You don't see much EEDL games in our replay archive and no other major tournament delivers replays at the moment. You see Kuroky playing a perfect Doom (imo
Download), but I guess it's just to warm up for practise. It's actually so quiet that the GosuCrew has to step up and show some true skill in a community showmatch.So what can we expect from the strongly awaited encounter of some of the world's best teams? I say some of the world's best team, since countries like China have more than one team able to place themselves in the top 3 in every tournament. Against all hopes, not another Chinese team has been invited, but three rather unknown teams, namely Playlife, Tornado Walay and a Bulgarian team. I thought the ESWC will invite the best of the best world-wide, and well, if there is more than one good team from a country, why not invite the two or three of them?
I know it's mean to immediately destroy any hopes of the underdogs, but can they really face a Chinese triple A team like LGD, who have shown a great performance over a very long period? Holymaster made a great comparison between the Champions League in football and the ESWC tournament; in short, you have to play a very good season and place yourself top 3 in the national football league (which runs almost a whole year). Top one of each country gets invited, teams placed 2nd and 3rd are going to play a qualification. In the end, the best of the best are actually facing each other. So what's the difference now to the ESWC participant list? It's the one team per country rule; which is totally useless if your country does not have a qualifier. In that case, you just have to be lucky. I would have loved to see a (well) organized qualifier by the ESWC; so that the better teams moved forward into the playoffs and the bad ones are sorted out.
But now it's too late and we all have to live with the decision taken by the ESWC. My only hope is to see new strategies and epic clashes in the tournament. Keep in mind that the teams are playing for a total of $24.500 prizemoney.
On a small side-note: GosuGamers is planning to provide a live coverage from the venue and provide pictures, live-twitter and news. Any wishes about that? Contact me!
Here are a few links to hype you up for the ESWC:
ESWC predictions and teams by Vincent "em0_llama" Nunes ESWC is just an appetizer by blah278 MYM, Blight won't steam roll over us Interview with Hugs from T-Out 
We'll have a lots of supporters Interview with Phoenix from Tribal.Fr 
We are not afraid of any team Interview with Polar from CnB 
This strategy we call ReBorn style Interview with Knotir from ReBorn 
Anything may happen Interview with Anthrax from Tornado Walay 
Expect more very soon, since we are trying to publish an interview with each team day by day.
