in Russia this weekend:



Team ALTERNATE is Germany's favorite to win this event. Standing out is their performance at the EM III Continentals Finals in March. Alternate played exceptionally well and ended up top of their group which had teams in the likes of MYM, SK Gaming, Crack Clan, Mousesports and emuLate. As Manuel 'approx' Zeitz revealed earlier in an interview, mTw remains one of their most prized adversary after losing against them twice, denying them of the EM III Continental Finals title.

Mousesports had been having it easy at the ESWC Masters. Navid 'Kapio' Javadi recently revealed to readmore.de in an interview that he does believe the team has had it easy with their group, but that they were disappointed to lose so badly to a "real" team when it came down to it. Will they be able to get in shape in time for KODE5 is the question, as we all know Mousesports has the potential, if they want to, to reach the top.

Evil Geniuses is a team full of potential with high hopes with the recent addition of Tomi 'lurppis' Kovanen to the team. However, they have not had much practice before the ESWC Masters and didn't get far. Also, they did not qualify for KODE5 Grand Finals, they were picked to replace Gravitas Gaming US who were unable to clear the registration demands in time. With little preparation time but high hopes and lots of support, is Evil Geniuses ready to win some games?

SK Gaming is one of Scandinavias finest and qualified themselves through KODE5 Sweden at DreamHack in Göteborg after beating Lemondogs and Mousesports and finally breaking their losing streak against the Germans. SK Gaming is also placed second at the ESWC Masters after losing two maps to fnatic in the Grand Final. An interesting revenge could be in store for SK Gaming if they were to face fnatic again.

mTw has always been a team to look out for as they have proven that they belong on the top, at the World Cyber Games 2008, and most recently the EM III Continental Finals Europe which they have both won. mTw had beaten fnatic twice at the EPS Sca Season I Finals. They met again in the Upper bracket at the ESWC Masters after mTw came out of an easy group win. However, fnatic weren't letting history repeat itself and quickly threw the ball back with a win over two maps. Any games which could happen between mTw , fnatic and SK Gaming would make an interesting battle of the Scandinavians.

WICKED eSports or ex-MYM has always been a worthy adversary. However, the team had been left in the dark for a while when they were looking for a new organisation and finding it hard to find a new home. This could possibly have affected the team or their state of mind. Additionally, WICKED eSports showed a dissapointing performance at the ESWC Masters after only taking 4 rounds off SK Gaming . Weither in this short space of time WICKED eSports will have had time to pick up their game is yet unclear, the results for this team could shoot in both directions: dissapointing or an incredible comeback "a la" ESWC 2008.

There isn't much to say about the 3rd Scandinavian team, fnatic , other than: "on fire". The decision to add Rasmus 'GuX' Ståhl and Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund has worked wonders for the team who enter any game with confidence and an aggressive playing style. They haven't lost any map in the BO3 of ESWC Masters and only lost one game very closely to SK Gaming in the Group Stage. Fnatic also find themselves on top of the G7 ranking. If they were to add the KODE5 Global Finals title to their board, this will most definitely be fnatic 's year.

Made in Brazil have been changing their lineup numerous times in the past months due to the lack of performance and also titles. They have not won a big tournament for quite a while and have also been underperforming heavily at the ESL Extreme Masters III Global Finals placing 11-12th out of 12 teams. Shortly after that again a player left the team to join up with their biggest Brazilian rival FireGamers . Still they recently won the KODE5 Brazil beating Firegamers in the Grand Final and have been bootcamping in Sweden prior to the KODE5 Global Finals.

emuLate is perhaps one of the least consistent teams in the event, they show incredible play then seem to dissapear off the radar. BoZo, the CS Manager of emuLate recently told us that the team found it hard to prepare for events due to things such as studies, which could be affecting their performance. However, due to their results fluctuating, they are a still a team to be taken into account as they could take everyone by suprise.

wNv Teamwork CN had disbanded last year as several players had retired from gaming after being knocked out of the World Esport Masters in Hanghzhou, China in October 2008 as well as not being able to go to World Cyber Games 2008 due to visa issues. Rumours were around that the team might not come back at all but this turned out to be untrue as they have recruited new players and have been practicing ever since.

However, visa issues led to the team not attending the EM III Global Finals getting them in trouble once again and most likely dropping the motivation of the players. A few days ago they have not been able to get out of the groupstage at ESWC Masters Cheonan losing to Team EG but beating the Korean rivals WeMade FOX. It will be interesting to see if they can actually get back to their old shape when they were feared by the Europeans for their crazy aiming.

As for k1ck eSports Club , Immunity , Artyk , The Elder Gods and ENTiTY , they may not seem to represent a high threat for the teams currently at the top, but they remain special for each of the teams country. These teams is what makes esports grow and who knows, one day may even be the future of esports. For now they may not show results in the international scene but every day they do participate in a big event such as the KODE5 Global Finals, is another day where they progress, and one day will eventually suprise us.

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[image from Fragbite.se]