GGL Wire

The news of the World Cyber Games group draw would not be as interesting as it is if it wasn’t for the playoffs key. PGS Gaming will play Meet Your Makers and Roccat will play Fnatic for the WCG grand final in Counter-Strike 1.6. That’s what the playoffs key tells us as early as one month away from the event.

Of course, if we could really tell the future, we would keep it to ourselves and go to the bookies instead. We sure as hell would not tell you.

Jokes aside, there are stronger and weaker teams in the World Cyber Games and there is more than enough information to make a decent prediction. Even considering the random nature of Counter-Strike.

Here is the magic formula:

A1 - E2
B1 - F2
C1 - G2
D1 - H2

E1 - A2
F1 - B2
G1 - C2
H1 - D2

Now that we know how to fill out the bracket, we need to establish who the bracket will be filled up with:

Group A: the WCG title defenders PGS Gaming will win the group, ahead of Evil Geniuses from Canada and KPOBb (Blood) from Russia who should fight for second place.

Group B: A-Gaming look like the strongest team on paper, at least until we see who is going to represent USA. It seems as though the Ukrainian team should take first place with USA in second, although the other teams in the group may surprise and sneak into the playoffs too. The bottom line is that it does not matter that much, since none of those teams will have a good shot at winning a medal.

Group C: If they play at the level they should, Meet Your Makers from Norway will take the group. The second spot seems to be a place for Belgium, but whoever qualifies next to MYM will be cannon fodder in the playoffs anyway.

Group D: It looks like Germany’s national team will be facing wNv.cn for first place. The Germans have got very strong individuals who are capable of playing world class CS, but wNv can have periods when they are very, very good. If the Chinese are on a period they will get first place. Let’s not forget Spain who, with a bit of luck, can win the group too.

Group E: The Finnish Team Roccat is going to win the group, followed by either CNO from the Netherlands or the TitaNs from Singapore. Again the runners up are not very important for the predictions since they cannot be expected to go very far in the playoffs.

Group F: Arguably the weakest group of the WCG. The best team on paper is sYnck, the Estonian team that made it to top 16 last year and lost to PGS. Teams from group F should not have a major impact on the tournament as a whole.

Group G: The main favorites of this group, and the entire tournament, for that matter, are Fnatic from Sweden. The second place almost seems reserved for g3nerationX (Brazil). A surprise is not unlikely, since the other teams in the group are decent to say the least, but Fnatic and g3x are a bit ahead of everyone else.

Group H: Denmark should top this group, with France or perhaps Kazakhstan getting the second playoff spot.

After this very lengthy introduction, we can start filling in the bracket. Here is what comes out:

Round of 16:
PGS vs. CNO or Titans
A-Gaming vs. sYnck or HR

MYM vs g3x
Germany or wNv vs. FR or KZ

Roccat vs. KPOBb or EG
sYnck or HR vs. USA

Fnatic vs. BE
DK vs. Germany or wNv

Our speculations can continue all the way through to the semi finals or even further:

Round of 8:
PGS vs. A-Gaming
MYM vs. Germany or wNv

Roccat vs. USA
Fnatic vs. Denmark

Round of 4:
PGS vs. MYM
Roccat vs. Fnatic

As always, life plays many pranks on favorites in every competition. That’s what makes it all worth watching. The above scenario does not seem all that unreasonable, but the trick is always finding the odd upset or two.

What do you think?