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CAL Predictions: Season 9, Week 4.1

It’s slim pickings this week. I don’t know what happened, but when I look down at the seven scheduled matches, there are only two or three that seem vaguely exciting. This must be how Mike Rowe feels about new...

CAL Predictions: Season 9, Week 3-2

I’ve been catching up on some demos recently; I had a pretty big backlog. I try to watch matches live, but things always come up – work, playing Portal, disposing of dead bodies, that kind of thing. I even had...

CAL Predictions: Season 9 Week 1-1

I planned to write a separate entry for this introduction, but the season snuck up on me so I might as well combine it with the predictions. I’m going to make a few changes in the coverage for this season....

Predictions

The time is almost upon us when one team will stand over the smoking corpses of their fallen opponents. Their battle cries will be heard throughout the LAN(d), and their legends will rise to near-mythic proportions among their fellow gamers....

CAL Predictions: Season 9 PT, Round 3

CAL Predictions: Season 9 PT, Round 3 [Note: This introduction was written before the bracket was altered. This is the updated bracket, but I’m leaving the article intact because I think the point remains the same, even though the specific...

CAL Predictions: Season 9 PT, Round 2

No big intro today. It’s late, I’m tired, hungry, irritable, and I think my aura changed from its normal effervescent blue to a deathly shade of black about two hours ago. To top it off, I slacked off most of...

CAL Predictions: Season 9 PT, Round 1

(Post Publish Note: I completely forgot that the matches were twelve-round halves instead of fifteen. I’ll leave them published as-is, but I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Also, here’s a direct link to the PT bracket.) Before we...

CAL Playoffs: Round 1 Preds, Team Previews

Playoffs??! Don’t talk about playoffs, you kiddin’ me!? Playoffs!?! (That, along with the Allen Iverson “practice” rant, never gets old.) If practice makes perfect, and perfection is impossible, is practice impractical? Wait a minute ... we talkin' 'bout practice!? Well, we...

CAL Predictions: Week 6-2

Usually, at this point we could talk about which teams will be in the playoffs, and which are out of contention. The only problem is there’s such a backlog of games to play, I think EXTREMITY could come back from...

CAL Predictions: Week 6-1

Is it too late to predict recKoning to beat Cyber Phenom 16-14, and Mug ‘N Mouse to beat x6 by the same score? The results page says “yes”. I say, you’re only as late as you feel. And I’m feelin’ early,...

eMg Preds: Round 6, Part I

I was perusing through my IRC channel, which has swelled to ten idlers and is bursting with excitement and conversation, and I came across LooseCannon from LucK saying, “mike getting lazy on hisss preddsss =p”. My first thought was concern for...

eMg Predictions: Round 5

eMg Predictions: Round 5 This round scares me to death. There’s a decent chance for an 0-4 prediction apocalypse. I wish I could outsource these predictions to India, or at the very least hire some schlub to take the fall for me. Anybody? Anybody? ...

eMg Predictions: Round 4

Taking a quick look back, my record from the first three rounds was 70-25. Add in the 13-3 record from last week, and we’re at 83-28. For anybody that’s not a mathematical genius, that works to a winning percentage of 74.8%. We’re...

eMg Predictions: Round 3

Tonight, as I started the predictions, I was very happy. For the first time during the eMg tournament, the list of teams was less than a page long. There’s extra white stuff on Page 1 after the last matchup. This brought a joy...

eMg: Round 2

eMg Predictions: Round 2 Just for fun, I went back to see how I did for the first round of predictions. I ended up going 46-17, which was better than I expected. Math wizards will realize that adds up to 63 matches,...

eMg Predictions, Part III

The deed is finished! If you missed Part I or Part II, don't fret, I've got your back. One last note before we begin. I want to stress that you should take these predictions in the spirit in which they're...

eMg Predictions, Part II

Round Two … FIGHT! IN1HIT vs. Second Nature – Unintended consequence of the eMg tournament: you can see which players are active on any team. I’m flipping back and forth between the eMg rosters, and the regular CAL rosters for each...

eMg Predictions, Part I

LANDodger’s List of Things You’ll Need Before Reading or Writing 64 Predictions: 1) A case of your favorite non-alcoholic beverage. We want to get through this alert, not drunk. 2) A bathroom stop before attempting to conquer the mountain. Either...

CAL Predictions: Week 4-2

Notes before the predictions: EXTREMITY died since the last round of predictions, and Riot Squad isn’t scheduled due to some roster complications. They should be back on their feet soon, but the schedule is being altered so Check-Six is playing itsamassacre...

