WCG 2008 Grand Finals : Team Malaysia Faces Their Biggest Challenge Yet

October 20, 2008 by Chapree

Only 2 weeks to go before the global finale of World Cyber Games 2008 take place at the city of Cologne, Germany. To refresh your memory, below are the list of players and officials that are going to represent Malaysia at the glorious event, after going through the national finals last August.

C&C3: Amir “Vic Viper” Azlan
CS1.6: Team LZ.ucpro
FIFA’08: Chew “[W|nDs]Vin” Hoe Sheng
NFS ProStreet: Leow “M1-Heaven” Tian Ting
Starcraft: James “M1-JohnRambo” Foo
Warcraft 3: Yap “CT^XreV-Serry” Teng Lian

Referees: Douglas “Auricom” Chin and Ronald Vong (Counter-Strike)

We did a small analysis on Team Malaysia groupings for each of the official games, which available after the jump. Meanwhile, don’t forgot to cheer for Team Malaysia at WCG Official Website and our forums!

[grouping and forum thread - credit to wiLL*lianG]

World Cyber Games Official Website
WCG 2008 Grand Finals @ Lowyat.NET Forums

C&C 3: Kane’s Wrath

Team Malaysia C&C player: (C) Amir “Vic Viper” Azlan

Both WCG 2007 Grand Finals Command & Conquer Gold Medalist and Silver Medalist are together in Vic Viper’s group - Shaun “dignitas/Apollo” Clark of UK and Germany’s Leon “aX.Xeon” Machens. Not to forget, the only player that managed to defeat Apollo during group stage (and the whole tournament actually) - David “MMC.e-bug|KhuFu” Lathrop of USA. It’s indeed a tough grouping.

Interestingly, both Apollo and KhuFu were also in the same group as Malaysia during WCG 2007 Grand Finals. Since we will be represented by different player this time around, let’s see whether we will be able to produce better results.

C&C 3:KW Full Draw

Counter-Strike 1.6

Team LZ members: (L-R) gavin, StaiN, syck, hix and nitroN

Team LZ.ucpro biggest concern during group stage would probably be Team ROCCAT (now known as GamePlay.TV) of Finland. Apart from that, qualifying to the next stage should be a breeze for the Malaysian top CS team.

That being said, LZ shouldn’t let their guards down easily regardless of Taiwanese, Macedonian and Pakistanis team anonymity. Unnecessary lost will lead to unnecessary disappointment.

CS1.6 Full Draw

FIFA 2008

Team Malaysia FIFA’08 player: (C) Chew “[W|nDs]Vin” Hoe Sheng

As per Team LZ, [W|nDs]Vin should feel rather relaxed at group stage. At least, technically. The greatest threat in [W|nDs]Vin’s group should be the representative from India. But then, since WCG India will only be concluded this week, it is unknown who will represent the country.

My personal prediction is that India would be represented by the same player at WCG Asian Championship recently - Reuben “H2k^Bbreak17” Pereira. If that’s the case, then Vin’s teammate - [W|nDs]Si_Jali most probably have tons of secret that he can share with Vin, to maximize his chances of topping the group at Cologne.

FIFA2008 Full Draw

Need for Speed : ProStreet

Team Malaysia NFSPS player: (C) Leow “M1-Heaven” Tian Ting

M1-Heaven’s main opponent would be Valery “USSRxProStreet” Nikolaev of (you guessed it) Russia. Nikolaev maybe not a familiar name internationally, but coming from the established USSR Team stable, the Russian representative is expected to top the group unless our guy can do otherwise.

The rest of the field looked easy for Heaven. A caution to Carlos “NeMeSiS” Negron of USA maybe. NeMeSiS managed to overcame long time USA rep and his training partner - Kamran “omegaelite” Siddiqui to be in this year’s Team USA, so he must be packing something special.

NFSPS Full Draw

Starcraft

Team Malaysia Starcraft player: (C) James “M1-JohnRambo” Foo

M1-John Rambo’s group campaign is tougher this year but totally doable. Having a South Korean in the group is considered by many as a pain in the ass but knowing James, he most probably welcome the challenge from Park “KTF_Luxury” Chan Soo.

Other players that we predicted will provide challenge to James are Yin “JnSx.Lovett” Liu of China and Sergey “RoX.Pomi” Rodionov.

Last year at Seattle, James managed to went through group stage, only to be stopped at Round of 16 by the eventual bronze medalist, Christoph “ToT)Mondragon(” Semke. We hope John will be able to pack more punch this time around and go further at Cologne.

SC Full Draw

Warcraft 3

Team Malaysia Warcraft player: (L) Yap “CT^XreV-Serry” Teng Lian

Our Warcraft guy CT^XreV-Serry is going to have a hell of an adventure at Cologne. We hope that he will be well prepared though, to face some of the biggest names in Warcraft 3 that were drawn together into his group.

Two of them are the WCG 2004, SEC 2005 and ESWC 2005 Gold Medalist, Manuel “MYM|Grubby” Schenkhuizen of Netherlands and 2008 KODE5 Global Finals champion, Xuwen “WE.Pepsi.Infi” Wang representing China. Serry is indeed battling against all odds, but to get through this group is already an astonishing achievement itself. All in all, it ain’t that bad.

WC3 Full Draw

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That’s all for our WCG 2008 group stage analysis. This year proved to be the toughest group stage for Team Malaysia. All our representative will have to face at least one big names from their respective games. Truth to be told, the analysis are indeed pretty scary but hey, anything is possible.

We wish all the best to our Malaysian players at Cologne. Malaysia Boleh!

Posted in Events, International eSports, Local eSports, PC, WCG Malaysia, World Cyber Games