A total of 8 teams have made the trip to Cologne, coming from 2 different continents and with players coming from up to 12 different countries. The 8 teams participating in this event will be; Team Alternate, Fnatic, CLG.eu, Millenium, ex-mouz, CJ Entus, SKTT1 and our very own Polish team. Below we give you an insight to each of the teams competing at the event:

SKTT1 (SK Telecom Team 1):

Just yesterday, the famous South Korean organization SK Telecom Team 1, announced that they would be adding a League of Legends team to their ranks for the first time in 8 years of existence. The roster, previously known as ESG (Eat Sleep Game), features the man many consider as the best top-laner in the world, Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu. The team as a whole has never won anything big, mainly due to the rather short history of the team, but, Reapered himself has had a fair bit of success in the past, having played for MiG.Blaze, which then was renamed to Azubu.Blaze.

During his time in MiG.Blaze and Azubu.Blaze, Reapered managed to win the gold at Azubu the Champions Spring 2012, as well as at MLG Summer Championship 2012. Furthermore, he secure a silver medal at the Season 2 Regional Finals Seoul, and a Bronze medal at Azubu the Champions Summer 2012.

 Whether SKTT1 can raise to the top or not at IEM Cologne, will vastly depend on the performance of Reapered in the top lane. The lack of international LAN experience from his teammates, as well as the pressure of playing for such a legendary organization, could both very well end up playing against Bok and his team.

CJ Entus:

Just like SKTT1, the CJ Entus name holds a fair bit of history for the esports fans, and specifically, the Starcraft:Broodwar fans. The team dates back to 2001 when it first saw the light as a professional gaming team, and has since then housed some of the finest talents South Korea has had to offer in terms of Starcraft:Broodwar. CJ Entus is one of the 3 KeSPA teams who currently houses a League of Legends team, alongside both SKTT1 and KT Rolster.

The main core of the team has been together since late May of this year, but have yet to win any major tournament. Under the CJ Entus banner, the team achieved a disappointing 9-16th position in the Summer edition of Azubu the Champions, as well as a 5-8th finish at the Season 2 Seoul Regionals.

It is hard to predict whether the team will be able to achieve a good result at IEM Cologne or not, but, considering that the European elite will be present at the event, it doesn't seem all that plausible for them to get any shocking results at this event. Nonetheless, they may end up surprising a lot of us with their performance.

Team Alternate:

The current Team ALTERNATE roster consists of a mixture of high ELO players, including the ELO king, Carl "ForellenLord" Lückmann, who on September managed to surpass the 3000 ELO mark during Season 2, something nobody has ever achieved before. He also remained as the highest rated player in the EU West 5v5 Solo queue ladder for the majority of Season 2, something pretty impressive.

Before joining Team ALTERNATE on September of this year, the team was known as ELOBLADE. Back then, a lot of people expected great things fromt he team, but unfortunately, and even though they have had some good showing, the team has not been able to meet the fan expectations.

During their time at Alternate, the team managed to win a bronze medal at the recently held THOR Open, where they managed to beat Mousesports 2.1 in the consolation final. After joining ALTERNATE, the team has remained more or less stable, having only changed their support player during the time.

Even though Team ALTERNATE has not lived up to the expectations of some, they will surely be a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately for them, competitive play is not like solo queue, meaning they will have to perform better as a team if they want to reach something memorable at IEM Cologne. Only time will tell if they will be able to silence those who have been criticizing them in the past weeks.

Fnatic.RC:

Talking about Fnatic is talking about one of the most recognized and most respected names in the world of esports. In League of Legends, they are known for their triumph at the Season 1 World Championship finals, held in Jonloping, Sweden, and where they managed to beat aAa to secure $50,000 and the gold medal. After winning Season 1, the team also secured a 3rd place finish at the last IEM Cologne, as well as a 1st place finish at IEM New York.

Unfortunately for Fnatic, they went through a performance crisis after winning the IEM New York, a crisis that lasted for quite some time, and which they just now seem to be getting over with. During that time, Fnatic underwent a lot of roster changes, including the release of long standing members; Peter "Mellisan" Meisrimel and Maciej "Shushei" Ratuszniak, as well as the retirement of another long standing member in the shape of Manuel "LamiaZealot" Mildenberger, who decided to move to Taiwan.

