There are a few teams here that are something of an unknown quantity, those that are looking to show they can compete with the big names both here and moving forward. Amongst them are TCM, a side labelled as having "potential" but this not being the place to prove it.

The competition will be fierce of course but the reigning LAN79 champions feel that they can catch a few teams off guard. They will be buoyed by yesterday's group stage matches where there were some upsets. As the group stages get underway i spoke with their captain Marc "vazy" Berthold about how he rated their chances.

A lot of people have been talking about your team as being one of the teams that has a lot of potential, but isn’t quite ready to be a top contender yet. You did win LAN79, which wasn’t a premier tournament, but do you think you are ready to step up against the real competition here?

We just had a replacement to one of our players – we had to change Frenchy for Walken. In my opinion we are a better team now, better skill because Walken is a bit better than Frenchy. In terms of involvement and team spirit we just improved a lot. We just bootcamped for 5 days, praccing hard for about 13 hours out of 24. We just do our best and hope that we do well.

In terms of CoD4, one of the thigns people are always talking about is “potential” – teams have “potential”. And it’s not so much about individual skill, it is the team that get the tactics down and are well drilled [that do well]. Would you agree with that? If you put the work in, you can be the very best?

Yeah, I think you need some good players, but, you don’t need 5 huge players to win a tournament. If you look at the top teams, there are always 2 or 3 great players and 2 who apply tactics and do the jobs. I think if you have great teamplay you can beat some great teams.

What about with the calibre of teams in your group? I believe you have Speedlink as well. There is a lot of talk about them being a similar team to yourselves. Can you see your team being the better team of the two?

If I remember right, we had the same opening at CIC7. We had Speedlink in the groups there too, and we drew 12-12. I think we have improved since CIC7 and I guess we can win it if we play our game. I know Speedlink just had some changes also, with a great player coming in. I’m sure they pracc to beat us too. If we play our game I’m sure we can win, but anything can happen.

What do you think about this tournament as a whole? It’s quite a long one with a lot teams. There was a period where CoD4 looked to be dying, but here we are with over 50 teams and one of the most competitive events CoD4 has seen in its history. Have you been enjoying it?

That’s the great thing for CoD4 to see that a lot of teams have come here. As for me, I watched some games yesterday as it’s enjoyable to see top teams playing. We’re settled and it’s pretty enjoyable.

What about when you were coming in, you were looking around the teams and there’s some big names there. Fnatic, a lot of people have said they haven’t been practising as much, they didn’t win gamersject; h2k had a loss and a draw and only finished 2nd in their group. Do you think this will be the tournament where we see some upsets and some new names break into the top tier?

With the prize of 12,000€, everyone wants to win. Concerning Fnatic, it’s true that they didn’t pracc that much, but while they’re still playing on their own, there is potential. During the group stage you always see some upsets, but in the end top teams always go through to the last part. Maybe we will see some underdogs in the first stages but I don’t think they will reach the top 3 cos theres too much money at stake.

What about the target you have set yourselves? People are saying you’re probably in the 5th-8th bracket, do you agree with that or have you set yourselves a target of maybe being 4th? What is your minimum requirement?

The first goal is to go through to the playoffs – that should be ok. After that, we want to do better than CIC7, because we weren’t ready there, but we are now. To be top 4 would be great, yeah.

What about the long term development of the team. There seems to be a phased development in CoD4. You’ve had your first tournament and had your first win, where do you see yourselves next after this event? What are your long term goals?

LAN79 was our first tournament win, but there was no big European teams coming, but this is our biggest European tournament. So, I guess our next goal is to achieve something at this Lan. Top 3 at a big event would be great.

In terms of winners and losers, if you were betting, who would your money be on?

Before their loss against rage, I would have thought Power would possibly win the tournament, because they were praccing hard, and we didn’t see them too much, didn’t see their tactics. Probably Fnatic, Reason Gaming and Power top 3.