That sucks and right at playoffs too.

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quick set of preds for tonight

UP vs AG

big upset win for UP, after yet again another roster switch between owl/slin. The AG/remains match went much closer than i expected. I thought AG would win more convincingly tbh, but they proved to struggle out with the win regardless. With a renewed confidence, i see UP pulling out another win over AG in a close match.

LH vs Yomies

As expected, LH scouts did work in their match vs GoT. From what i saw, their heavies played more coordinated which LH will need against the top seeded teams. Yomies heavies did what i expected - heavy damage and lots of frags which just seemed to overwhelm MG at times. With granary being a more soldier friendly map, this could make for some interesting mids. In the end though, not many teams have found a solution to LH's +forward / meatshot heavy scouts. I see this one ending in a 5-3 game for LH. There is literally no reason why the hearts shouldn't be in the lower bracket final...they may even be the team that causes a massive upset in grands as they have been beating us and meat in scrims recently.

Meat vs qf

Meat stepped it up even with a roster change and dominated over FS more-so than i thought. Goes to show why they are the #1 team. Regardless of the outcome of this match, i fully expect to see them in grand finals. We had a rather messy match with the buds. I don't think either team was really prepared. Metalworks is by far our worse map, and to be honest i don't know if the buds even scrimmed on it. It was pretty much a dm fest for an hour. I wouldn't say either team really played up to their potential, and they had a medic ringer which is probably the hardest class to have as a sub. Luckily we squeaked out the Win in a match that could have easily gone the other way.

For this match, overall we have more experience on Granary individually, but Meat seems to be the up and coming team, and they are hungry to keep their perfect season alive. The ball is in their court here, so i give them the advantage. Also if we lose i expect blink to become vegan and go off on anti-meat hate rants.

Meat has too much protein it'd never happen.

I'm really, really excited to watch budsquad vs lonely hearts

that game should be incredible

shoutout to key

I would have called for a Lonely Hearts upset, if it wasn't for the fact it's a koth map. If they do auzzie/seanbud on scout vs romeo/sherman that will be insane to watch. The wildcard is how LH will deal with a sniper on such a sniper friendly map. I'll do a full set of preds for next weeks matches over the weekend.

if invizible plays again he's a fucking monster sniper as well, but idk if hes playing or not.

oh man, seeing that scout matchup would be sick

auzzie is one of the most underrated players in open for sure

powah's team cant lose viaduct

it's coalplant though. also lonely hearts seemed fairly strong on coalplant during the season, had a very close game vs meat.

If that's true, they could go that route as a definite option. I didn't even know who invizible was until last night...romeo said he's pretty much a pub scout that has never played comp (corrected by freakin's post below). I'd say he had a pretty impressive debut. Still i would much faster bench one of their soldiers, as making Sherman sit out would be crazy since he's their best player.

not exactly true...
http://play.esea.net/users/380804?tab=history

Inviz was just a backup that filled in (and did amazing thanks inviz) sherman will be back for our match against budsquad.

awwwwwww ye! SGP kill 'em!

Woops I saw people talking about a sniper friendly koth map and assumed they were talking about viaduct.

haha thanks bro. always looked forward to your power rankings :(

Preds for tomorrow night:

UP vs Flash Sharks

UP yet again come out with a huge win, and this time by an even more impressive margin. freestate went beast mode the last 2 matches putting up huge numbers, with sin not far behind almost achieving his final form. When heavies do this much work it makes a world of difference for the rest of the team, and allows them to pretty much single out targets and pick them off...which is exactly what they've been doing. Flash lost to the meat market, which wasn't a huge shock..it was the fact they lost 4-1 that surprised me. They have been doing great in scrims lately, and it's not like they got thoroughly outplayed (kills and dmg were super close). This was just one of those matches where meat markets blobbing & baiting ability overwhelmed them. A good lesson to be learned for going forward. For this match, they need to keep block alive and let him do his thing - especially on a mid like coal plant. Their scouts can really capitalize and make a mess of things if they can play around him and not let him die. I expect flash sharks to make a rebound this time and put an end to the UP comeback dream. 4-2 Flash sharks

