After last week's exciting matches, we're starting to see the top 8 shift a little bit. This week, we'll be welcoming Story Time with Marxist to the top 8 and bidding a fond (and hopefully temporary) farewell to Rent-a-Homies. The season is far from over, however, which means that no one is safe when it comes down to final seeding. Enjoy the read!

• Deltafox
• Dun
• Mangachu
• Cosa
• Bman
• Schnell

The match of the last week was the closest encounter of the season for Chill to Good, dropping three rounds to Knights of Grillz but eventually locking down the win. Despite rumors that Ma3la would be filling in for Mangachu this week, it is unclear at this time who will be roaming for granary week. Currently the only team without a loss in the division, they will be challenged once again this week on granary against Dragonball Jav, which we'll talk about in our match of the week section. Their second match will be against Tonights Entertainment which should be a relatively easy win for Chill to Good, mostly because I don't see KTB and Thrasher to have as much presence as Dun and Mangachu. After this week, Chill to Good will have only a few challengers left before playoffs against the remaining teams at the top of the division, and will have to work hard to retain the number one seed.

• Grillz
• SureShot
• Paddie
• Chaaz
• rb
• Dennis

Knights of Grillz had a fairly eventful metalworks last week with one loss to Chill to Good and a win over Dragonball Jav, putting them at the number two spot in IM currently. Both matches were very back and forth with rb and Dennis making some great plays throughout. This week on granary is a little less intense as they will face Tonights Entertainment and sals canal. Both teams will have strikingly different styles of play but the Knights have shown stalwart ability to adapt to their opponents in the last couple matches and should be able to come up with a few more wins. The rest of the season will be pretty breezy for Grillz and crew, and unless they completely beef a match they should hold onto the number two seed by the end of the regular season.

• WirelessFox
• Tone-Pot
• Sakura_
• Rex
• Jav
• Nja

Dragonball Jav had a pretty close 3-5 game against Knight of Grillz. However, Knight of Grillz was going into their second match of the day so it's a little surprising that Dragonball Jav didn't win. The match was a relatively quick one with 8 rounds being passed in 45 minutes. It seemed to come down to both teams overextending and ending up in team wipes. Unfortunately, Dragonball Jav was the team that overextended more. Perhaps it was an overcommitment to Tone-Pot solo ubers as they often ended up putting themselves in bad positions. Metalworks could also be a possible weak map for Dragonball Jav, as their scouts didn't make the presence that they normally do. Dragonball Jav will finally be able to play a game without a bye as they will be facing Chill to Good, which will be our match of the week, and Rent-a-Homies. Facing Dun and Mangachu on a soldier-dominant map seems like a daunting task for any team, including Dragonball Jav. They will be able to persevere if they can recognize the fights they can win and not bleed players. Despite whoever wins the match, it should be a pretty good game to look forward to.

• slipz
• SS
• Sparrow
• Phrakture
• zZa
• Sal

In the coming weeks, Sals Canal will be playing their most difficult matches of the season. Their hold on the fourth place seed is tenuous, as a loss to Rent-a-Homies or Knights of Grillz will drop them down a couple notches. Even though Knights looks like the better teams between the two, I'm excited to see how Rent-a-Homies will match up to the somewhat passive style that Sals Canal has employed throughout the season. Sals soldiers match up to serv0 and fuuzion pretty evenly, which means that most fights will come down to who has the better positioning both at mid and during transitions. The demo match up is a little more one sided, with nomadic having an edge over phrakture, who still shows some inconsistency even this late in the season. This factor more than anything else could give Rent-a-Homies what they need to get an upset victory and climb back into the power rankings. Either way, it should make for one of the better matches this week and both teams will surely want the win badly this late in the season.

• Cozen
• Cprice
• cbn
• shrt
• Kev
• Crypt

New Faith Church Gaming has had some impressive results with a dominant 5-2 over Rent-a-Homies and a close 3-5 loss against sal's canal. There were a couple of times where New Faith had sal's canal at their last with advantage but they could not penetrate the turtle defense and would end up wiping. Ultimately, New Faith lost some key mids and some of the leapfrogging wars that sal's canal loves to engage in which cost them the game in the end. As for their match against Rent-a-Homies, it simply seems that the scout combo of kev and Tony Swan (who was subbing in for crypt) was too much to handle. kev had a great performance in both games, seemingly dominating the flank and getting key picks that swung the fight in their favor. For granary week, New Faith will be facing the final form of Down to Pound, which is basically the same team except ctrlfmuffin on roamer, topshot on pocket, and dbw on medic. Down to Pound has gone through too many roster changes for me to expect them to do well on a map that requires a strong combo. The combo work of cozen and Cprice looked pretty solid on metalworks, so expect similar results in their upcoming granary match.

