The WCG Nordic qualifier will take place on Thursday and Friday of this week, the 5th and 6th of August, and SK Gaming will be streaming the event live with commentary included. When the event goes live the stream will be located here.

The commentators

With the best Nordic teams available from three countries meeting to decide who will win the paid spot to the WCG finals Evil Geniuses ' tactician Tomi 'lurppis' Kovanen will be patching in online to provide expert commentary of the action while I, Thorin, will be in the Cologne studio anchoring the coverage.

lurppis is a veteran of both international and Finnish Counter-Strike, having played with all of the members of Power Gaming and against pretty much all of the the other players in attendance. His resume includes a WCG bronze medal in 2006, 1st at WSVG Lousiville in 2007, 1st at NGL-One in 2007 and more recently 4th at the IEM IV World Championship and 3rd at Arbalet Cup Dallas.

The teams

The event promises to provide interesting storylines from a number of angles as SK Gaming attend their second event without Gux and knowing with no fnatic in attendance they should be favourites to take the top spot. They will face competition from a hungry H2k side though, including ex-SK player kHRYSTAL.

Meanwhile a star-studded Power Gaming side is coming out of semi-retirement, following mandatory military service, and will get its first taste of action against non-Finnish teams. Then there's the underdog sides of PlayZone and Oslo Lions who can not only show they are the best teams in their respective countries but also that they can compete with the better teams.

The show

The most interesting of the group stage games, which will be played on Thursday, will be shown on the stream and if possible all of the playoff games, from Friday, as well.

There will be plenty of other activities to keep viewers excited as we'll be showing frag movies during breaks and giving away prizes, courtesy of Cool IT, through raffles and competitions. Whether it be betting on games or pimping your profile there'll be updates throughout the event telling you what the winner will need to do.