Gravitas Gaming 4th Place | Going into the event, I had high expectations for Gravitas, but they're clearly a different team without Ediz “goodfornothing” Basol, but with an experienced veteran in Noah “strikeR” Alvarado, a last place finish was a stunning surprise to me. Their win against EG however was very strong, and I was really surprised when they dropped the first match against MoB. I think with the right amount of practice and focus, strikeR will be a suitable fit for the next 2 months for gfn, which will in turn lead to solid victories in both online and LAN play for this squad.

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MoB 3rd Place | The loudest team by far at the event was MoB, and although they had a really good win vs. Gravitas in the first round of play (they even kept Hostile quiet =o), they seemed to give up after their 20-10 loss against x3o on de_dust2. I look forward to see how long this team stays together, and how well they will continue to mesh. Hopefully they'll stick with The Godfather and the MoB organization, which in my opinion could make them a top 3 team in North America.

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Evil Geniuses 2nd Place | I'm not really sure what to think about EG's performance this past weekend. They played without a single flaw against x3o on train, but then the wheels seemed to fall off against Gravitas Gaming. They bounced back with ease against MoB, and were set to take on x3o yet again in the finals. I would say the lack of consistency was the main issue, even though Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert was on fire throughout the entire day. Obviously they came up short to their goal, and most would attribute this to the absence of Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen for Travis “tuBBy” Bechtol . If you're a fan of EG there shouldn't be any cause for concern, the next major LAN event is right around the corner.

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x3o 1st Place | Obviously I'm ecstatic about the performance and results of our own team in New York City this past Saturday. It's the first time that x3o as an organization has finished in first place at the WCG Open/Invitational event, and we played in dominating fashion. The day started off extremely rough with a 20-10 loss to EG on train, but picked up for the remainder with convincing wins against MoB and Gravitas. The epic match that took place in the finals between EG on de_inferno displayed the true teamwork and timing of x3o, and why they're deserving of the invite to the WCG National Finals at the end of September. Derek “dboorN” Boorn's first national event was deemed a huge success, and the timely play of Andrew “Irukandji” Timmerman and Jeff “Hero” Mettetal punched x3o's ticket early for the 2009 WCG National Finals.