The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) American Championship is taking place this weekend (Oct 8-10) in New York City at Comic Con. The event will feature competitions in CS 1.6, StarCraft II and Quake Live, with 8 teams/players competing in each game. The top finishers at this event will qualify for the IEM World Championships taking place early next year.

Originally the list of teams was more international, but unfortunately we have seen numerous teams drop from the list of attendees, including: Artyk , Punto cL , backfire , and most recently, SK Gaming female & Area51 ca. The team's cite lack of immediate funding and unavailability due to work as reasons for their withdrawals. It's very unfortunate to see such a poor turn out from an event which is attempting to revitalize North-American eSports.

Below is a quick overview of the rosters that will be in NYC this weekend competing for a piece of the $36,800 prize purse for Counter-Strike (1st - $11k, 2nd - $5.5k, 3rd - $3.3k).

Group A Teams:

compLexity br (bit, bruno, FalleN, fnx, nak)

coL's new Brazilian team is going to place top two at this event, and I don't think there are many people out there who doubt that. It could be argued that they are the favorites coming in as they will not be dealing with the integration of a new player into their roster, like EG is with dboorN. Just a few short days ago they placed 4th at the WCG Grand Finals behind Na`Vi, mTw & FX. The also beat Team EG's roster (minus dboorN & lurppis, + tuBBy) at the WCG Pan American Championship back at the end of August, winning that event under the FireGamers tag. These guys are an extremely solid team with a lot of past success, with many of them coming from the old MiBR rosters.

Desire2Excel (mehLer, adrenaline, tuBBy, buskey, flowsicK)

Although this roster contains two relatively unknown players in buskey and flowsicK, there is a core to this team that consists of relatively experienced American's. mehLer, known from his days with X3O and Gravitas, along with Adrenaline, most recently of Loaded, have a wealth of LAN experience so that should be a non-issue coming into NYC. tuBBy also has had his share of time on the big stage filling in for EG's lurppis at WCG America & WCG Grand Final events the past two years. I would put them as placing 4th, with coL.br, EG and DINC maintaining that top 3 as I feel those teams are on 'another level' than the rest of the competitors at this event.

Dynamic (brun, levy, krb, qSwitch, Nepo)

This roster isn't all too shabby to be honest with you, with the brun and levy brothers playing alongside their old CheckSix teammate krb - they may be able to knock d2x out of that 4th spot. With Nepo, a player who made his claim to fame during his time on EG, there is a decent amount of LAN experience on this team so I wouldn't count them out against the likes of d2x and Blight.

Mammazkillaz (eggo, nutz, SHIGENO_GORO, Vincent, X)

I am really not too familiar with any of the players on this roster with the exception of Vincent who played a few matches with one of the later zEx rosters (aZn, cbz, m4gic, etc.). It appears they're a local NYC team which may have attended a few local east coat LANs, but again, no one could argue against the fact that this team does not have the experience or reputation of some of the other rosters/players that will be showing up this weekend.

With that being said, kudos to them for jumping in at the last minute to replace Area51, but I don't see them cracking the top 4 and skill-wise I would put them below the Blight and Dynamic rosters.

Group B Teams:

Evil Geniuses (n0thing, dboorN, Storm, fRoD, lurppis)

It would be highly unlikely that we do not see EG place within the top 2 at this event. Despite losing out early to the Swedish Lion's team early on in the group play at the WCG Grand Finals, it is tough to compare this result to coL's 4th place finish. The reason being, EG had yet to play an official match with their new player dboorN and they were also using a stand-in (tuBBy) instead of their caller lurppis.

I personally think coL.br has the upper hand coming into this event, based on their momentum from WCG, their longer-standing roster, and the fact that they may be eager and motivated to impress their new sponsor in compLexity.

Damage Inc (pauLy, steno, sgares, evolution, quas)

A great team that had just made a few roster changes under the Loaded organization with the addition of sgares and evolution, I expect DINC to round out the top 3 in NYC this weekend. They're the only other roster, as far as I can see, that hasn't been haphazardly thrown together for this event or brought in as a replacement team. I think the team got better with the acquisition of sgares and evolution and with the leadership of steno and fragging ability of pauLy, they shouldn't have a problem grabbing the bronze at this event.

Blight Gaming (chE, Lim, projeckt, sLip, cJ_B)

Playing under the notorious Blight organization (and formerly as Excello), chE and company come into this event on what I would call a relatively equal playing field with d2x and Dynamic. They have chE and Lim who have been consistently attending LAN events for years, along with cJ_B and projeckt who have popped up at couple American LANs and done well on a few different teams together.

The interesting thing about this team and d2x is a lot of their players have been on rosters together, and these teams existed not all that long ago. It is almost like there is some fluidity between 7-8 players who all seem to play on teams together, some of them get sponsored at one place, some at another. I would assume that they're all relatively familiar with their play styles and the strategies each team uses, so look for that to contribute to the success of these players in NYC.

viGor (lullipopz, rockyte, skim, ?, ?)

viGor was brought in to replace SK Ladies who were not able to attend the event due to work obligations. The full roster is not listed on the IEM's website, and the only player I recognize is rockyte. rockyte has played on a few CS 1.6 and CSS teams over the years, spending most of his time under the X3O organization. Despite being a relatively good player individually, I have no idea how familiar he is with lullipopz or skim, and I'm not counting on vGr bringing in any big names at the last minute to fill out their 5 man roster.

For a complete schedule of the event for CS 1.6, SC2 and QL visit the Intel Extreme Masters American Championship page. Also stay tuned to SK-Gaming.com for coverage of the event.