lonely hearts vs. budsquad - MATCH OF THE WEEK / REMAINDER OF OPEN PLAYOFFS

lonely hearts continue their journey back through the lower bracket with a solid win off the yomies. With a gluckless roster, they had a scary first half which saw them quickly going down 0-3. Someone must have gave a hell of a half time speech as the entire team came out possessed. Just as easy as they got wiped the first half, they sloshed the yomies 5-0 in the 2nd. romeo started playing out of his mind, and backup scout invizible performed very well after an initial struggle. Their heavies also came through putting up some nice dmg numbers and making some solid picks. I've been saying this for a while, but lonely hearts are the most solid team in open. They've been beating everyone in scrims including beating the top IM & Main teams. There is no reason they shouldn't make it to the finals - they just simply need to play as a team and stop making rambo frag video plays.

the buds took a loss to a very crappy match on metalworks. Both qf and buds did not look anywhere near as good as they could have played...with odd wipes happening on both sides, players out of position everywhere, and some unfortunate connection issues at the end. It was pretty much a 60 minute dm shitfest. To add insult to injury, they lost to a back cap...what kind of good looking dickhead does that?? Anyways, this is the perfect rebound map for the buds playstyle. They will be able to abuse the powah factor if they can protect him properly. I see no reason why they wouldn't run sean scout with auzzie since he will be way more effective as proven on viaduct earlier in the season. cyzer will need to be less aggressive to prevent getting picked. He simply needs to let others make plays off his huge dmg, which he has been very consistent at all season. However, they need to figure out a way to contain the shermanator/romeo combo...and if they think it's by powah's sniping they may be in for a bit of a wake up call, as sherm himself is a beast of a sniper.

Interesting side note - if Lonely Hearts win, they will then most likely play flash sharks, meat, then qf... giving them redemption shots at the teams that beat them this season. To go along with that...if the buds win they'll also (mostly likely) face the same 3 teams, which are also the only teams that beat them as well. This would allow either team to come full circle and exact revenge to win the title.

I really hope someone casts this, if not i may have to make a twitch acct just to do it myself. This will be a crazy match with some incredible plays from the top players in open - however, i just see loenly hearts squeaking this one out as they seem to REAALLLY want to prove themselves as the top contender. 4-3 Lonely Hearts.

Can't wait for tomorrow.

slin is back for UP, should be a pretty good match.

looks like seanbud will be on scout against LH. Gonna be a crazy game. I think that normally having that kind of experience and skill on scout would be enough to put the buds over the edge, but I have a good feeling about Lonely Hearts in this match. Not sure what it is exactly, but I think noobies is gonna have a huge day and CJ + SGP will disrupt the budsquad cohesion just enough to pull out a win. 4-3 Lonely Hearts

In the other match, you've got a TON of talent in the heavy classes going head to head. On one side there's my pick for best demo, block, flanked by the very experienced and talented cprice. However, UP may have the counter to that in Freestate and Sincostan, two former Xbox TF2 players who just so happen to be two of the best soldiers in the division. If this were a 5cp map, I'd honestly give UP the edge in this one (they destroyed Flash Sharks 5-0 on snakewater week), but coalplant is king of the hill, and I just don't see a solid counter to block's wall of damage. Shoutouts to key and raytek and fury too. 4-1 Flash Sharks

does anyone know what the actual match time will be for the buds vs lonely hearts? if its late enough i would like to cast this game tonight, but the match page is fucked up or something on esea. if its at 6:30p PST it might be a little too early :(

also: This isn't the first time that Lonely Hearts have come back in the second half. I would even go so far to say that their first half play looks like they're still warming up, and then when the second half hits they are transformed. needless to say, nobody should feel safe going into the second half even with 3 rounds in the books against this team.

SGP, whats the word? when is this shindig goin down?

london, i'll co-cast with you if you would like a partner.

According to the bracket it's 9:30 i believe

http://play.esea.net/index.php?s=league&d=bracket&id=5344

s

^^^
this fuckin bitch baited me into a thread from like 2013

if anyone wants a playoff boost before rosters lock (idk if they did), im an attack engie main

HMU to win big