I spoke with a few of Finland's prized players ahead of the competition and their thoughts on their own fortunes and who would come out on top.

premi Our trip to PlayZ will follow the same pattern pretty much as last time the event was held. Rnl will come to my place on Friday at Tampere, after his 8hour train trip from lapland and we will meet-up with cheets (news crew) and head to Turku on saturday morning. Tomsku will be driving from Helsinki to Turku with {{KAZA^}} already on friday evening, and they will stay at Filter's place for the night. Blanzzi and Deltta are both living at Turku so we will all meet up at Viking Line Terminal on saturday morning and get onboard. The boat departs 8.45am and will arrive Stockholm around 7pm so then we will head straight to PlayZ and get things setup and meet the other teams.

Having read elsewhere, this appears to be the same for most teams, all finns leaving via Turku and on the love boat to Stockholm. I took a quick swoop around Suomi Day of Defeat Source to see how the other teams expected they, and their opposition would fair at PlayZ.

Rinorragi of Afterlife - I think we will place in top 3 in playz, most of us have trained hard this week but still our lineup is not stable due our player variety. There might be some problems when for example omsku just changed his weapon to heavy, although he is so versatile player that I think he will play great. Yet there may be some problems about knowing his placements in the game.

hwatti of Ince - I think we have a chance of making some upsets if everything works well, and I definately don't see us as being the weakest clan of the 12 participants. On the top I see cadre, afterlife and copyriot with quite equal chances...cadre maybe just a bit ahead of the rest. F&T and The last resort #4 & #5.

xvO of Edgerunner - 1We are going to meet already on friday at BlackJehova's place and have some fun and get to know everyone even better. I'm sure we will have lots of fun on the boat too because we will meet every finnish attender except afterlife guys! We have been planning things and stuff what we'll do on the journey and I'm sure it's going to a-wesome! We have been training alot and I think we will do some good results, even tho we don't have any chances for good places :) See you there!

Tufe of Rapa.dod - I think we can make top 6 if we play our best but all clans there are very though so we'll see. 1.cadre 2.copy 3.al 4.f&t 5.RaPa:)

Here's a list of the teams, the members going and some personal opinions on where the prizes will go. Hopefully none of what I say comes true and we have a hugely open and exciting competition :) cheets will update the site with results and interviews on the night. Here's hoping things go smoothly!

Afterlife

Rinorragi, xyfo and Sagitarius as rifle, doll and omsku as heavy and swingu is playing sniper.

For a long time the bridesmaids to Cadre. I think they have a lot to prove at PlayZ. Too many people are claiming they are going for the fun of the game and meeting some new/old friends but I've a sneeking suspicion Afterlife want to take home the cash. The absence of sis I feel will be their major blow.

Players to watch: xyfo & swingu

Pred: (2nd-5th)

Copyriot

Team: Sadism, DeZ, steinr, Holbek, Azapp & Dresser

These guys are one of my favourite teams in European dods. Have come on quite well since the summer I must say and for a while looked like having the nessacaries to beat Cadre. I was hugely dissapointed to see them lose to Afterlife in zP-invite, however showed character by swiftly turning around and beat them a few days later in HTGN:CL. With this in mind I think its almost impossible to choose who is better between themselves and Afterlife online, will they challenge offline is the big question?

Players to watch: Azzapp & steinr

Pred: (2nd-5th)

CopyLight

Team: SpAnkZ,AnkerMR.dk, Sobibor-Jr, Supreme & Ahllmann

Lost their first ClanBase OC match to the "mighty" 3xiled, this I fear could be an ominous yard stick for the Copyriot second string squad. Hopefully they will challenge in their matches but the fact of the matter is they will more likely struggle to worry the major teams here.

Players to watch: SpAnkZ & Supreme (he is way cute ^^)

Pred: (10th-12th)

Edgerunner

Team: Rifles: cero, markku, xvo Heavy: snd, blackjehova Sniper: psycho

I must admit I don't know a great deal about this team apart from the fact they have had some good results versus Rapa and Ince. xvO and snd I know from the 1.3 days. With oan undefeated streak of 3 wins, against so so opposition, in the Open Cup @ Clanbase, things look good for a steady middle of the road finish for Edgerunner.

Players to watch: Cero & snd

Pred: (6th-9th)

Explicit

Team: Dockan,granau, titan, sea-wolf, bet and ki

A good team who have done well recently, 4th in zP-i (though had a somewhat easy passage) and are holding their heads up in EC. Missing their two UK based players, whether this is good or bar remains to be seen, but expect the eXplicit team to do well here, without setting the world on fire.

Players to watch: TiTan and ki

Pred: (6th-9th)

Fresh and Tight

Team:Exonity,Blythe,knm,fan,Koblat,crassus,stompr,wosten.

Slightly sexual name, rather arousing line up! F&T have been consistently one of the top teams in Europe since returning to the DoD fray, they have at times flattered to deceive and that could be their Achille's heal. Hopefully they will get into the stride of things early on and turn the screw.

