In a Subway restaurant near the CGS Player's Village, OptX captain Stermy^ made the bold prediction that the San Francisco OptX would defeat Dallas, and even better, go all the way to win the CGS World Finals. So far he's 1 for 1, as Vanessa put the Phoenix questions to rest, if for the moment, and OptX.css stepped it up against the 2008 CSS World Champs, to beat the Venom 23-19 and move on to the Semi-finals. Now they face the #2 team in the EU/UK Region, the Berlin Allianz, who cruised to a big 26-14 win over Pan-Asian Champions the Syndey Underground a week before. Berlin features one of the fastest Forza duos the CGS has ever seen in YggdrasiL and FinPro, as well as dominant international FIFA star Manyna. If San Francisco wins, they'll be the first Wild Card team in CGS history to make it all the way to the World Final match. Can they do it, or will Berlin ensure at least one international presence? Let's find out!

Dead or Alive 4 Male:

Chris "NinjaCW" Harris vs. Rudolf "The Tactical" Fischer

This will be the first time these two will face each other in CGS league play. The_Tactical is coming off a crushing 5-0 shutout of Sydney's Bezerk! When the two teams played, while NinjaCW is licking his wounds after another epic match against Venom's Master, a 5-3 loss. Expect a similar character matchup for Ninja, as Gen Fu will be taking on Ryu Hayabusa. The European scene for Dead or Alive isn't as robust as it is in North America, and NinjaCW is a dutiful student of the game. The_Tactical is good, don't be mistaken, but he's no Master:

NinjaCW > The Tactical 5-2

Dead or Alive 4 Female:

Vanessa Arteaga vs. Livia "Liefje" Teernstra

Our second DoA match features the 2-time CGS Individual World Champion Vanessa taking on second-year Berliner Liefje. Liefje is 1-1 in her last two matches, suffering a 5-3 loss to Salvo's Sarah Lou, but bouncing back big against Sydney's Eileen with a 5-1 win in a Kokoro mirror match. This time around, however, she'll be facing Vanessa's mainstay Hitomi, and a 27-2 career record doesn't lie. Look for Vanessa to come out fast and hard and beat Liefje down:

Vanessa > Liefje 5-2

FIFA 08:

Allessandro "stermy^" Avallone vs. Rostyslav "Manyna" Nedoviz

In FIFA, OptX captain stermy^ takes on the frightening Manyna, who still holds the CGS world record for biggest point differential in FIFA, a 9-goal margin over his brother Chud1k, formerly of Stockholm. He's considered one of the best FIFA players for a reason, and he'll be a big hill for stermy^ to climb. Stermy^ has improved by leaps and bounds over the other North American returnees, including Core's Anomaly, who went a perfect 4-0 for Chicago during last year's World Final. A 1-goal margin is stermy^'s target if he cannot defeat Manyna, to keep the game as close as possible for some of the other big point getters:

Manyna > stermy^ 2-1

CSS:

OptX.css vs. Allianz.css

CSS, once again, could be the game that decides the franchise matchup. Both teams are hard to figure, however. On the one hand, you have the San Francisco OptX, finally beginning to gel as a fivesome after their epic 11-7 victory over the CSS World Champion Dallas Venom. It's still basically a crapshoot as to which team will show up however. On the other hand, the Berlin team has had a couple of tough losses themselves in recent memory. The first was a 12-6 loss to EU Champion Birmingham, and then came a 10-9 overtime loss to the Sydney Underground when they had the franchise match in the bag. The map will be Inferno, so it could be an easy bet that whoever gets the Counter-Terrorist side first would be the team to win the game. With these two squads, though, the mentality of “any given Sunday” cannot be dismissed:

OptX.css > Allianz.css 10-8

Forza 2: Kevin “SACKAMONJARO” Uribe/Chad “Miximup” Neil vs. Euro “FinPro” Kuronen/Phillippe “YggdrasiL” Vaillant

Berlin fans are licking their chops at the prospect of this matchup. Last season, Yggdrasil and FinPro were considered two of the fastest racers in the World Final, akin to Ch0mpr and Jason-X in North America. Though the game has changed, the reputation and results have not. The Berlin duo is still a team to be feared. The OptX racers have been good, and Miximup was chosen as a West All-Star in Forza (though not without a lot of selflessness by Sack). This will be a great chance to see if the teamwork that San Francisco has gained can overcome the speed of Berlin:

YggdrasiL/FinPro > SACKAMONJARO/Miximup 4-3

And the winner is!

San Francisco makes it to the World Final match with a 24-18 victory over Berlin. Stay tuned to #optx on the Gamesurge IRC network, as well as the official San Francisco Optx site, and the Optx groups on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, the Steam Community, and Youtube, for the latest in Optx news, features, and scores! And be sure to watch LIVE on DirecTV channel 101 on Monday July 21st, as San Francisco takes on the Berlin Allianz in the CGS World Semifinals! Happy fragging, and GO OPTX!!!