1. Finland

   agron (Dignitas)  •  kyynel (cc\\)  •  paavi (Afterlife)
   bash (cc\\)  •  hymzi (Afterlife)  •  snap (-)
   Jambo  (cc\\)   •  Haza (TCM)  •  Rebeli (Dignitas)
   moose (cc\\) ©  •  Darn (Dignitas)  •  hocz (Afterlife)

After Finland had dominated the past two Nations Cups, it's not surprising that they are the top favorite for the title this year. In our survey more than one half of the team captains thought so and made the team around moose their top favorite. That resulted in 5.6 out of 6.0 points.

The power of the Finns was demonstrated in the regular Competitions, since they are the only nation that has an (almost) national top team: Crack Clan. And also the major showpiece clan, Team Dignitas, consists of 50% Finns. Dignitas' Agron, Darn and Rebeli support the far north. In the ETF2L the Finns will be be facing Netherlands and Lithuania. If the Dutchmen could spring a surprise, Finland would still have a chance to return the favor in the EuroKrieg Nations Cup: Additionally, Portugal, Latvia, Romania and Czech Republic are on the Finnish "bill of fare"! Well then, bon appétit!

2. Sweden

   lezek (jAgarna)
   ryb (Dignitas)
   bybben  (Dignitas)  •  Glufse (cc\\)  •  wltrs (coolclan)
   weqo (-) ©  •  appe (Dignitas)  •  sommie (TCM)


Last year, Sweden dashed against Finland two times, but this time the boys around the ex TCM player weqo want to do a better job and defeat their neighboring country. About a third of those polled trust in the Swedes and believe that they will succeed this year. Overall the Swedes roughly received 5,0 points.

But a duel of Finland and Sweden would have a special spice for three players: ryb, bybben and appe or simply called "ryppen" are the best players of Team Dignitas to many members of the TF2 community and this trio surely doesn't want to show any weakness while facing their Finnish team colleagues. But of course you can't define a team whilst just talking about three members, because weqo, Glufse and wltrs are top players of Sweden, too. Solely the position of the Medic could be criticized as a little weak point, although lezek has played in top teams like TLE or Excello, but he is in the upper midfield of division 2 for more than a year now. Certainly this doesn't make him a bad player, but it is undeniable that he wasn't able to gain the experience that for example the Finns agron and kynnel or the Englishman dunc have. And all these small things can be defining for the result of a competition.

3. England

   dunc (TCM) ©
   byte (vale!)  •  matji  (FB2) •  numlocked (TCM)
   arx  (rawr)  •  Fisshu (FB)  •  noam (-)  •  Oggy (idk?)  •  Shintaz (idk?)
   boomeh (vale!)  •  Evil (TCM)  •  nos (-)  •  Renegade (-)  •  Fragga (FB)


It's the first Nations Cup for the English, last year they were in the competition together with Wales and Scotland as United Kingdom and they were able to score third in both contests. By choosing dunc (TCM) as the team leader, the team has really done their homework. Because if you have seen this Medic live, you know why Mr. Wraight plays top-of-the-range TF2: Not only does he guide his team with clear commands, but also loudly motivates them every round! Everyone that took part in the TFPortal Community LAN this year knows what I mean.

England takes up the cross of both cups and will be facing the outsiders Israel, Czech Republic and Wales. In the EuroKrieg/TF2Nations.eu Cup they will only be confronted by Russia, Ireland or maybe Ukraine. Altogether, England received 3.8 points, which is a solid third place in our rating. As mentioned before, it's the same placement as in last year's Nations Cups.

4. Belgium

   Springer (vale!) ©
   Epothon (-)  •  methoD (-)
   skinnie (vale!) ©  •  Arnold (-)
   Matt (vale!)  •  ShitFly (-)


The Belgians were the surprise team of the last Nations Cup when they kicked out the Brits in the semi-finals and this way, entered the finale. That tournament could be seen as the start of a great Belgian career, since it got better and better for a Belgian team (Vale!) from that day on.

This year, there will at least be three Vale! players in the Belgian lineup. The team captain's (skinnie) Scout partner Arnold has played for the EMS winner Vale! last season, but he will now be disappearing into inactivity and left the team. By doing so, he can also bypass the three-player-rule, that the ETF2L has. The weakest point of the team could be the position of the Demoman, which will be taken by the clan-less player Epothon.

5. Germany

   flix (we hurt!)  •  rts (farm!)
   bpf (we hurt!)  •  thy (rockit!)
   aves  (TCM) ©  •  zerox (Vale!)  •  piece (idk?)
   pbL (we hurt!) ©  •  bm (we hurt!)  •  gear (r@ts)  •  nixnuz (shiFt)
   gex (farm!)

The German team: 12 players from 8 teams. A big part of them are former Clan00 players. Among them is team leader pbL, which had been a part of the previous national team, too. They will also be able to make good use of the international experience that the co-leader aves (TCM) and his Scout partner zerox have. But let's talk about the opposing teams now.

In the Nations Cup of the ETF2L Germany will be in one group with Italy, Scotland and Ukraine. This indeed is an easy group to at least reach place two. In contrast, the EuroKrieg's Nations Cup will be harder for them. There, Germany will be facing the teams from Belgium, France, Spain, Norway and Turkey. In 2008, they were knocked out early, which quite justifies the rather low number of 1.9 points.



* We asked the captains of all 30 teams participating in the ETF2L Nations Cup for their Top5 teams.

When we got the results, we gave every team 6 points for a mention at place one, 5 points for a mention at place two and so on. Teams that were not mentioned got one point per team captain. Afterwards we divided the points by the number of the team captains, which is 30, to get an average number.

That means: A team could get a maximum of 6 points and a minimum of 1 point.

Other teams that were mentioned more than once:

Russia 1.41Points
Israel 1.14 Points
Norway 1.07 Points