Michael McGhee previews the i43 CS:S tournament taking place this weekend in Telford, sort of.

Over the years I've gone from bright and effervescent aspiring e-sports journalist to weathered, grumpy industry veteran. I've covered tournaments in CS:S, 1.6, SC2, HoN, CoD4, TF2 and more and written countless thousands of words that have been read by a mere handful of people - very few of which have the brain capacity to understand what I've said. I've been praised, threatened, abused and lauded by people I've never met and probably never will. I'm tired boss, dog tired. Tired of writing the same shit about the same people. Tired of spending hours reading up on something which is ultimately trivial. Tired of working inhuman hours at LAN events. Tired of e-sports. On the bright side, i-series is this weekend. Wooooooo.

Previews are the worst part of the job. The same teams go to each event, the same results crop up time and time again and it's always the same players who do the damage. Yet each time I need to conjure up 1500 words about how this time it could be different, imagine the first time Harry Potter tried to create a Patronus Charm, then imagine him being tall, skinny with a ginger beard and devoid of any motivation - that's pretty much how I feel. Alas, duty calls. Here's what will happen in the mind of a tortured genius.

VeryGames Will Win

People have been labouring under the delusion that someone can topple VeryGames for the past three years, yet during that time the French organisation have dominated every single major event they have gone to with a number of different lineups. This one's arguably the strongest they've ever had and so far have been in the form of their lives. The addition of Richard ' shoxie ' Papillon has given the team even more firepower and with a lot on the line this weekend they will be happy with nothing but first place. A result that seems incredibly likely.

mTw Will Realise That KRAUTERHUMPEN Isn't The Best AWP'er And nooky Isn't Very Good On LAN, No Matter How Much FPS He Has

I can already hear the screams of "vendetta" from the hundreds of fans.. But the fact of the matter is that Andre 'nooky' Utesch isn't the player he once was and hasn't been for many months. I understand that it's not his job to top the mTw scoreboard but that doesn't alter the fact he's played below par at the past few major international events the team have been present at.

His partner in crime has been Patrik 'KRAUTERHUMPEN' Jakobi who has a lot of work to do if he wants to be in the same league as some of the worlds best AWP players. It's all well and good hitting crazy flicks and no-scopes but he must stop missing the bread and butter shots if his team are to have any chance of toppling the mighty VeryGames. Perhaps this could be the event that the German duo come up trumps, and I hope they do as I'm as bored as anyone else with the VeryGames dominance, I just can't see it happening though.

hudzG And weber Will Be Insane

George 'hudzG' Hoskins has proven himself to be arguably the best player the UK has produced down the years. His ability to motivate his team, call and nerves of steel make him the ideal player and someone who teams are afraid to come up against. Brandon 'weber' Weber is the first of a new generation of player and after his recent performance at 30PLAN people have every right to be getting excited. His aim is as crisp as a Jacobs Cream Cracker and he soaks up advice like a sponge, add to that his insane passion for the game and being the best and you have a player with all of the potential in the world.

Of all of the players Brandon could be learning from hudzG is probably the best, and if he gets a chance to work his magic on the youngster mTw will be a very, very dangerous team.

eXelon Will Surprise People

The Swedish team have been living it up in Ireland for the past week - with some gruesome pictures to prove it - and will be going into the event this weekend without much pressure. Nobody expects them to challenge the major teams in attendance despite some excellent online performances of late, and I have a sneaking suspicion that they might catch a few teams off guard. Ted 'haunted' Svensson is in the form of his life at the moment and will prove the deciding factor on how well these guys do, whilst they also have the experience of the unflappable Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson.

With the addition of Ole-Christian "gem" Slaattene they have a player more than capable of tearing down the best of teams when on form. I'd keep an eye out for these guys, we could have another Vitriolic on our hands.

Epsilon Won't Reach The Final

The British hopefuls will be looking to prove a point this weekend after making wholesale changes to their lineup, but they will miss the skill and experience of missing man Elliot 'wez' Walsh, who is unable to attend due to exams. He was a huge influence on the team in the past and not having him is a massive blow, the fact they have replaced him with a very different character may prove costly. In wez they had an all our fragger and someone who had the ability to shift it up a gear when needed, his replacement Luke 'KritikaL' Green brings a very different skill-set to the team, one that they don't really need.

His ability to call and motivate the team is one that already exists in Henry 'HenryG' Greer. Although his performance at TeX 09' suggests he can play the role of fragger he's going to be rusty in that department after many months on the sidelines. It will be interesting to see how they get on but my gut instinct tells me they made an error when selecting a replacement for wez.

The Brazilian Team Will Be Badass

Of course they will, won't they? South Americans are badass by nature, they live their lives on the edge and bring a sense of excitement and energy whenever they're in your company. I'm hoping they will be as animated and excitable as the hugely entertaining OX.Gaming team who took i-series by storm last year. The rumour also has it that they're pretty damn good. Currently residing in Birmingham they have spent the past few days bootcamping and preparing for the task in hand, and some eye witness reports have said that they are not to be taken lightly.

Could they do what FalleN and co could not? I sure hope so as it'd be a pleasant surprise.

Team Dignitas Would Have Done Well... Only Joking

It's a shame that Dignitas chose to drop their CS:S team but in a way I'm kind of glad that they won't be showing up to this event. It was a shame to see the two 1.6 players names - two players who are highly regarded in the 1.6 scene - dragged through the mud thanks to numerous bad placings and terrible performances. The youngsters in the team would not have recovered from it had they failed to perform on the big stage once again so it's probably better for them that the team folded.

The team suffered some horrible luck after their third place finish at i41 but in truth they never looked like a team capable of toppling the big two in the country, or even the big three. Here's hoping things turn out better for them in future.

Rasta xD Will Come To Blows

Nayden 'nayden' Delchev: one of the most volatile and agitated players in the UK. Andrew "bash" Christodoulou: one of the most easily frustrated and temperamental players in the UK. Put them together and you're sure to get some fireworks. If things go well for the team and they are all on form they will be one of the most dangerous 'dark horses' in attendance, but if things start going badly it's going to be difficult for the team to keep the personality clashes between the two alpha males at a minimum.

I personally don't see them placing higher than 5th/6th but after a number of successful events they will be hoping for more. I just hope that they remain grounded and remember that it's merely a game.

TLR Will Struggle

If they manage to get to the event unscathed - better get those tickets booked Chef! - the much loved TLR team will struggle to better their placing at the previous i-series. After reaching the final last year many believed that the team had made the step-up from good to great, however they have since shown that it was a one off. That doesn't mean that they aren't a dangerous side as some of the players on the team-sheet have improved significantly over the past year or so. Yet the main asset they had was their teamwork and the bond that they have with each other.

That won't be in place this weekend as their morale boosting bottom fragger Tom 'quiver' Griffiths will not be attending. Instead they will have the wise old head of Jack 'Callisto' Mason, a player who will be hoping to make an instant impact. Despite being a fantastic player I feel that the team will struggle to gel in time for i-series, I could be proven wrong - it's been known to happen - and I hope so, but I think a 7-8th placing is on the cards once more.

That's all for now folks. Tune into Cadred.org over the coming days for all of the latest updates, interviews, match reports and more of i43, live from Telford.