The committee has selected six teams to represent Team East and Team West at eStars 2009. The event is comprised of Threesome, Deathmatch, and King of The Game and here are the representatives chosen for each “side.”

TEAM WEST

SK Gaming
Jimmy 'allen' Allen
Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström
Kristoffer 'Tentpole' Nordlund
Dennis 'walle' Wallenberg
Marcus 'zet' Sundström

The team has steadily improved since the addition of zet, proving they can compete with the best. However, SK will look to get past the hump after several second-place finishes, including silver medals at WCG 2008, ESWC Asia Masters, KODE5 Grand Finals and even Dreamhack Summer 2009.

Judging from their performance in 2009, it seems the only team that can stop SK Gaming is their Swedish rival fnatic. The team is currently ranked #2 in the world, overtaking mTw after several tournaments as the Swedes did manage to defeat mTw twice in 2009. As a result, SK is always a contender at any event and should never be counted out.

fnatic
Patrik 'cArn' Sättermon
Harley 'dsn' Örwall
Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund
Rasmus 'GuX' Ståhl

The ever-consistent fnatic lost some important Grand Finals last year, though they were almost always a top 3 finisher at each event they attended. Since the new additions of GeT_RiGhT and Gux, the Swedish team has been motivated again with new tactics and ideas, resulting in many dominant displays.

Having won EM3, the ESWC Asia Masters in Cheonan, as well as the KODE5 Global Finals, fnatic is undoubtedly the best team in the world at the moment. It seems that no one can stop them with the way they’ve been playing lately. Expect the Swedes to mount a serious challenge for all three events if they can pick up right where they left off before their short hiatus from playing.

mTw
Alexander 'ave' Holdt
Muhamed 'mJe' Eid
Christoffer 'Sunde' Sunde
Jonas 'whiMp' Svendsen
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen

Regarded as the team to beat in 2008, the Danes have been out of shape since EM3 Europe. We saw mTw being eliminated by MYM in the Lower Finals after a 16:14 loss at EM3. An EPS.sca championship would have shown the world that they were back to reclaim their throne.

However, the team got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs after a 2:0 loss to fnatic at ESWC Asia Masters, only placing 5th-8th in the end. In Russia, they failed to face off against SK Gaming as well as WICKED. It seems that the Danes need some innovative tactics to throw the other teams off, and if they come prepared, mTw could definitely make some noise in all of the events.

TEAM EAST

k23
Dauren 'AdreN' Kystalbaev
Anvar 'anv1k' Nassyrov
Filipe 'Beast' Sousa
Mikhail 'MihaO' Makashev
Malik 'N1ck3L' Sualirov

The team from Kazakhstan first made themselves known to the scene with an upset 2nd place finish at WCG 2005. Three years later at WCG 2008, they managed to advance to the playoffs after defeating the home team Alternate on de_tuscan, a map they rarely played in training.

Since then, k23 has made themselves a serious contender at any tournament that they are in attendance. The team won Arbalet Cup #2 and placed third at Arbalet Cup #3 as well as ASUS 2009 Spring respectively. However, they will need to get accustomed to the European style when facing the top3 teams of Team West. There will be plenty of intriguing parts to watch from this team, but it seems that k23 will have a hard time playing against the likes of SK Gaming, mTw, fnatic and WeMade Fox.

TyLoo
Zheng Wei 'alex' Bian
Chao 'GoodRifle' Xue
Chen Hao 'tb' Ma
Xi 'karl' Wang
Xue Feng 'xf' Lai

Chinese teams are famous for excellent individual skill, an aggressive style of play as well as awesome aim. We have already seen the Chinese players' huge talent pool with names such as Jungle, tK and alex who were at the top of their game in 2005 and 2006.

Tyloo is currently ranked #2 nationally, having been living in the shadows of wNv for too long. However, the team now has had high expectations from their hardcore fans since the addition of alex.

Being the underdog at this tournament, the Chinese will need to come prepared if they want to have any shot at victory. The lack of quality practice back home will definitely hinder their chances, but the Chinese squad could surprise a team or two if not taken lightly.

WeMade FOX
Sung Jae 'bail' Lee
Garsia 'GARSIA' Yiseunguk
Min-Soo 'glow' Kim
Kun-chul 'solo' Kang
Sun-Ho 'termi' Pyun

It seems that WeMade Fox is still lacking solid team chemistry since the departure of ari and hee this past February. Coming to IEM3 as the runners-up in the second installment of the tournament, the Koreans only placed 5th-6th after losing to SK Gaming. After that, they failed to impress their fans with a 5th-8th place finish at ESWC Asia Masters. However, the second place at DTS-CUP proved that they were getting back to the good form they had exhibited back in 2008.

The Koreans always seem to play much better in their homeland in front of their own fans cheering for them. As a result, they could certainly cause some trouble to Team West, especially if solo dominates like he has shown he is capable of doing.


The additions of two old maps, de_cbble and de_aztec, will make the tournament more unpredictable and could cause an upset or two in the event. But Team East will really have to pull out all the stops if they are to have any chance whatsoever of overcoming the powerhouse European teams. Regardless, eStars 2009 is sure to be filled with some great matches and you can follow all of the action here at sk-gaming.com.