The season is starting to heat up quickly as we begin to close out the halfway mark, with upset wins pretty much happening every week and the ever present Open drama. The good thing for me is that at least the top 5 is more or less intact, although I expect a shuffle after badlands week once again. This week, there will only be a small shuffle with a ripe opportunity for our bubble teams to snag their spots in the top 16. That may be a lot easier this season, a few 9-7 teams should make it in the last few spots, as the top 16 would essentially be half of the division. With that said, nobody can relax until they've secured 11 wins to their names.

• bunny
• hero
• kent
• blew
• oobii
• gls

While their matches weren't anything to really remark upon, the drama that has gone down in the Sparkle Bunnies camp is juicy to say the least. Lydi gets cut last week without a replacement in mind, although it appears that BLACKYMONSTER and Bunny have both joined the roster, with the intention that Bunny will start. A pastebin was revealed to me over the weekend with one side of the story (you can find it yourself, or just wait for John Milter to post it somewhere) where this statement rings out to me: "I'm expected to play perfectly 100% of the time, comm every advantage 5 million times, but they're allowed to make the dumbest decisions because "we're going to out DM every team anyway". While I could relate to this as someone who has spent way too much time playing medic because I'm bad at this game, after watching some of their scrims and matches I couldn't help but see this as only a half truth. Apparently, Hero was tired of being dropped at important times and the team was trying to help correct the mistakes but like that Linkin Park song, in the end it doesn't even matter. Eldritch will be filling in for one match this week for Bunny, and then Bunny will be the new mascot for the team.

• KBlair
• scrimshaw
• Geknaiir
• Skyrolla
• aiirrrrr
• neozius

Airheads will be sittin' pretty for the next two weeks, mostly playing teams that are scraping the bottom of the barrel in the Open food chain thus far. Until they play 5 queers and Topshot, their undefeated record will be intact until the latter half of their season where they will play just about all the teams in the top 10. Their match against Cloud 9 will be somewhat interesting to watch, maybe to watch C9 grab a round or two before succumbing to the Airhead scouts. Until next week, Airheads will have smooth sailing to closer clinch their playoff seed.

• TWSS
• Phelon
• Paul
• Hippo
• NateRivers
• Mangoes

Graveguns Aneurysm had a couple bumpy games last week, but to be honest it didn't appear that the end result was ever in doubt during both games. Nate and Power Mangoes continue to wreck their way through Open, although at times it just seems like Nate is just holding down W and taking every fight he can, which is only somewhat effective against teams that aren't prepared for it. They dropped 3 rounds to hi open, mostly just because it took them a few rounds to figure out mids. Once they started winning them, it was a matter of holding it together during transitions, although a few mistakes here and there eventually led to them dropping one more round.This week they will have only one badlands match against Hungry Hungry Ogres, where I expect more of the same kind of results by dropping a few rounds here and there but eventually coming out on top. Hippo and crew are only a few wins away from locking down their spot for the post season, which will be good when they start playing teams they can't just out DM. The rest of the season looks pretty well rounded, though not without challenges. I'll give a soft prediction that they'll end up 12-4 at the end of the season.

• Cloudmaker
• Deathy
• Chunkey
• zambler
• Nick
• Crunkmaster

Pinoy Boys had a little more trouble with their opponents than I thought they would, but still came out on top. They will be one of five teams still undefeated going into badlands week, but like Highlander (the horrible movie not the horrible competitive format) there can only be one undefeated team (if any). I've had a good time watching this team this season and seeing how they play, and rest assured I'll be paying attention to both of their badlands matches as they prepare to defend their spot on the rankings. Their first match against Do It for Bill will be the MOTW, and their second match will be against Cake Dough Cheddar. This will be Cake Dough Cheddar's first real challenge of the season, and I expect this match to be closer than some might think. Pinoy Boys will have to shut down Jaybenaduchi and Dance from doing their thing if they want to win their fights, and in the end I expect to see a 5-3 score with Pinoy Boys coming out on top.

• Caboose
• Tidy
• Anthony500
• James.Shocka
• Antwan
• Nevdawg88

Off Top had a pretty fun week last week, Caboose ended up switching with his roamer Anthony after the first round of their match against Do It for Bill because of some crazy latency problem that caused them to lose a cut and dried last push. From then on, I can only imagine Caboose having a great time with some pretty funny blunders, although he definitely made some plays as well including a nice backstab drop onto Nursey. Anthony did ok as medic, only getting caught out a few times, and despite the team having to switch people around in the middle of the match they came out on top 5-3. Antwan and Nev seem to be clicking with the rest of the team, which is just a nice way of saying they're both capping a lot of points and cleaning up a lot of kills. Its not necessarily a bad thing. This week they'll be the next team that will have an opportunity to try to kill Bsc's team, and then play a bubble team, I Tried Mom. I Tried Mom is currently 4-2 as well, putting them in a good position to try and steal an upset here. Bolt is a decent demo that appears to be the teams MVP, but up against James Shocka and Tidy he will have his work cut out for him. In other news, Caboose may not continue to play with Off Top due to some real life stuff coming up, but who they will pick up to replace him is still unknown.

