Tom "DuRuS" Nevill

Tom has been writing about eSports in some shape or form for over 2 years now, and has recently become the Coverage Manager at Cadred.

Having previously been the Editor-in-Chief of ClanBase, he has a lot of experience with online and offline journalism. Now he is focusing his attention on the CoD scene.

He is renowned for his full and detailed interviews, as well as the time and effort he puts into all of his articles.

"Team CoolerMaster have definitely been the team on form last month. They have been consistantly hitting the top 3 position at all their previous events, and now it has finally clicked into place and they have won UKeSA. I think on current form they are the best team in Europe.

I also rated EnRo Griffins quite highly, aftering seeing their ability to perform at an event, as well as their recent online tournaments especially the EPS DE Finals. It will be interesting to see how they perform at the summer events.

I have also brought ButtonBashers up a bit from where they were last month, as I think they have shown that they can last longer than 2 weeks, and did put out a good result against Reason Gaming at UKeSA to go along with their good online performances. Overall it has been a good month, but expect a lot of change after next month's. "

Stuart "TosspoT" Saw

Stuart has been a Director of QuadV, the online video broadcasting company, since it formed in early 2007, and recently became the Director of eSports for Heaven Media.

As the man behind Crossfire.nu, and the Crossfire Challenge events, Stuart has had more than his fair shair of involvement in the Call of Duty community, and has, in his own words, "shoutcasted more CoD LAN's than Jesus gets mentions in the bible".

"Its very difficult to rank any of these teams, Reason had a weekend to forget at UKeSA, Dignitas have got bad online results but did well at UKeSA! Ive put the UKeSA teams are the top as I do think they're in the best shape right now, however nobody really has the consistency at the moment to be sure of their position"

Matt "wargasm" Hazell

Matt Hazell is a 17 year-old student, who has been working over at COD community website TEK-9 for the past 6 months.

While not naturally coming from a Call of Duty background, his knowledge of the scene is exceptional, and this combined with his excellent article and interview capability means that he is a vital member of the TEK-9 team.

"Team CoolerMaster have landed themselves my number 1 spot after they took the UKeSA Premiership title. Over the last few months they have remained one of the most consistent CoD4 teams out there and have steadily worked their way up to this position. With the EPS UK finals and summer events coming up, I have high hopes that TCM will be able to maintain their high standards.

After losing a few places last month due to their lineup changes and poor performance at LAN79, Dignitas are definitely back on track now Mick has settled back in to the team. Once again, they are a side with real fire-power, and are definitely going to be tough contenders at the summer events.

ButtonBashers have come on leaps and bounds since last month, notably in UKeSA and the EPS UK competition, making me feel they deserve a top 4 placement. Despite their victory over Reason, I have still placed them in 4th. I decided Reason deserved the 3rd spot because of their consistency in other competitions both is month and the last few. At UKeSA, their latest addition (sLWx) hadn’t quite found his niche in the side and perhaps his LAN inexperience came in to play a bit. However, I can definitely see Reason taking at least 1 of the summer events when the team begins to gel and can unleash their full potential.

A new addition to my top 10 is EnRo Griffins, who have racked up a string of online achievements in recent weeks – EPS DE, Clanbase Eurocup and the UKeSA Championship. Admittedly, they have not come face to face with too many top sides in these wins, although when they did they generally had favourable outcomes. For example, beating TBH.MSI in the EPS DE final and eSuba.AMD in the Infused Cup Semi Final (where they will be playing Reason in the final). Thus far we have only seen them at the UKeSA LAN, where they won the Alienware Cup, and it will be interesting to see how they do at the summer events.

After this we have a mish-map of teams who have traded wins and losses this past month more times than I can care to count. The only notable changes are the inclusion of EPS DE 3rd placers Competo (then prediction gaming) and the drop in fnatic’s position, who (aside from losing to eSuba in the Infused Cup) have not been in any major events this June. "

Bob "Bcrbo" Van de Voorde

Bob has been writing about the Call of Duty scene for about 4 years now and even enjoyed a brief stint at the top of Call of Duty 2 with his German team.

After Call of Duty 4’s release he started to focus more and more on the journalist side of things and was in charge of running the LowLandLions website until a few months ago, after which he made the move over to Cadred.org as the current Head of Call of Duty and knows most of the top players personally.

 

"Last time around, we had just seen the line-up change that made Team-Dignitas fall down from their top spot in the ranking and Reason-Gaming won their first Call of Duty 4 LAN in Bressuire, France with Team-CoolerMaster closing off the top three with their consistent placing at the different LANs in 2009.

At the UKeSA Finals, however, things just fell into place for the 4 Brits and their lone Dutchman with superb play from them to take the eventual win from an underdog position, making them my number one team for this month’s edition, as no single player in the line-up seemed to play badly throughout the entire weekend and many maps.

Reason-Gaming on the other hand drop down due to the fact their recent addition did not seem to fit in perfectly just yet and they more than often contributed to their own losses through miscommunication in the crucial rounds. Team-Dignitas have done better than their performance at LAN79 and the addition of Michael “Mick” Bradshaw seems to work out for them so far, even though there is still ample room for improvement if they can find the right mix with the new line-up.

Outside of the top three, it’s a close call again and with only online results to go by, it could turn out to be a completely different tale by next month when the two biggest Call of Duty 4 events of the year will have been played and the real top teams will have shown their strength. For now, it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top then as there are so many possible candidates who can step up their game and pull out the unpredictable win."

Simon "Bidy" Bidwell

Simon is a young face among esports journalists, but currently writes for Fnatic.com, and has also provided coverage online and at events for Cadred.org

Despite only being sixteen years old Simon has been playing competitively for a number of years, coming from an Enemy Territory background; more recently however he has focused on Call of Duty 4, and also follows games such as Counter Strike, DotA and Street Fighter 4.

"TCM are the one top team who have showed the most consistency. Every event they've attended as a side has been top 3 or higher, so for me that warrants a number one placing. Reason gaming have slipped to number two for me as with recent roster changes theyve yet to completely click and they had a disappointing show at UKeSA. But to judge them completely on the UKeSA performance would be harsh as the team easily have the potential to be the number one side in europe.

Dignitas have had to slow down their play a lot to fit Mick into the team, but after a months work it is slowly beginning to work for the Brits and after an iffy start they are getting results online and offline again. It might not be pretty to watch but it is a necessary evil thats starting to work, leaving them at number three for me. fnaticMSI I've placed at number 4 as theyve had some great results online since the addition of stevy. Ofcourse online isnt the be all and end all but only losing 1 official in the month and a half since his addition is good form to be hitting coming into the summer lans.

But the reality is, on their day, most teams inside the top six or seven can beat each other, be it the ever dangerous Czechs of eSuba, who I've ranked 5th, the new side of ButtonBashers who I've ranked 6th or '24/7' EnRo. "

You'll be able to catch more thoughts from our panel with Cadred's July Rankings in a month's time!

Next month's top 10 will be just after TeX and so expect to see some big changes after the two biggest tournaments of the year so far. There will also be the EPS UK finals as well as some online tournaments finishing. What ever you do, make sure you stay tuned.