Well, the last week of the regular season is finally here. The season ends with five less teams than it started with, and there’s still the possibility of a winless team. As for the teams that have done well, 3D, Hyper, and compLexity have clearly been the best teams. They only have four total losses (three of those being from 3D), and they all have double digit wins.
I’m not sure how CEVO plans to do their playoffs, but they take six teams in CEVO-P 1.6. If they follow the same format here, the top two seeds (Hyper and coL) would receive byes in the first round, and right now the other playoff teams are 3D, verGe, rSports and x6. The only team in danger of losing their spot is x6. They’re 7-7 with all their matches completed, but EFG is nipping at their heels with two matches left to play. I think EFG is going to sneak in, but once we know for sure I’ll run down my predictions for the playoffs. For now three of the four matches this week should be entertaining, and that’s enough for me.
CEVO Predictions: Round 17 (de_dust2)
Bye Teams: Devastation, United 5, verGe, rSports, x6
Match of the Week
3D vs. Hyper – So, 3D played verGe and rSports on Contra. They lost 10-20 to verGe (9-5), but won 26-4 against rSports (9-4). 26-4! That’s a Yankees/Royals sized pasting. (This marks the official start of the baseball references. Football is over. My fantasy baseball teams have been drafted and all the Cubs pitchers are getting hurt. It’s spring training as usual, and I look forward to another 90 loss season filled with bitter references in this blog.) 3D had some inconsistency problems early in the season, and it seems like that hasn’t changed.
Meanwhile, Hyper is the definition of consistency: they haven’t lost yet. They recently picked up Warmachine and clowN, so it’ll be interesting to see if those two guys play or if they stick with a more familiar roster. In the end it’ll be a close match but Hyper should be able to pull out a win and keep their perfect season intact – you know they don’t want that first loss.
Hyper > 3D 17-13
EG vs. coL – The most disappointing thing about coL’s season has been the lack of crazy rumors from their house. Nothing about Rambo singing K-Fed songs in the shower with fRoD taking Britney’s part in a duet. Warden hasn’t tried to eat anybody. Zet hasn’t been deported. What do we have to do to get some entertainment around here?!
EG was my early darkhorse to make some noise in the playoffs – just like the Bengals and the Falcons were going to make noise in the playoffs. My only explanation is that trying to balance 1.6 and Source hurt them. On the other hand, coL has focused solely on Source and they’ve only dropped one match all season. I think EG has enough talent to beat coL, but right now they don’t have the dedication to the Source engine to pull it off.
coL > EG 19-11
JMC vs. EFG – JMC is another team that’s balancing 1.6 and Source, and they’re right next to EG in the standings. They aren’t playing for anything except for pride at this point, even with a win they wouldn’t move up enough to sneak into the playoffs. I’m sure they’d like to be in the postseason, but I think their main goal was to get familiar with Source for CGS. If that was the case, then it’s mission accomplished.
EFG could still make the cut. They’re the seventh seed right now, but with a win they should be able to move up a spot. The fact that they’re replaying a map (Dust2 was also the Round5/6 map) hurts them a little bit because JMC will be more familiar with it, but EFG should still be able to win with a playoff berth on the line.
EFG > JMC 18-12
NoPression vs. juked – This is juked’s last chance to avoid a winless season. Their Round 16 match against EFG hasn’t been reported yet, but I don’t think they’ll pick up a win there. If that’s true, it comes down to this.
Sadly, I just don’t think they have it in them. I’m not sure if they’re active or not. They picked up remix to play for them, but he’s been trying to make a new team. Their record and previous forum posts certainly indicate a lack of practice. That being said, I do give them some props for sticking out the season. I poke fun at their record, but a lot of teams would have just forfeited and not bothered with even trying to play. So kudos to them for seeing it through. I hope they find new teams, come back better than ever next season, or enjoy their retirement from Counter-Strike.
NoPression > juked 18-12
Last Time: 0-2
Season Record: 31-13
Perfect Predictions: 5
