ESL has drawn the two groups for the first group stage for the upcoming Extreme Masters II finals at CeBIT.

Ten teams to be divided into two groups, seems like a pretty simple task. With ten teams having a caliber this high, there’s almost no chance to end up in an “easy” group. The teams in each group will play a total of four matches. When all teams has played one another, top placed team in each group will advance to the playoff brackets, while teams finishing second and third will play a relegation match to determine who advance as the last team from the group.

Groups for Extreme Masters II finals

Group A	Group B
mibr mousesports Spirit of Amiga fnatic roccat	e-STRO SK Gaming Excello Team Alternate Virtus.pro

As said before, both groups consist of ten teams with really high caliber. No weak group here, but Group A looks very interesting. fnaticand Spirit of Amigaonce again ended up in the same group. They played in same group during the regular group stage. fnaticdid beat Spirit of Amiga, but came second in the group when losing to Virtus.pro. mibrdrops into this group being one out of the two best placed non-European teams at Extreme Masters in LA. mousesports joins them with ending first in their group, latest beating mTw.Internationalat Intel Fight Night Game in Cologne. roccathad to play a relegation match versus atLanteam, in order to qualify for the finals. They did win and the team can along with fnaticwarm up for the Extreme Masters II finals, when playing the NGL One Season 4 finalsthis weekend in Berlin.

Group B consist of teams with a high standard too. e-STRO, to some troublemakers at WCG 2007 in Seattle, drop in as being one of two best placed non-European teams at Extreme Masters in LA. SK Gaminghas been on a long break since they finished second at DreamHack Winter. They did however finish first in their group, and should not be underestimated. Excello, the team having ups and downs, to many shocked when finishing first in the group with Alternate. They will once again be playing against Alternateas the German squad also ended up in Group B. Last participant in Group B, comes from Russia. Virtus.prohad to play a relegation match against mTw.Internationalto determine who would make it to the finals. The Russian's shocked many with their play and actually beat the WCG silver medalists from Denmark.

Look forward to the Extreme Masters II finals from CeBIT 6-9th of March from Hanover, Germany. HLTV.org will be bringing you all the action from the event.