It’s been roughly four months since the completion of the first NERV LAN in March 2008 and the announcement of this second event in June, but it definitely feels longer. In that four month period, we’ve seen the completion of the first CEVO season, TGL Inaugural Tournament, CAL season and, more recently, the first FGL season. Needless to say, the scene has changed quite a bit from four months ago, ranging in everything from the teams and their players to the rules now used in competitive match play. Unlike the first NERV LAN, this second event will feature an eight group stage format with the top two teams from each group advancing to a double elimination bracket. Furthermore, this second NERV LAN will use the TGL ruleset, which mirrors the most recognized European ruleset. With the format and rules in place, the teams gear up for what many predict to be one of the most exciting CoD LAN events in North America.


Top Teams

Pandemic

Despite the many roster changes, new teams emerging, old teams dying, and ruleset changes; Pandemic has remained unwavering. After winning the Xfire First Strike tournament within the first few months of CoD4’s release, Pandemic established themselves as the team to beat in North America, a reputation that still stands today. Sporting more championships than any other CoD4 team, (Xfire First Strike, TGL Last Stand, FGL Season 1) as well as an impressive 55-8 win-loss record throughout their CoD4 competitions, Pandemic has earned the right to receive the first seed coming into this second NERV LAN. With a roster full of decorated, talented, and experienced players, Pandemic is heavy favorites to win the event with many viewing their only competition coming from Evil Geniuses. One thing is certain however, if Pandemic doesn’t make it to the grand finals, there will be a lot of unhappy people, especially the player’s themselves as they look to knock EG off their temporary #1 spot on the GotFrag NA CoD4 rankings.

Evil Geniuses

The currently ranked #1 team on GotFrag’s NA top ten list received the second seed coming into this second NERV LAN after, funny enough, taking second at the first NERV event. After winning the first season of CEVO-Professional, EG has remained relatively quiet in the scene after the addition of Adam “deny” Phan. In the past few weeks, EG has managed to go undefeated in the CEVO OCZ offseason Tournament, advancing the grand finals bracket, as well as sporting an impressive 5-1 record in TGL-Professional holding up #2 in the standings behind Pandemic. Like Pandemic, EG are favorites to win this event and many even predict the grand finals match to be nothing less than a matchup between these two teams. EG would welcome such a match as the last time the two met, Pandemic came out on top with a 14-10 victory on mp_crash. Unfortunately for those waiting to see such a match, these two teams shouldn’t be meeting each other till very late in the double elimination bracket, which means EG can continue to hang onto their #1 spot atop the GotFrag rankings.

MoB Gaming

When MoB Gaming first entered the CoD4 PC competitive scene there was a lot of drama over different roster issues, their ability to compete at the highest level of competition in North America, as well as the general notion that the Godfather really didn’t know what he was doing getting into the CoD4 scene. four months later I think it’s safe to say he knew exactly what he was doing. Despite all the negative media and comments, MoB gaming has become that top competitor Godfather knew they could be. Boasting a roster full of talented, and more important, experienced players, MoB has been tearing through the competition in TGL and CEVO’s OCZ Tournament. With only a handful of losses to the likes of Pandemic and EG, MoB has positioned themselves in an excellent position for an upset at NERV. Unfortunately, a lot of that will depend on what maps MoB will be playing. During TGL-Pro week 4, MoB was able to stand toe to toe against Pandemic on mp_vacant, only losing by an extremely narrow 11-13 margin. If MoB is able to get in the necessary practice, stay consistent throughout the group stage play, work their way far through the upper bracket, and, of course, have the extremely eccentric support of Godfather literally behind them, it would be no great stretch of the imagination seeing them in the grand finals.

x3o Gaming

The former PowerHouse Gaming team is another group that has been performing extremely well as of late. For the longest time, Rob “grim” Koster has kept his team at the top level of competition, but never really performing outstandingly or poorly. Following their sponsorship from x3o, it seems like we’re looking at a completely different team. Before, we would see this team occationally struggle against mediocre teams, however, now we see a team that can stand next to the likes of Pandemic and EG and narrowly lose 11-13. Truthfully, however, this is exactly where they should have been for a while now. With a roster consisting of players such as CPL CoD1 champion Russell "insight" Kuperberg, and CoD2 star Alex "flak" Lasselle, x3o has the right amount of skill combined with a total amount of LAN experience that rivals Pandemic and EG to truly be a top competitor. Like MoB, a lot of x3o’s success will depend on how well they prepared and how well they stay focused during the event. Due to last minute teams dropping out of the event, the match schedule has been adjusted, meaning x3o will be playing all their group stage matches on Friday evening. Hopefully, x3o is able to keep their game intact during the long wait to perform up to expectations in the bracket play, and just maybe, we might see a little upset.


Storylines

Pandemic vs. EG for Grand Finals? - Despite the possibility of upsets, many people seem pretty convinced that we will be seeing another Pandemic/EG matchup for the grand finals at NERV. Since the doctors first joined EG there has always existed a rivalry among these two camps that is both respectful as friends and gamers, as well as fierce as opponents they want to beat at all costs. Although EG holds court over Pandemic, we can be rest assured that if indeed these two teams will be battling it out in the grand finals it will be a very exciting match.

Bubble teams to upset - Besides the likes of MoB and x3o there are plenty of other teams that could potentially turn quite a number of heads in Allentown, even in the group stage matches. CEVO-A competitors Dynamo and Dynamic as well as MoBdeep have been proving in recent weeks they are indeed ready to play with the big boys of CEVO-Pro this season and NERV will be another step in gaining that recognition.

Battle of the pugs - Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) there are a number of players who could not get their whole team to NERV and instead decided to put together a pug team. While these pug teams will most likely be no match for the more established teams in attendance it will definitely be interesting to see who advances out of the group stage and how it affects the brackets.

Sexy Time? Not so much… - When this NERV LAN #2 was first announced four months ago after the completion of the first event it was billed as this massive event featuring at minimum 32 teams with a possible 48 in total attendance and boasting a huge prize pot. Now, only days from the start of the event with registration already lower than expected, more teams have pulled out. This has brought the total team count to 27. Whether or not this is due to bad timing with vacations, summer jobs or other obligations is hard to say, but one thing is for certain, there is definitely a hint of disappointment coming into this event.

Huge LAN in fall (October?) - According to the little birdies that have been flying around the community there have been talks concerning a major CoD4 LAN with considerable corporate funding this coming fall that will be run by the NERV staff. It’s hard to tell how accurate these rumors are or whether the talks are still even going on, but after the extremely poor turnout at this event who knows what will happen.


Hot or Not

Dorny Park down the street
The weather
The number of top NA competitors participating
E-REV broadcasters “anger” and “wantsome” in attendance shoutcasting

Total number of teams in attendance
Prize purse compared to expected prize purse 4 months ago
How crowded the area will be with Dorny Park down the street
Still holding LANs in the middle of nowhere PA



Predictions

Straight from the experts who troll the CAL forums, we bring you predictions for NERV LAN #2:

Joe "sloVENE" Medja:
1st – Team EG
2nd – Pandemic
3rd – MoB Gaming

Mike "jtf2eh" Empey:
1st – Team EG
2nd – Pandemic
3rd – MoB Gaming

Davy “davy” Sysmans:
1st – Team EG
2nd – Pandemic
3rd – MoB Gaming

Mitchell “lynx” Burton:
1st – Pandemic
2nd – Team EG
3rd – Dynamo Gaming

Jaun “cheech” Rico:
1st – Pandemic
2nd – Team EG
3rd – Dynamo Gaming/MoB Gaming