Both teams finished the regular season as first and second on the clan table and due to that only had to play one match in this season's Playoffs. 4K had to face the Finnish guys from DSky. By beating them clearly with 4:1 the English clan proceeded to the grand final.
There they now await the French armaTeam. The Frenchies overcame last season's champion mTw with 4:1 in some close games in the semi-finals. Lately the French clan lost their strong Nightelves soloist RushWizard but at the same time Blatty's and InToX' ban elapsed. aT's team leader Lwl comments the loss by telling us: "I don't think that the skill of aT has been really decreased by the quitting of Wizard since Shortround has been motivated by it and has never played as good as he does now. It was more a spirit hit than a level hit."

In regular season both teams encountered each other on Playday No. 2. There the armaTeam could get the upper hand over the 4Kings and won after some close games with 3:2. Lwl however is not too confident about this good omen for his team: "We lost against mTw in regular season but won during playoffs, so we won't be overconfident about this result. I think that armaTeam can beat anyone in Europe, though 4K is one of the best teams, perhaps even the best. So it will be a real hard match."

Asking Lwl about their homefield advantage he sends a warning towards the yet uncrowned 4Kings: "We'll come with billions of fans, so I think that 4K better fear to come to the French hell! ^^"
4K.Kiko does not seem to fear coming to Paris at all by telling us: "Our players already competed in many tourneys around the world and at least several ones at France, so if they have a nice trip and a good night sleep before the games I don't think aT will have any advantage."

Asking the teams about the other one's weaknesses we got some interesting answers. "I think that the only weakness of 4K is their third 1vs1 and I don't know if we can call a level 40 player a weakness... Their second 2vs2 could be a weakness too, but Grubby and Myth worked a lot lately so I think that with a nice training, they are well prepared in all fields." said Lwl, presuming a score of "3-2......... for aT".
4K.Fury sees no weaknesses in their teams. Instead he tells us that "aT is a strong team overall but I don't think that they have their main strength in teams" and predicts a "3-2 for 4K".
Kiko finally summarizes the matchup as following: "Our strengths are surely some of the most consistent 1vs1 players currently in Europe as well as both 2vs2 teams that will really be ready for the finals. Considering at weaknesses it might be their 2vs2 teams although I can't say that for sure. In my opinion 4K should win 4:1. However its just a series of 3 games for each matchup so a surprise is also possible."

So let's look forward to a great show and a lot of close games full of tension accompanied by one of the best coverages you could imagine. See you in Paris!


* The 'Intel Pentium 4 Final Challenge' will take place in Paris during March 27th/28th. On Saturday the 27th the players of aT and 4K will face public challengers in several showmatches. The WC3L final is scheduled on Sunday the 28th.