After a brief vacation we're back with some playoff predictions for y'all. The first round will be played on gullywash, which made for some exciting matches during the regular season. Due to tf.tv being down, this article is a little late coming out so bear with us.

Chill to Good Ratio vs Rent-a-Homies
by Sakura

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

• Caspian
• Serv0
• fuuzi0n
• Nomadic
• John Milter
• Goku

The playoffs start off with a quick rematch of Chill to Good vs. Rent-a-Homies with the season ending with 4-2 victory for Chill to Good. To answer Chill to Good's eternal quick fix, Rent-a-Homies switched to kritzkrieg and relied on Nomadic to nullify the tripled healing rate. However, if that is their only answer, Rent-a-Homies will have a lot more trouble on Gullywash than they did on Viaduct. Chill to Good so far have been the most successful team in IM with the quick fix. It's a frightening image to see a flying Dun and Deltafox coming towards you. If Rent-a-Homies want to beat Chill to Good, they will need to solidify their combo work and ensure they do what they can to keep Caspian alive. Mangachu has been doing a good job exploiting sloppy pushes and getting behind to give his team key picks. If Rent-a-Homies cannot find an answer to Mangachu early on, I can see frustration start to kick in for our underdogs midway during the match. At the same team, Nomadic should provide his team a lot of damage to work off. While Gullywash is usually a combo map, the players to watch I think will be Rent-a-Homies' scouts, John Milter and goku. If they can play the clean-up game well and not overextend, it will be a close game between these two teams. If not, then Chill to Good will overwhelm them with constant aggression from quick fix and direct rockets. 5-2 in favor of Chill to Good.
Players to watch: Dun, Mangachu, Nomadic, John Milter

Dragonball Jav vs Sals Canal
by Sakura

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

• Sparrow
• SS
• Slipz
• Phrakture
• zZa
• Sal

At the beginning of the season, this definitely would've been the match of the week. However, sals canal has been dealing with roster issues all throughout the season. During gpit week, SS and Phrakture were constantly switching roles and sals canal had to play without the one and only Sal for a month. On the other hand, Dragonball Jav have been improving by scrimming consistently with their full roster. The flank of Dragonball Jav has become one of the most devastating in IM, with nja never missing and my counterpart Sakura playing a smart roamer that's able to get a lot of damage in for his team. If Dragonball Jav's scouts do not dominate this game, then it will be the combo pushes that determine who wins. A huge part of this game will be up to SS to keep Sparrow alive and to get picks with their uber advantages. While sals canal usually plays a passive leapfrogging style, sometimes they will make an uncharacteristically hasty decision that costs them an arm and a leg. It will be tough for sals canal to face the Tone-Pot/WirelessFox combo who have been playing extremely well these past couple of weeks. As of right now, unless sals canal gets their coordination together, it will be hard for them to beat Dragonball Jav. 5-2 in favor of Dragonball Jav.
Players to watch: nja, Tone-Pot, Sakura, SS

Fragophilia Gaming vs 6cuties
by London

• Kammy
• FanofAngels
• Sherman Gluck
• Joe
• HeepHop
• Okas

• Sakura
• R1cky
• Remedy
• Pharaoh
• Br0nze
• Snailboat

When the season began, the performance and consistency of Fragophilia was definitely in question with a lack of regular scrims and an almost constant juggle of ringers throughout the season. After a bumpy start, we really started to see these guys come out of their shell and its obvious that there is some serious talent on Fragophilia. 6Cuties are no slouches either, looking strong and consistent throughout the season and taking some big wins away from top 5 teams. The regular season saw these teams play on granary which ended up being a close 5-4 victory for Fragophilia, with FanofAngels playing in place of Madoff for that match. Tonight's match will come down to individual performances by all players, and especially Joe and Pharaoh who have both looking to be some of the best demos in IM this season. It'll be another close one, but I have to give it to 6cuties as gullywash is an extremely strong map for them with Remedy's blackbox roaming and Br0nze and Snailboat having a slight edge over HeepHop and Okas. 5-3 6cuties.
Players to watch- Br0nze, Pharaoh, Remedy, Joe, HeepHop

Knights of Grillz vs Story Time with Marxist
by London

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

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

Knights of Grillz let their guard down at the end of the season and gave up the first seed after getting molested by Fragophilia on viaduct. At the beginning of the season, the Knights took an easy 5-0 victory off of Story Time on process, but this was before the significant changes to Marxist's roster. Marxist and crew are going to come out swinging with Spadez taking over for Sblmnl, which is a complete transformation from what we have seen during the regular season. While Knights will most likely feel confident going into this match, I expect to see some great play from Chriz-tah-fah and Kermit enough to sway most of the mids in Marxist's favor. However, Paddie had two really good games on gullywash during the regular season and in some cases single handedly turned rounds over for his team. For some reason, I think Story Time is going to want this more and will pull out a win here, albeit it's going to be closer than I think a lot of people will expect. 5-4 Story Time.
Players to watch: RB, SureShot, Paddie, Chriz-tah-Fah, Kermit