Gullywash week was mostly quiet, although a few matches had some wacky results. N2P had a really rough week, demonstrating that gullywash was just not their map to win. God Complex also had a weird week, losing 5-3 to The Grime and then taking a solid win over N2P 5-0. Revenge of the Yomies also start looking good with a win over Goldman Sachs, and come metalworks week they will have a chance to prove themselves.

This week on badlands we'll be seeing a lot of good match ups across the board. At this point, some teams will need to start counting rounds to see what they'll need to produce in terms of results in order to make playoffs. The matches to watch this week will be Goldman Sachs vs The Grime, SYOPS TF2 vs Nothing 2 Prove, and the Grime vs Subspace Emissaries. Our Match of the Week will probably not have as much playoff implications as these other matches, but should be good nonetheless.

• Erika
• TicTack
• Cbn
• Block
• Newspeak
• Freestate

Rumors say that TicTack will in fact be staying with the team despite many weeks of people telling me he was going to leave, presumably because a good pocket is hard to find these days. If this is in fact the case (because nobody on this team is being very transparent as to what is going on) I don't think the team will have too much trouble for the rest of the season staying undefeated. Their gullywash week was pretty quiet with a FFW and a 5-0 over LoLBEASTMODE, and this week is only slightly more challenging. Satan Takes the Wheel and SYOPS will be their opponents this week on badlands, and despite how much Satan Takes the Wheel has improved since last season I don't think an upset is possible here. GBB and friends should take a couple rounds in the first half, but I predict the second half to be quick to end the game. It will be interesting to see if Blockback gets paired up again with a team they faced previously, but with only one week left to schedule this seems unlikely. We'll just have to wait and see if TicTack will stick around for playoffs, when Blockback will truly need him the most.

• dbw
• Tri
• Boink
• Cosa
• Kapow
• Schnell

3 Weeks down and we've yet to see Boink and crew play with their alleged starters, Nosferatu continuing to play for dbw for their only gullywash match last week. Their match against BUDSQUAD was forfeited by the buds, although it appears the team is still alive for now. Badlands week will be moderately challenging for Cisco Adlers Balls, against two teams with playoff potential. God Complex will be the stronger contender here, but Subspace have been steadily improving since their hiccups at the beginning of the season. Both teams should take away a couple rounds, but as long as their scouts and Tri play as they have the past two weeks it shouldn't turn into a super tense game. With Boink back as well, the team will look more consistent than in past matches. The rest of the season looks pretty mild, with hopefully a close game against Japanifest Destiny next week on metalworks.

• Zilly
• CJ
• Yeremy
• Saint
• scizor
• pangy

As more of a social experiment than anything, I wanted to see if putting Revenge of the Yomies in the cursed number 3 spot would cause them to beef as hard as Nothing 2 Prove last week, who entered the power rankings perhaps a bit higher than they should have been. The Yomies have had a decent season so far, just barely losing to Cisco Adler 5-4, and last week taking down Goldman Sachs 5-2 on gullywash. The player who stood out to me the most was CJ, who seemed to have more presence than his demo and roamer at times in fights. Pangy and Scizor also did a decent job during the match trying to be everywhere at once with fights splitting from choke and big door repeatedly during some transitions. This week on badlands will be a little less intense with matches against N2P and Fantazzmagazzlers, but should still be decent matches. N2P will be reeling from their gullywash week, and whether this means they will be tilted or bring renewed energy remains to be seen. The Fantazzmagazzlers are definitely taking a beating this season, but hopefully we can see them bounce back in the next couple weeks to put a couple wins in their belt. The Yomies still have a lot of challenging matches in their future, and even though I've predicted them to win this week, an upset loss only confirms that third place is cursed.

• London
• Doll
• Lunacide
• Conductor
• Kev
• zZa

JAPANIFEST DESTINY's granary was like reading out of a book; the results were exactly as you'd expect on paper, with JAPANIFEST DESTINY only dropping 1 round to the Fantazzmagazzlers. While Fueled by Eurobeat should not give too much trouble, this week will be more interesting with a match of the week against Goldman Sachs. I'm pretty excited to watch Lunacide in particular play against Goldman Sachs, because Goldman Sachs seem to get a little reckless when they're playing off the momentum. Lunacide is a roaming artist and with his creativity unleashed, his masterpiece will be MR SLIN if Goldman Sachs are not careful. It looks like the kevzza scout combo have returned to their former glory after a minor roadblock during their match against God Complex, so as long as they can keep London alive, I don't see many ways they can lose this.