Players to watch: Blythe & crassus

Pred: (2nd-5th)

ince

Team: addie, das_zetor, hwatti, jemsa, skittlez, zibit

When I first saw the original line up for Ince I was expecting fireworks! They then went ahead and decided to lose their first official match and have in my opinion failed to impress as I thought they would have. In saying that they have the ever dangerous hwatti who will work tirelessly for his team. I really do hope these guys pull the finger out on LAN!

Players to watch: hwatti & zibit

Pred: (6th-9th)

InsigniaCadre

Team: Blanzzi,Deltta,Tomsku,Filter,premi,Rnl and our news guy: cheets.

What can I say, this team has won everything they have entered, has never been beaten in an official match (outside of default) and has only been pushed to the limit once recently, when massively understrength. Expect domination from Tomsku & Deltta the likes of which will never have been seen on lan before. For any budding dods player get the demoes after PlayZ and watch them, this is how you play DoD:S. FACT! Players to watch: All of them!

Pred: (1st, barring a miracle)

Rangaistus-Pataljoona

Team: Tufe,Ramb0,Ryoka,Timebeing,vingih and zelDer

Now now, are we taking a walk down memory lane here? Rapa are a seriously old and established clan and this is my first knowledge of them attending LAN (I'm probably mistaken) so this as such is quite a historic little occasion, unfortunately thats where the pagentary will stop methinks :( Rapa will fight and fight but the EC teams should have little problem with their defenses. I am hoping to be mistaken as I have a soft spot for clans with such a dated history :)

Players to watch: Tufe & vingih

Pred: (10th-12th)

Stofftiere Online

Team: haggiii, pb, biG, MetalliC, dr4, brk & Raptor_Deluxe

Have had some very decent results and had a good ESL Bundesliga, with JB/brk mercing for them on LAN, it could prove to be a very interesting event for the popular German side.

Players to watch: brk & pB

Pred: (6th-9th)

The Last Resort

Team: GonZo,KAZA, Kazatel, RiN, Xcite & Lorious

A team with quite alot to prove in my opinion! Having received gracious backing from Tlr.esports in the form of travel assistance and having Chef also travel with them to the lan, they would appear to have quite a debt ammased! Eh, I really don't know what to say here, this is a team which could possibly beat Cadre and co. or get trounced by CopyLight, no offence. I really don't know what will happen and what kind of Tlr team will show up, and that is me being as honest as I can be. The missing Brazen could prove a big problem.

Players to watch: KAZA^ & Kazatel

Pred: (2nd-5th) [Don't for Christ sake let me down!]

-Warriors of Legend-

Team: TaLkIeN FiZz Kiki P!nGu PcT gOrri

Another team I had high hopes for but didn't really live up to what I expected, and as such I do think they are surprisingly weak. I wish I had more to say about them but a string of so so results doesn't bode too well for the team. I hope they enjoy their time in Sweden though!

Players to watch: KiKi & P!nGu

Pred: (10th-12th)

I personally feel some of the clans attending are going to be attending the lan for a wee Swedish holiday. Before the shenanigans even begin most assume that Cadre have this won. I'd like to come along and say this isn't true, but their demolition of every team in Europe in CAL, zP-i and HTGN:CL would suggest otherwise. In the days of TmG the current Cadre squad found themselves beating 3 decent teams, who in reality were the best 3 in Europe on LAN, after doing so online all season long. The fact of the matter is Cadre are one of the oldest DOD:S teams, clearly the best in Europe, if not the world, and will most likely win this LAN, take home the cash, and whilst drunk on the ferry, put shaving foam all over premi :)

So why the hell even bother speaking about this lan then? Well its simple really, this is the biggest DOD:S LAN to date, it has the biggest prize purse, and greatest coverage. It is in effect the best bit of advertising DoD:S has ever had in Europe. It could possibly be the launch pad for more organised, more elaborate and more wide spread lans in the future. SLKS and SHG:Open take note big time! There have been some terribad games added to big money LANs over the years *cough* Painkiller *cough*, come on, what the hell were you thinking CPL, oh no wait I know, lets be money grabbing mo' fo's!Also I see ET has been added to SHG:Open, a game dating to an old Quake2 engine, from about 2003,yet still managers to feature four years later. Why can't the HDR ladden DoD: Source? Its been good enough for ClanBase to feature in the Euro & Nations Cups, so why can't it be more of a feature game where the bullshit haults and money gets talking?

Nasty old rant by me indeed! Its not necessarily the numbers of players in a scene for me, its how competitive it is and how active. At the moment DoD:S is in somewhat of a boom period due to plenty of cups and tournaments. The likes of Painkiller and co. have fallen by the wayside and rightly so. Isn't it more appropriate to help out the games that are striving to push competition gaming than make a fast buck?

I'll leave you decide that yourselves :)