• nursey
• despite
• connor
• safrix
• bowswer5
• trip

Nursey and the boys had two exciting games last week that both ended with 5-3 results, a loss and a win. I was impressed with how they played against Off Top, although they were playing with some funky roster changes at the time. Their win over Hans Fan Group last night was a thing of legends, taking four rounds back to back in the second half after being down 3-1 at the end of the first. Its hard to tell what changed really, but whatever it was Do It for Bill were quick to take advantage of it. The scouts played especially well, although Bill and Safrix were no slouches either when it came down to damage. At this point, I would consider Bill to be in the running for best pocket award this season, but it will be stiff competition with Tidy and Deathy also in that category. This week they should have a smooth win over Gangstas with Waifus, and then on to what will be the Match of the Week against Pinoy Boys, which I'll cover later.

• Tery_iS
• bsc
• defiance
• seymoo
• hyphen
• tooth

My apologies to Lady Defiance for putting stinky Vortex in her place in the roster list, I meant to change it and then just didn't. Hans Fan Group will be playing Off Top and Champagne and Cocaine this week, which to me speaks of a win and a loss. If Off Top doesn't have their roster issues all figured out, Bsc and friends could very well grab a win from them but even then, the match will be very close. Their match against Champagne and Cocaine should be cut and dried (heh) but after last week I'm not so sure. Perhaps C&C (not command and conquer) can come up with another upset win this week after beating Boys Anus Smell Bottle? Somehow that doesn't seem likely but I've been surprised before. The end of the season doesn't look too bad, so it looks like Bsc can breathe easy as his team survivability looks plausible till playoffs at least.

• velma
• topshot
• ctrlfmuffin
• remedy
• seymour
• miwo

Remedy and his band of....people continue to roll through the bottom of Open, grabbing a couple forfeit wins on the way to their first challenge of the season against Boys Anus Smell Bottle. I just imagine these two rival groups of anime watchers assembling in a field somewhere to wack each other with TF2 weapons made out of styrophoam. The battle between to decide who the bigger nerds are might be good, although I'm not sure how Clorg and company are coping with their recent performances. I'll take a shot in the dark and say 5 Queers takes the match 5-3.

• cMw
• Jaybenaduchi
• Hellbent
• Lucrative
• Fox
• DanceNumber

Cake Dough Cheddar are becoming a threat to their contenders in the top 10, but won't have to face most of them until the post season from the looks of their schedule. This week they will have a chance to upset Pinoy Boys in what has the potential to be a great match, as I think the soldiers for Cake are going to do some work. At some point, I would like to see Fox sniping, which could make for some very entertaining play, like watching a frag movie happen in real time. Dance has been looking pretty solid, putting up some decent numbers in their last couple matches. They'll have to play tight in order to take any rounds off of Pinoy Boys, but if they can shut down Zambler at mids and commit their ubers at the right time during transitions we could see a win here. The rest of the season schedule pretty much guarantees a playoff spot for Cake Dough Cheddar, although what record they end up with could be anywhere between 10-6 and 12-4.

• CHE
• Testify
• BroKing
• Clorg
• Monkey Suit
• Marquee

The name should have been Boys Beef Smell Bottle after Clorg and friends lost to a team that was not really on my radar until last week. All jokes aside, the team did not look like they were playing up to their normal standard, with CHE dying in some really unfortunate situations and dropping a few ubers when he should have...well, popped it. He wasn't the only one to make mistakes, as the whole team pretty much made Super look good during the first half. They started to bring it back during the second, but it was a too little too late. Blame Monkey Suit for cursing your team and move on. Badlands week will be interesting, as long as they don't have a repeat of last weeks performance against 5 queers and Topshot. The rest of their schedule is mixed, but I would say each match up is winnable for the team as long as they don't break up. This is just a minor setback, and I expect to see the Boys bounce back relatively quickly.

• Champange and Cocaine
• Hotel Moskau
• Donkey Kong
• 1 Thousand MPH Ass
• dddddddddddddddddddddddd

• Cloudmaker
• Deathy
• Chunkey
• zambler
• Nick
• Crunkmaster

• nursey
• despite
• connor
• safrix
• bowswer5
• trip

There is no rest for the weary as Do It for Bill heads into another close match up against Pinoy Boys. Fun fact, Do It for Bill was one of the few teams consistently beating Pinoy in preseason scrims, but so much has changed since then. Zambler will be a very commanding presence on mids, and with some solid bombs by Chunkey and Deathy, it makes for a simple and effective tactic. Even if they don't, Crunkmaster Flex is there to clean up the damage. “Despite” all the relative strengths of the Pinoy Boys, Bill is a pocket with some very crisp DM, and the rest of his team makes a habit to play around him. Nursey is one of the better medics in Open at the moment, and with heavy classes that are similar in skill level, that could be the thing that tips the scales. At a flip of a coin, I predict Do It for Bill to take the win 5-4.

Players to Watch:Deathy, Zambler, Despite, Trip