CAL Predictions: Week 4-1

CAL Predictions: Week 4-1 We’re going to have a new feature here at LANDodger: I’m going to pick one match to be predicted by the community at large. I won’t do it this week since the predictions are already published, but we’ll...

CAL Predictions: Week 3-2

As always, clerical issues first: snowmen, the team previously know as fever, is now the team previously known as snowmen. They’ve joined the Mug ‘N Mouse organization, adopting their third name this season. Somebody should host a pool for their next...

CAL Predictions: Week 3-1

A few quick notes before we get to the predictions.  Sorry about the lack of predictions for Week 2-2, things got a little busy around here with the CGS action and “real” work.  Visual Gaming disbanded, and they’ve been...

CAL Predictions: Week 2-1

A few quick notes before we get to the predictions. A few teams are at the CGS combine, which means if you’re interested in watching their matches, they won’t be happening tomorrow. The teams are: Devastation, Hyper, LucK, PK, and Check-Six. PK...

CAL Predictions: Week 1-2

What’s up with only five matches from the first date being played? I know we all have busy schedules filled by dates with supermodels, fights with Chuck & Chuck (Liddell and Norris), and tryouts for the Olympics, but aren’t CAL...

CAL Predictions: Week 1-1

Season 8 is upon us! Sorry for the late posting, I’ve been traveling the last couple days so my schedule has been a little hectic. In the future I’ll be releasing predictions the day before each round: Tuesday and Saturday. So again,...

CAL Season 8 PT Round 3

Before I get to the predictions, there are officially four more teams in CAL-Invite now. So congratulations to: Luck, Visual Gaming, The Real Untouchables, and Hyper for making the cut by winning the first two matches. I’m looking forward to seeing...

Placement Tournament Tag Team

Just a small update on CAL’s Season 8 Placement Tournament: pure.gaming dropped out after their first round loss to Nous Sommes Francophones. Instead of giving a team in the lower bracket a forfeit win, CAL decided to move Riot Squad into...

CAL Season 8 PT Preds -- Round 2

Upper Bracket It’samassacre vs. Luck – Luck lusted after a victory against eNvy, and they came into the match with a lot of wrath built up from last season’s playoff loss. They were playing for pride, and they didn’t let sloth...

CAL Season 8 PT Predictions

The first round of the CAL Season 8 Placement Tournament will start in just a couple days, and with that in mind it’s time to start the coverage. And by coverage, I mean predictions that have about a fifty-fifty chance...

CAL Placement Tournament

Everybody was so happy about the CAL placement tournament, but the honeymoon ended as soon as the actual list of teams was released. It’s not unexpected, if you invite X teams into the tournament, the X + 1 ranked team is...

Buy.com LAN Preview

What does USA basketball have to do with the Buy.com LAN Preview? Both have people trying to play two versions of the same game, with the same relative lack of success.

CEVO Predictions: Round 17

Spring Training is underway. Find out what CEVO-P team's chance of winning is similar to the Cubs.

CEVO Predictions: Round 15

Here’s something you don’t see every day: more forfeit wins than matches.   EG, Frantic, u5, coL and JMC all have forfeit wins in Round 15.  Somehow CEVO-P turned into the NFL schedule; every team only has to play once a...

CEVO Predictions: Round 12

Sorry these are so late. I know some of the matches have already been played.  I didn’t look at the scores (with one exception), so they’re still predictions … kindof.  I’ll be more prompt in the future.  I also updated...

CEVO Predictions: Round 8

Round 8 (de_nuke) Bye team:  rSports Match of the Week 3D vs. Flow – Where’s all the hate on Rector coming from?  His stats don’t look good at first glance, but they’re not that bad.  There's only three matches logged...

CEVO Predictions: Round 7

Last Week’s Predictions eX changed their name to Money in CEVO, but they’re not on the schedule any more. So there are seventeen teams in CEVO, and one team will have to sit out every round. I’ll include that team...

CEVO Predictions: Rounds 5-6

Last Week's Predictions I had two awful misses in my Round 4 predictions.  I predicted juked to edge out Forbidden 16-14, but Forbidden took the match easily by a score of 21-9.  Forbidden had roster problems but they  quickly found...

CEVO Predictions: Rounds 3-4

Welcome to the first installment of my weekly CEVO predictions!  For future reference, I’ll do predictions every Friday, two rounds at a time.  Since this is the first installment, there isn’t a recap for last week, but in future weeks...

CEVO Team Predictions

When the prominent 1.6 teams switched over to CEVO-P Source it put the league under more scrutiny than ever.  There are 18 teams right now, six of which played 1.6 last season (3D, coL, u5, JMC, rSports and EG). The...