[i45] Predictions Thread

With iSeries now upon us, some of Europe's top players are ascending upon the little town of Telford ahead of what should be an exciting weekend of Modern Warfare action. The tournament will be the first time we will ever see the two biggest European competitive communities coming together, Decerto and the Warped Gaming League.

To get the most out of the weekend the admin have decided to employ a champions league style group stage, which will then filter into either single or double elimination bracket, depending on how the tournament is doing for time. With the groups drawn, we now have a better idea of how the tournament will kick off.

Decerto will be on site all weekend to bring you coverage and to kick things off, here are our pre-event predictions.

1st Place: Prophecy

Apparently running riot online, the team has made one player change from the line up that placed 3rd at EGL. The man taking a back seat is Vapez, with work commitments preventing him from attending with the Proph line up. In his place comes a man with bags of Call of Duty experience; Shane McKerral. Having already enjoyed a previous stint under the Infused banner, Shane joins former team mate Swanny in a line up that shows a lot of promise. For Shane this could be a great opportunity as a highly rated player who has frequently sold himself short in the name of loyalty. The team is of course rounded off by Sowerz and possibly the best Call of Duty player ever, Gunshi.

With so many team changes after EGL and a flurry of inexperienced teams, it's hard to look past Prophecy to bag first place.

2nd Place: MythiX

Perhaps a surprise to many, but the French have done it many times before and the newly formed line up have a great team on paper. Will this convert to LAN? We'll have to wait and see. The team are not short of experience on Modern Warfare 3 either and truly threw a spanner in the works when they announced their last minute attendance to the inaugural iSeries Call of Duty tournament.

The team came together after the apeX.Pro team collapsed, and Gotaga finally returned to where he belongs, in a French line up. Gotaga has enjoyed a successful period in the apeX.Pro team but always gave off the impression that he was a bit of an outsider, while in contrast, he took great delight in seeing his fellow countrymen succeed at LAN. Now he gets to join them in their search for success. Also going back to his roots is everyone's favourite pantomime villain, Lowan. After some time with LiNK Gaming, the French Call of Duty XP FFA winner takes his rightful place in the newly formed French powerhouse and will no doubt be instrumental in their performance this weekend. The team is rounded off by well known SMG, Agonie and of course, Diablo.

Despite being a somewhat new roster the team of veterans will be a challenge for any line up, and the balance might prove to be too much for most of the competition. Our prediction; 2nd place.

3rd Place: TCM

After a somewhat lackluster performance by the previous TCM roster at EGL, the organisation made the smart move to pick up one of the most consistent LAN performers, Flame Retardant. Like Proph, TCM come into the event with only one change after EGL. With Jake announcing a surprise return to the Playstation scene, FR swiftly moved to pick up former TCM man Mohog. At the back end of Black Ops, Mohog enjoyed success as something of a mercenary, frequently being drafted into line ups at events as the forth and consistently performing well. Mohog then found is place in the former Foreign line up and achieved success at both EGL and Reflex before the team finally split after a disappointing weekend at EGL5.

On paper the new line up has a great deal of promise and will no doubt cement themselves among the upper echelons of the Europe Modern Warfare community. For this event though, I think mX and Proph might prove to be too much for the TCM quartet and they will eventually have to settle for third place.

Dark Horses: Network.Pick Up Truck

A star studded line up that formed last minute ahead of the event; Network have what it takes to rustle some feathers this weekend. The line up consists of Crookz, XLNC, Tommey and Marc and despite their little preparation time, will no doubt find themselves in the latter stages of the competition. The team has a lot of fire power on offer also, with Crookz, XLNC, and Tommey all preferring to sport the SMG. No doubt we'll see XLNC switch to AR and aim to support former apeX team mates, Crookz and Tommey, as the duo look to roll back the years and display the kind of form that saw them become the first European line up to ever attend MLG event. Their forth player, Marc, will no doubt be a surprise to many but is a veteran player in his own right, and falls under the category of player who is easily overlooked despite consistently performing well at events. This weekend offer a great opportunity for Marc to show what he's really made of in a team with little expectations placed on them.

How will they do then? Only time will tell. With a top 6 placement more than likely, anything above that will be a bonus for a team who have been together for only a matter of hours. A potential threat to the top teams and will no doubt be a test of any line up's team work.

Choke Team: pMp

For many this will be a surprise decision, but after some discussion we felt that the European line up of pMp will either completely sink or swim this weekend. The team is not short of talent or character and boasts some of the biggest names from various mainland countries. Despite pMp's start to LAN life being somewhat successful, the organisation surprised the scene by dropping most of the line up following rumours that the players were not following the organisation's acceptable code of conduct at EGL5. The organisation did decide to stand by pow3r, and joining him is the French duo of Krnage and Maxxie, and Dutchman DareDevil.

Despite the team boasting numerous accolades from Call of Duty titles past and present, the mix of nationalities could be a real stumbling block and without solid preparation, this team might struggle to find their feet at iSeries this weekend. For this line up, anything outside the top 4 this weekend will be a huge disappointment. Hopefully I will be proven wrong.

You can follow and all the teams competing at i45 here on Decerto. You can find all our coverage over the weekend on the following link:

i45 Coverage Thread

The way the teams progress from the groups will make it very interesting.

http://iseries.multiplay.co.uk/i45/tournaments/event/modern-warfare-3-xbox/

Go there and click teams.