With the 4th of July looming large, Mr Duck takes a look at the teams that finished 1st and 4th in the online season in the first part of our preview to the EPS UK LAN Finals.

On saturday all eyes will be on London's Congress Centre as the top 4 finishers from the online part of the EPS season will go head to head angling for their share of the £30,000 prize pot. The winning team at the event will pick up a cheque to the amount of £5,000 while another £3,400 will be distributed between the remaining teams. In this, part one of the preview, I shall take a look at the teams who finished 1st and 4th in the regular season, starting with Team Dignitas.

Team Dignitas

Sam "Rattlesnk" Gawn
Elliot "Wez" Welsh
Dan "Re1ease" Mullan
James "WilzOOO" Wilson
Chris "Blackmane" Kinnair

Rankings

Clan Details	Played	Wins	Losses	Draws	For	Against	Earnings	POINTS
Team Dignitas	8	8	0	0	128	68	£800	24

As you can see from above, Dignitas finished the season "unbeaten", picking up 24 points and £800 along the way. But as they say in politics, theres lies, damn lies and statistics. The statistics would have you believe that Dignitas had a smooth, smooth run from start to finish. However, you would be mistaken. Their season, like the rest of the teams' is littered with roster changes and the odd anomalous result. I'll start by looking at the roster.

For a UK roster, its been relatively stable, though that is probably on a par with exclaiming that Father Jack Hacket's drinking problem wasn't very severe for an Irishman. 3 Players have remained a constant in the "World Champions'" lineup for the duration of the tournament (and indeed for over a year now). However, Rattlensk, Wez and WilzOOO found themselves losing Frankstah and pT through this tournament. First to go was Frankstah who was replaced by CGS season 1 star Harriman, he later made way and various substitutes were utilized through the season, including Mangiacapra and Blackmane. The lineup was consolidated later in the season when FM Toxic stars Re1ease and KritikaL were brought in, filling the vacant spot left by Harriman and replacing long standing team member pT. As we head to the LAN Finals it is still not clear what the lineup will be for Dignitas as KritikaL is required to play for FM. Toxic, although I can confirm that Re1ease will be representing Dignitas at the event

Over the course of the season Dignitas only experienced one loss, that being a defeat to the mix team i love myself, however, this was wiped from the history books when i love myself were removed from the tournament for exceeding the allowed number of penalty points. Through the rest of the season Dignitas pretty much did a job with only Veritas and FM. Toxic taking them the full distance.

All eyes on Sam "RattlesnK" Gawn at UKeSA

Dignitas come into the tournament off the back of a disappointing outing to the UKeSA finals. They had billed the tournament as the first one they had practiced for in a long time and were hoping to translate that into a victory. However it ended abruptly as they were knocked out at the first hurdle by Reason Gaming. They will be hoping this tournament will end in a more satisfactory manner, but with the tournament so close with no finalised roster it doesn't look to be the best preparation.

The Last Resort

Desmond "des" Bourke
Nayden "nayden" Delchev
Ben “BenKoFk” Pratt
Alex “Alex” Nock
Jake "Jakem" Mccausland

Rankings

Clan Details	Played	Wins	Losses	Draws	For	Against	Earnings	POINTS
The Last Resort	8	4	1	3	119	89	£800	24

TLR started off the season as ZEN and slowly went through a metamorphosis to become totally unrecognisable from the team which started. Changes were wholesale, not just to the players but the name too!

The team started the tournament in controversy. Moments before rosters were locked des was snatched from their rivals, noREPLY and nestled into the lineup, replacing Macky. This would set the tone for the season as ZEN became the most troubled team in this season's EPS, quite an accolade, albeit a dubious one. First out the door was Carrel, who was soon to be followed by Crazycat, but not before benkofk had been brought in. NaYDeN filled the crazycat-shaped void before deathdisco parted company to be replaced by aLex. This was all capped off by a change of name as the TLR organisation finally picked up the team after the worst kept secret in the history of source was realised.

However troubled their off-the-server life may have been, on the server the team have been far from firing blanks. At the start of the season I earmarked 4 teams for the Playoffs - Dignitas, FM. Toxic, Crack Clan and 4 Kings (Team CoolerMaster) - and noted that any other teams wanting to make it to the playoffs would need to get a result against at least one of these. TLR managed to eek out draws against 3 of these 4 teams and unseated Team CoolerMaster to take the 4th and final place in the finals lineup. Infact, TLR managed to go the duration of the season losing only once, however, that was against Dignitas, their first round opponents on saturday.

The TLR side in action at UKeSA, where they played under the name "Andy's Vent"

TLR's form coming into this is... well what form? The team folded a couple of weeks back now, and the majority of the players have since been re-housed. However, a fortnight ago the team featured at 2 LANs in the space of 4 days, each with a very positive outcome. At the Intel Friday Night Game they faced Team YoYoTech in their final EPS fixture of the season. In a game marred by equipment problems TLR were the quickest to adapt and ran out easy winners. Later that week the team competed under the moniker "Andys Vent" in the UKeSA Cup final. Again they ran out winners, this time taking out The Imperial.Lime. But with the greatest respect to the Imperial and YoYoTech, the likes of Dignitas, FM.Toxic and Crack Clan are a whole different kettle of fish and should provide a much stiffer task.