Article by: Chris "confire" Luong and Andrew "Conflict" Nguyen

This is the second part of X3O's Winter Classic 2008's "Who is Who", if you missed the first edition, you can check it out HERE!

With a lot of newer, up and coming teams attending, we at X3O-Gaming.com thought that they deserved some spotlight. Normally when someone starts to watch a tournament from the comfort of their home online, they focus on the main three or four teams that they know. X3O-Gaming.com wants to make it easier for you at our Gaming Center's debut event of 2009. We are going to start giving you, the fans an overall summary on the teams that will be attending. We will be adding to this list as time goes on, so stay tuned to learn about all the teams that will be attending the first ever X3O Winter Classic.

Click HERE to view the event page of X3O's Winter Classic 2008. The team list is HERE!

Gravitas Gaming (as of 1/12/09):

• Ediz "goodfornothing" Basol
• Derrick "impulsivE" Truong
• Ben "ben" Hui
• Thomas "thoMz" Garcia
• Shaun “hostile” Catron

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know Gravitas is a top American team. Their roster may be quite a bit different than you're used to with the departure of Matt "PaTyoJoN" Iantosca and Dan "mehLer" Mehler, now part of Team X3O (Mehler was traded with Garcia). Iantosca (PaTyoJoN), Mehler (mehLer) along with Basol (goodfornothing) and Truong (impulsivE) were the core of a former top American team who played under both the Turmoil tag and here at Team X3O prior to moving to Gravitas. With the slumping performances from one of America's top 3 teams as of late, a roster shake-up may be exactly what the team needs to bounce back with a great showing at the first ever X3O Winter Classic. Even with the different roster, each player on this team is an experienced veteran so no one expects them to place below 3rd. Anything less and I'd personally bet on another roster change.

LOOK (as of 12/26/08):

• Beneito
• ravagesama
• drizzle
• apayne
• cook

This East Coast team just recently formed from a bunch of different LAN events. Though the team is fairly new, the players are relatively known to the East Coast scene such as Joe Beneito, who played for iLLicit. Being a big fan of X3O, all of them have attended at least one X3O tournament/event, some even placing well enough to win some cash purses. After the X3O Winter Classic, they plan to further develop their chemistry by participating in CEVO-Main and other online leagues as well as attending many more LAN events which may include X3O events.

deadendtheory (as of 1/23/09):

• Peter "peterrrr" Bourquin
• Yoohan "Yoohan" Lee
• mason
• youngki
• jeshwha

Deadendtheory is one of the many pugs that will be attending the X3O Winter Classic, this pug is fairly new to the LAN scene. However, their online experience can very well make up for their lack of attendance. They are all top level performers, having participated in both the Main divisions of CEVO and CAL. Even with their online performance, they will have a tough time with the plethora of other LAN teams planned to be in attendance like X3O, Gravitas and Frag Dominant (formerly known as f2 and EG.usa).

---

As always, stay tuned here at X3O-Gaming.com for the latest Team X3O news, coverage and more!