It seems that Team ALTERNATE have been underestimated for a long time, even if they were runners-up to mTw at the Extreme Masters Continental Finals Europe, many people considered their result to be a total fluke instead of a strong performance. The reason was that 16:14s came one by one.

The truth is that ALTERNATE never gets the same recognition and fame as mousesports does internationally. Of course I have to admit that Mousesports have got a better result at international level recently, but Team ALTERNATE has already beaten fnatic , Former MYM , Mousesports and SK Gaming at Extreme Masters, whereas seldom have we seen those top teams take them as a serious opponent.

The top teams might say that their losses are caused by their own mistakes, bad team-play or decisions, but never considered it to be ALTERNATE's sweet tactics and excellent individual skills.

ALTERNATE is a team which is famous for its tactics, that is the reason that the Germans have beaten so many top-tier teams in March. But also, the team has some excellent riflers such as Roman 'roman' Ausserdorfer,Benjamin 'paN' von Mulert and Manuel 'approx' Zeitz. Being the newcomers in ALTERNATE in 2007, they have shown the world what they got for the past years. So now let us look at something in more details.

Jan 'mooN' Stolle is one of the greatest team leaders, if not the greatest, in CS history, and he has led the team with different line-ups to the spotlight several times, emerging from the shadows of bigger opponents.

His mental game and intelligence are of vital importance to the team's success, and his understanding of the game makes him and the team more powerful and awesome than it is at first glance.

He might not frag as often as Patrik 'cArn' Sättermon and Alexander 'ave' Holdt do most of the time, but nothing is impossible for ALTERNATE under Jan 'mooN' Stolle's great leadership. And mooN is one of the few ones who can AWP and lead at the same time.

As I mentioned before, both Roman and paN are excellent riflers no matter who their opponent is. It seems that Roman has been meshing very well with his "new" team-mates since he made his comeback at ALTERNATE. He was one of the key factors in beating top teams in the EM Continental Finals Europe. Had he not shown his crazy aim, ALTERNATE might not have placed second at CeBIT.

PaN is also the killing machine of the team, when he is on fire with his AK and M4A1, nobody can stop him. He has achieved so many clutch rounds for the team in order to secure the victories, and meanwhile, his individual skill has drastically improved along the way. If you do ever ignore him even if he only has the Desert Eagle in his hand, you will pay for your carelessness. Furthermore, if you were sitting next to Roman on LAN, you'd also feel more comfortable.

Not only is Manuel 'approx' Zeitz an excellent rifler, but also one of the most stable AWPers in the world. Being an all-round player, he deserved the MVP in Team ALTERNATE in most matches no matter what the final score is. He has a good sense of all the weapons and knows how to take the advantage of that.

We can often notice that the only player left alive, Manuel 'approx' Zeitz, shows us his amazing skills in 1on2 or even 1on3 situations, killing the rest of the opponents, even against top-tier teams.

He can bring the confidence back to the team, he can get the clutch rounds to motivate his team-mates, and he also can give some big "surprises" to his opponents, ruining their confidence and motivation.

It seems that Roman.R is a little left behind since he has the lowest FPR and DAR for a long time in the team, but being a very old school player, he is probably the most experienced player in the team, and I think that is the reason that he still plays for ALTERNATE, although he has a slower reaction compared with approx, paN and Roman.

However, he contributes more and more to the tactics force to the team nowadays, and "most of the time he is right," that is what mooN told us at EM Continental Finals Europe.

Unfortunately for the Germans, they will face the Danish heavyweights mTw in Quarter-finals which seems quite unfavourable for ALTERNATE if they ruled Immunity out of the tournament in Round One. But as I mentioned before, nothing is impossible for the team under Jan 'mooN' Stolle's great leadership. The Grand Final of EM Continental Finals Europe told us that the current ALTERNATE do have the potential to beat the Danes, and perhaps they also need a little bit of luck. With confidence, motivation as well as fun back in the game, the five Germans just need to have a shot at international level.

So all in all, if the day and luck belong to ALTERNATE at the KODE5 Grand Finals, there is no reason that they can not make top five or even top three.