• Sakura
• R1cky
• Remedy
• Pharaoh
• Br0nze
• snailboat

6cuties bounced back from their 2-1 defeat on gravelpit to New Faith Church Gaming to steal a victory from Story Time with Marxist. Marxist and his compatriots gave it a great fight, with all of their new pickups doing some good work. Fortunately for the Cuties, all of these abrupt roster changes haven't really done much to stabilize the team as of yet and the match came down to a lot of grinding between points. Br0nze in particular had an amazing game, both top damaging and top fragging for his team. With only one match to play on granary this week against a somewhat sloppy Fragophilia Gaming, Sakura and the guys will most likely be looking ahead to gullywash where they will be playing Chill to Good and Down to Pound. Fragophilia will definitely put up a fight, but lack of scrimming and a solid roster will mean that 6cuties shouldn't have much of a problem taking the victory.

• Marxist
• Kermit
• Frio
• Chriz-tah-Fah
• Sezco
• Sblmnl

The roster has gone through a few changes since the beginning, the most recent one being sinner leaving due to an unfortunate car crash that renders his forearm and wrist unable to game. Despite the hardships, the team prevails on and makes a impressive pickup with kermit on pocket. The team has become something like an IM superstar team with 4 of the players having played in invite before (kermit, Chriz Tah Fah, Sezco, and spadez). However, a great team cannot be built in a day and it shows that this team still has some chemistry issues. There were times in the 6cuties match where it was clear that not everyone was on the same page in regards to ubers. Story Time with Marxist have a relatively easy schedule for being a possible playoff seed, facing mid-IM teams Playground Tactics and Cloud Nine for granary week. All they need to focus on is getting their chemistry together so they do not get upset in any of their matches.

• Bopper
• KTB
• Thrasher
• Mausy
• Dflame
• Cole

In one of the most lag-infested matches I've ever seen, Tonight's Entertainment were able to overcome Cloud Nine in a 5-3 victory. For the first half, Tonight's Entertainment was overrun by okiewaka solo ubers and Rekuso bombs. However, they were able to get it together in an incredibly laggy 2nd half and take 4 rounds back while chaos, riots, and 170 ping ensued. While it doesn't seemed like Tonight's Entertainment soldiers were outclassed, they seemed to be making questionable decisions and playing less confidently than they should. This may have something to do with the team being dependent on tanking mausy and everyone else cleaning up on damage, but for combo dependent maps such as granary and gullywash, KTB is going to start having to take some initiative in these ubers. Up to this point, Tonight's Entertainment has had one of the easiest schedules in IM and are only now starting to face some of the top seeds. Granary may be a difficult week for them since it is difficult for demos to do well at mids and the necessity for strong soldiers. If Tonight's Entertainment want to be in playoff contention (and more importantly, our  power rankings), they're going to have to start pulling some upsets that don't rely on tanking mausy.

• Deltafox
• Dun
• Mangachu
• Cosa
• bman
• Schnell

• Wirelessfox
• Tone-Pot
• Sakura_
• Rex
• Jav
• Nja

Its common knowledge that granary is a soldier dominated map. With that said, going up against two of the most dynamic soldiers in the division is no small task for Dragonball Jav. But if there are a soldier pair out there that could give Dun and Mangachu a good fight, Tone and Sakura (the other Sakura as we like to call him, not to be confused with Sakura of 6cuties) would be most people's choices. Jav and Nja will have their roles somewhat limited on a map with so many tight corridors and narrow doorways, but the same is true for bman and schnell. Cosa will continue to play a conservative game, while Rex might have trouble on a map he has had notoriously bad luck on. The battle between the two foxes on medic will all come down to positioning, as this mid is usually not very friendly to medics. Expect to see some big sniper picks from bman if Chill to Good is holding last, and hopefully some great plays from Dragonball's soldiers