The only members still standing from the Season 1 winning team are Finnish jungler Lauri "CyanideFI" Happonen and Spanish AP mid player Enrique "xPeke" Cedeño. Ironically, one of their rivals in the Season 1 finals, Paul "sOAZ" Boyer, who played for French organization aAa back then, currently occupies the role of top laner within the team. Completing the roster are the German support; Christoph "nRated" Seitz and the temporary Swedish AD carry; Martin "Rekkles" Larsson. Martin has given a breath of fresh air to the bot lane of the team, but, due to North American child labor laws, he will be unable to participate in the event seeing as he is only 16 years old.

Coming into this event, Fnatic seems to have regained its status as a team to be feared, having just recently taken a respectable 2nd place finish at IGN Pro League 5 held in Las Vega, where they fell shorts to Team WE in the final. As if that was not enough to fear them, they also secured 2 gold medals in recent times, one at Dreamhack Winter 2012, and another one at THOR Open 2012.

With their last batch of performances, one can only assume that Fnatic will be up there competing to take home the gold at IEM Cologne.

MYM (Meet Your Makers):

Next up is our very own Polish team, which is considered as one of the underdogs of the tournament by many. Other, though, realize the big potential our team has to do something serious at the event.

This team has been with us since March of this year, having joined us after we released our old Spanish lineup. Before joining us, and while playing for Gameburg, the team managed to win a silver medal at World Cyber Games 2011.

After joining us, the team has made a great deal of progress in their play style, which many compare to that of Asian teams, with a more aggressive mindset. During their time with us, the team has competed at ECC Poland, where they didn't manage to impress taking only a 7-8th position, but managed to take a gold medal during the Singaporean stop of IEM held last month, as well as a silver medal in Campus Party Europe, held in Berlin. Other than that, our team has also managed to qualify for the Season 3 EU offline qualifiers after beating all of our rivals in the EU East and Nordic qualifier held by the ESL. It must additionally be mentioned that our top laner Jakub "Kubon" Turewicz managed to win the MVP award at IEM Singapore, which surely will boost his morale coming into this event.

Coming into the tournament as underdogs, and with nothing to lose, our team will surely deliver the best game while they try to surprise the audience by achieving something big in Cologne.

Millenium:

The French organization announced their brand new League of Legends just 2 days ago, when they raided some of the players of the old Eclypsia lineup, adding some of the players that departed Curse.eu in order to create a lineup that many would agree can be at the top.

Millenium has housed a League of Legends team on and off since the summer of 2011, when they signed what then was the team of aAa. Even though Millenium housed some really good teams in the past, the new team is arguably the best they have housed in some time.

Considering that the new team is relatively new, it is nearly impossible to predict how they will do, but if personal skill is anything to go by, then they should be aiming for a top 4 finish.

CLG.eu (Counter Logic Gaming Europe):

Alongside Fnatic, they are probably the other crowd favorite to take home the gold in Cologne. They have been together for a almost a year, and have showed the world that stability is many times the key to success. A key member for the team is their mid lane player, Henrik "Froggen" Hansen. Froggen is considered by many as one of the most dominant mid players in the world, and his Anivia play is well known by the community and their rivals, who often ban her in competitive play. Also quite famous is his Lee Sin mid, which he has even played during official matches.

During this year, CLG.eu has achieved many things, including most notably a 3rd-4th place finish at the Season 2 World Finals, where they were the highest placed European team alongside Moscow 5. Other than that, they also achieved a silver medal at various important events like Dreamhack Winter 2012, Azubu The Champions Summer 2012 and European Challenger Circuit Poland, as well as a gold medal at Dreamhack Summer 2012.

During the last months, the team has been staying at the CLG house in the United States, which many say has worsened their training and preparation for this tournament. All that remains now is to see whether they can meet fan expectations, or the lack of proper training will get to perform at a lower level than they have in the past.

Ex-Mousesports:

This team, as the name indicates, is the old lineup from Mousesports. It features a lot of recognized faces like Maik "Moma" Wallus, who achieved a silver medal at the Season 1 Championship while playing for aAa. Also on the team, we can find old Fnatic player Patrick "Pheilox" Riehle or ex-SK member Filip "Dedrayon" Romejko.

The team has not had the best results lately, and that is what led Mousesports to terminate their cooperation with the team. During their time with Mousesports, the most notable achievement for the team was a 3rd place finish at Campus Party Berlin.

Not a lot is expected of the team, but much like our team, they can be considered as underdogs for this tournament. Whether they will prove the fans and Mousesports wrong by placing high in the tournament or not, will have to wait until the kick-off of IEM Cologne to be seen.

We hope with this small preview all of you will have a better insight at the teams battling it out in Cologne this weekend. Be sure to stay tuned to mymym.com as we will be bringing you full coverage live from the event