We wave goodbye to Story Time with Marxist and Fragophilia Gaming this round as we move into granary. The #1 and #2 seeds are facing off in the upper bracket this time around with some other hopefully close matches going on down below. Good luck to everyone involved and enjoy the article.

Chill to good ratio (#1) vs Knights of Grillz (#2)

• Deltafox
• Dun
• Mangachu
• cosa
• bman
• Schnell

• Grillz
• Sureshot
• Paddie
• Chaaz
• rb
• Dennis

It's probably to be expected that the top two seeds face each other in the upper bracket finals. However, I'm not convinced that Knights of Grillz can win it all right now. In their gullywash match, Story Time with Marxist seemed more like an invite pug team, and Dragonball Jav came off as being surprisingly weak at metalworks. They will meet their biggest challenge against Chill to Good Ratio, who have had dominant games against Rent-a-Homies and 6cuties. Even in unfriendly scout maps such as granary, bman has been playing extremely well - plus forwarding into anything that's still moving and quickly turning 200 HP into 0. Mangachu has also been playing well, and even though granary is a map that everyone has played a million times by now, he will have a few tricks up his sleeve to catch Knights of Grillz completely off-guard. Knights of Grillz have also been playing well recently. Chaaz has been creating plays with unexpected kill sprees and becoming a superhero as he flies into the enemy team with his sticky launcher. Paddie played extremely well in their metalworks match, abusing the endless skybox with impressive jumps and often catching the enemy medic. His DM is a bit inconsistent though, so it's something he'll have to keep in mind going against a well-prepared Dun. This past week, Chill to Good has shown that they're capable of shutting down any team and on a soldier-friendly map such as granary, I don't think they'll let this win slip away. 5-2 in favor of Chill to Good.

Players to watch: bman, Mangachu, chaaz, Paddie

Dragonball Jav (#6) vs Rent-a-Homies (#8)

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

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

I'm unsure whether it's fate or just weird coincidence, but a lot of playoff teams are facing each other on repeat maps. The last time Dragonball Jav and Rent-a-Homies played on granary, it ended up in a close 3-5 win for Dragonball Jav. In fact, the score was tied at 3-3 before fuuzi0n abruptly disconnected, forcing the homies to play a rough 5-6 for the rest of the game. Dragonball Jav's game against Knights of Grillz went somewhat how I predicted (besides getting the prediction wrong), with Dragonball Jav seemingly befuddled on how to push beyond mid. It might be not playing with their starting scout that hurts their pushes, with hibachi substituting for Jav. Rather, it seems to be a team issue. In contrast, Rent-a-Homies are riding on the momentum of defeating Fragophilia Gaming. Caspian had a remarkably low 11 deaths in the course of 56 minutes, which is quite the feat. This is a burden lifted off of Rent-a-Homies' shoulders, as it frees up serv0 to play more aggressively, knowing that his team is able to keep the medic safe if necessary. In his debut in IM, serv0 seems to be one of the most effective pockets I've seen, making use of his generous heals to consistently put out damage. Nomadic will also be a present thorn in the side of Dragonball Jav, hitting every pipe and acting like a pocket demo when serv0 decides to jump in aggressively. While individual DM is important, I believe it is the strength of the pushes that will make or break teams on this map. Dragonball Jav has some of the strongest DM in IM, but as we saw in their metalworks match, their pushes seemed lacking and they would usually drop a player or overcommit. Rent-a-Homies seem convicingly strong on granary and I believe they'll want blood for their last match against Dragonball Jav that ended so anti-climatically. 5-4 in favor of Rent-a-Homies.

Players to watch: serv0, Nomadic, nja, Tone-Pot

6cuties (#4) vs sals canal (#3)

• Sakura
• r1cky
• Remedy
• pharoah
• Br0nze
• snailboat

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

Sal's Canal managed to scrape out a 5-3 win against Story Time with Marxist last week, and while they did manage to come away with the victory it was much less dominant of a showing than one would have expected a few weeks ago. Sal's Canal really doesn't seem to be playing as well as they were earlier on in the season; I'm not sure if it's to be attributed to their namesake's temporary absence earlier on in the season or if (as rumor has it) that they already have plans of breaking up, but they really don't have the same threatening character from earlier this season. I'm predicting 6cuties to win this 5-2 unless SS goes nuts.

Players to watch: zZa, pharoah, r1cky, SS