• rchl
• Smile
• GBB
• Xan
• Stochast1c
• silkthread

Satan Takes the Wheel take two wins off of Subspace and Fueled by Eurobeat in two relatively uneventful matches, although the Subspace match was pretty painful to watch. The heavy classes on Satan are looking more and more like the main threats on this team, Xan and GBB are both capable of consistent damage and smile has the superb DM required of a playmaker, although I don't always see him really in that role on this team. This week they'll be up against the undefeated Blockback Mountain, and as much as I want to see a team beat Block during the regular season I'm not sure if Satan Takes the Wheel will be that team. The potential for an upset is there but pretty low, but the match should still be interesting. Their second match will be against BUDSQUAD, who haven't been super hot this season, and what should be a smooth win for Satan takes The Wheel.

• Jodd
• BlueberryVillain
• Rekuso
• JDMYoshioka
• Downpour
• River

God Complex beefed it a bit this week in their match against the Grime, ending the match 5-3 after a riveting first half. After watching this match it looks like Blueberry and the boys just might have had a bad day, with Blue getting dropped several times before pushes, Rekuso's bombs just not creating the openings they needed, and losing a couple rounds to back caps, which would put anyone on tilt. After this match, they bounced back and had a grueling 5-0 victory over N2P and it was like watching a different team. Lets hope they bring more of their latter performance this week against Cisco Adlers Balls, or they won't have much of a chance at walking away with a win. Cisco Adler is by no means untouchable, especially since they've been forced to use a lot of ringers over the course of the season, and to say this a for sure win for either team would be a stretch.

• MR SLIN
• Goldfish
• Zigzter
• Hooli
• Devon
• Jav

Slin and the boys are probably not too happy about losing to the Yomies last week, but retain their spot at the top of the bubble until the Yomies really settle where they fit into the rankings. A few more losses will put Goldman Sachs in jeopardy of missing playoffs altogether, and will need to win out against teams like the Grime and N2P if they want to secure their seed. The Grime has been looking formidable against the top 8 this season, and after their win over N2P last week, they'll be thirsty for another upset win to put themselves in the rankings. The next couple weeks do not get any easier for Goldman Sachs, but present plenty of opportunities to try to knock out one of their fellow contenders from the race for playoffs.

• Valkeri
• ClandestinePZ
• PurpleShirt
• Desca
• Reimu
• Rave

N2P hangs on to their place in the power rankings by nipple hairs as we go into badlands week. If you have been reading, you already know that N2P didn't have the best week on gullywash, so we'll leave it at that and let their rank this week speak for itself. The chance for redemption is close at hand, however with matches against the Yomies and SYOPS TF2. The Yomies will be the more challenging of the two teams to beat, but in this humble authors opinion both games could go either way. The truth is I don't know what to expect from N2P after last week, and the downward shame spiral is a bumpy ride without the momentum of a big win to lift up the team morale. My conservative opinion would be that N2P wins on of these and loses one, but if they lose both they will have a lot of ground to catch up on throughout the rest of the season.

• London
• Doll
• Lunacide
• Conductor
• Kev
• zZa

• MR SLIN
• Goldfish
• Zigzter
• Hooli
• Jav
• Devon

by Pangy (age 14)

Both of these teams are guaranteed playoff spots so it doesn’t matter who wins. If Slin’s team wants to win then they need to make sure Devon changes his attitude. If Japanifest Destiny wants to roll Slin then they need to do really good. Sorry for my grammar, English is my first language. Oh and someone wanted me to remind you all that 50 billion Jews died in the Shoah. I predict a 5-2 win for Japanifest Destiny.

Players to Watch: Goldfish, Jav, KevzZa, Doll

Thank you to Sakura for stepping in this week, and for Pangy for a very articulate and thoughtful MOTW prediction