Arbalet Cup Dallas: Semi-final preview

Is this EG's time to shine? Will anything less than the trophy be acceptable for Na`Vi? Do mouz begin the turnaround to becoming a top 4 team again or will H2k seize the opportunity and make a second final in the space of a month?

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Four teams remain in Dallas and when the sun makes his way below the horizon only one will be clutching the trophy created for the champions. The USA, Germany, Ukraine and Sweden are all respresented and the storylines between the teams are all different and unique enough to warrent a little setup, a little marinade for the cook-out set to begin later today if you will. Na`Vi must defeat EG again to reach yet another final in 2010 while H2k and mouz both seek their second of the year.

Semi-final #1 - IEM IV World Championship semi-final rematch
Team EG US vs. Natus Vincere

Time to prove you're ready to accept your destiny

EG roll into their second international event semi-final of 2010 in as good a form as any we've seen them in during the year. They may have run into a momentary speedbump in iDemise but other than that they've put away a mouz team on one of the German's strongest maps and dominated a Burning team in Bo3 who had been causing other teams problems.

Throw in that the Americans are at home, some of them even living in Texas, and if ever they were going to make a successful push to the final of a legitimate event it has to be now right?

The blue and yellow title winning machine rolls on

The biggest problem for EG is that the guys sitting across the other side of the stage will be the best team in the world and the best team of 2010, world champions of ESWC and IEM season IV no less. Sprinkle onto that Na`Vi's repeat record from ESWC of getting through the group stages without looking too incredible but then turning all the levels up to the maximum come the playoffs.

Na`Vi have continued to rack up highlight series as they put another classic into the history books against mTw, the second best team at the event, beating them incredibly in two overtime games with the second going into double overtime. In both of those games mTw came out with confidence and their games on and pushed the pace but both times it was Na`Vi who made all the big plays down the stretch and who came up with the heroic clutch moments which put them through. Na`Vi took mTw's best punch, withstood it and then delivered their own brutal knockout in the waning moments.

Throw in the additional factor that this is a rematch of the IEM IV World Champsionship semi-finals and this becomes quite the ticket. That match was seen as EG's chance to make the final and perhaps finally lay claim to legitimately being one of the top 3-4 teams in the world. Instead they were breezed past by a Na`Vi side who themselves were in the process of climbing the ladder and proving themselves. The Ukrainians went on to the title and all that has followed while EG has never fully recovered and must still think back to that series from time to time with a wistful sense of lost opportunity.

For Na`Vi there is no way to lose this series and not gain criticism. After they put out mTw and SK Gaming fell to H2k the tournament opened up completely for the Ukrainians. mouz may well have something to say about that in a potential final, being as they match up well against Na`Vi, but as of right now Na`Vi should win Arbalet Cup Dallas. The teams remaining have not proven themselves to be in that elite group of 3-4, with H2k knocking on the door and mouz briefly a member but dropping down earlier in the year.

For EG this match isn't just about Na`Vi it's about finally delivering on the promise their play and their fans and their inner belief has been demanding was there all along. Is this the moment when fRoD returns to a proper event final? Is this when n0thing stops being a star player in the stats and becomes one in terms of impact against an elite team? This match is about legitimacy for an EG team who badly want to be at least contend for a title, if not win one.

Whatever happens today lurppis will know that when he hangs up his mouse and takes off the EG jersey this was one of those moments where it all lay in the balance. Arbalet Cup Europe 2009 got away from them, the IEM IV World Championship got away from them and now they have to beat the best if they want to be the best at Arbalet Cup Dallas 2010.


Semi-final #2 - Battle for a second top placing in 2010
Mousesports vs. H2k Gaming

Seeing mTw and SK Gaming eliminated 5th-8th might have left the current remaining four teams looking a little less glamerous but this is a matchup with enough storylines of its own to carry weight. For mouz it's a chance to turn things around and start heading in the right direction again. For H2k it's another opportunity to snipe a top team and gain themselves more confidence and legitimacy as a top team in their own right.

What happened to our dream of a perfect German team?

mouz began 2010 with such an incredible playoff run at the IEM IV European Finals that it seemed as though the German side was set to be a permanent fixture in top 4s from there on out. As it happened they would fall one step short of that mark at the next two major tournaments, IEM IV World Championships and Arbalet Cup Europe.

For a team who have such a defined and at times effective style mouz have fallen apart in uncharacteristic fashion as of late but what better chance to turn it all around than the one which lays before them? If you had told mouz before the bracket stage began that to win the title here they'd have to beat Underestimated in the quarters, H2k in the semis and Na`Vi/EG in the final I think they'd have snapped your hand off taking the opportunity.

H2k is a side who like to play aggressively and disrupt slow terrorist setups. mouz is known for their slow grind-it-out terrorist approach, mixing in fakes and fake-fakes like few other teams can, but they are also known for being able to sit back and punish teams who push by employing a regimented system of defense which leads to their offense. mouz's base counter flanking and overaggression from the opponents well so despite the danger this hungry H2k team poses to the Germans they have to be confident going in to face them.

Throw in a little foresight and mouz have to be licking their lips at the prospect of facing either team in the final, as crazy as that may sound on the surface if it's a case of meeting the blue and yellow Eastern European monsters again. mouz know that they match up well against both sides. EG may have beaten them in the group stage but mouz know they were in that game and they also know they are the stronger Best-of-3 team. If it's Na`Vi then mouz know they beat Na`Vi in one Best-of-3 at the first IEM event and only lost by 2 rounds in the second.