The end of the regular season is here, and for most teams in IM its not all that exciting of a time. Seeds in IM playoffs mean less and less when most of the teams can take rounds and matches off of each other depending on the map and certain conditions. Blockback is poised to take a perfect season with only two matches left. Goldman Sachs has all but clinched their playoff spot but they aren't out of the water quite yet. The Yomies continue to surprise everyone with their tenacity and close games. Rave has made a return to N2P, and instantly the team dynamic has changed, but who knows for how long? This has been one of the few times I've been able to write for IM, and I have to say its been a pleasure playing and watching these teams play. Great season, everyone! Good luck in playoffs!

• Erika
• TicTack
• Cbn
• Block
• Newspeak
• Freestate

Blockback Mountain has had one of the smoothest seasons of many IM teams. They are securely in first place with only dropping 10 rounds total the whole season so far, and unless something untoward happens to them in their last two matches of the season, they'll probably stay at first until the post season. Their last two matches will be against The Grime and Satan Take the Wheel on snakewater. The Grime is pretty much out of the running to make the top 8, so even if they play the game of their lives and beat Blockback, it still won't matter in the grand scheme. Satan Take the Wheel is coming off a big upset win from Cisco Adlers Balls last week, and have some potential to pull off an upset here but kind of unlikely. This team isn't unbeatable if you can figure out how to play against them, but they are very good at what they do and propagating their style of play. At the very least, I would expect this team to be in the Invite poll at the end of the season, and its a pretty safe bet this roster will go up to the big show next season. Good luck, everyone!

• dbw
• Tri
• Boink
• Cosa
• Kapow
• Schnell

The scatter school was absent from their most recent match against Satan Take the Wheel, and unfortunately it cost them. Sal was ringing for Kapow, and honestly he didn't do bad at all. The team made some crucial mistakes during transitions when they were able to take mid, usually committing their uber in places that were not very ideal. Big plays were made by both teams, and the last round was very back and forth, but in the end a clutch headshot onto Cosa sealed the deal for Satan Take the Wheel. At this point, it won't change their seed at all though, but another loss to Satan could drop them to third or fourth seed . Both of the matches they will play on snakewater are against wildcard teams, as both the Yomies and Satan have proven they are solid teams but not quite as consistent as they may want to be. Dbw has improved greatly now that she is in the States and isn't debilitated by latency, and Tri is a god. The trend with this team seems to be that if they don't have their starters, some key thing is missing and the match is harder to win, but with their full six Cisco Adlers Balls could beat just about anybody in IM.

• rchl
• Smile
• GBB
• Xan
• Stochast1c
• silkthread

Their match against Cisco Adler I already spoke to at length, but I would just like to highlight how well Smile and Xan did during this match. Smile's DM won his team so many fights over the course of this match, and sunshine is not usually very friendly to soldiers all that often. Xan did massive damage as well, and in one instance saved his team a round by getting a miracle pop after a failed last push. I would say this team has improved the most from last season out of any team in IM, but the Yomies have also gotten really good this season as well, so its a toss up as to who has come farther this season (probably Satan Take the Wheel). Their final two matches will be against Blockback Mountain, who they hope to take an upset win off of and ruin a perfect season, and hopefully a repeat performance against Cisco Adlers Balls. Good luck to y'all in playoffs, its been fun watching this team play so far.

• London
• Doll
• Lunacide
• Conductor
• Kev
• zZa

get fucked, pangy.

• Jodd
• BlueberryVillain
• Rekuso
• JDMYoshioka
• Downpour
• River

The match against Blockback ended in some pretty predictable results (5-1) and God Complex had little trouble with Fantazzmagazzlers with a 5-2 victory. Blueberry and the boys have had a solid season with a few big wins here and there, and some disappointing losses. Rekuso is in the running for best roamer this season, and with some stiff competition in the division full of decent roamers its taken a lot to stand out. Their snakewater matches will both be close, I'm most interested in how well they will play against Yomies and the Goldman Sachs match will be the Match of the Week. The Yomies have had their ups and downs, and this match could go either way. I'll leave the write up to Pangy for their match against Goldman Sachs. Even if they lose both matches somehow, God Complex will still make playoffs pretty much no matter what at this point. Blueberry and Yoshioka have been the core of this team, and its been cool to see them rebuild into a formidable team this season. Jodd in particular has played well this season with the team, as well as Rekuso and Downpour. River I've seen play all over the place, but more often than not he's done well in the last couple weeks. Its a little strange to think that I first met Blueberry in a pub community so long ago, but also pretty neat at the same time. Good luck, guys.

• Zilly
• CJ
• Yeremy
• Saint
• scizor
• pangy

The Yomies can come back so hard in the second half of their matches, and its made for some very close matches this season. Whats scary is that all of these matches were entirely winnable for them, but if Pangy just could stop throwing they would win. Their match against Japanifest Destiny was really exciting, and probably the most fun I've had playing a match this season. I'm hoping to see some crazy upset wins this last week from the Yomies, and for sure will expect something crazy to happen during the post season. CJ and Saint have been really impressive the last couple weeks, but if Pangy wasn't so horrible they would probably have a better record. Anyway, if they grab at least one more win this week they won't be in 8th place, but two losses could mean they are smack dab in the last place and will have to play Block the first round of the post season. I'm predicting that this was their plan all along and that they beat Block's team round 1. A little far fetched, but one can dream right?

• Raveri
• Raveachu
• PurpleRave
• Ravesca
• RavestinePZ
• Rave

N2P brought back Rave for a week and won both of their matches. Is this a coincidence? Perhaps. Goldman Sachs got 5-0'd pretty quickly by N2P, with Mangachu going pretty ham throughout the match. The end of the season was pretty much during sunshine week, as their last match will be against the Grime, where the results don't matter as far as making playoffs go. This team will do well enough during playoffs, and might make it pretty far, but I'm not sure if they'll do all that well further up the ladder. In the meantime, enjoy this highlight from their last match.

• MR SLIN
• Goldfish
• Zigzter
• Hooli
• Devon
• Jav

The dream is still alive for Goldman Sachs, but if they beef it theres a small chance they might not make it. Basically, unless Subspace has to 5-0 Fantazzmagazzlers in their last match, and Goldman Sachs would have to lose both of their final matches in order to kill the dream. If Slin and the boys can beat God Complex, it would mean that they could clinche their spot and get some much needed revenge. I'll leave the pred up to wonderkid Pangy in the MOTW. This team has had a rollercoaster of a season, and I'm honestly not sure if they will stay together after this season, but it would be a shame if they didn't. For as much flak as they have gotten from certain members of the community, I think that if they decide to stay together another season their dream of being promoted up to Invite might not be as unreachable as some people think. Its been a pleasure watching this team, as I'm pretty sure I've watching more Goldman Sachs matches than any other team. I should make a documentary or something equally stupid.

• MR SLIN
• Goldfish
• zigzter
• Hooli
• Devon
• Jav

• jodd
• BlueberryVillain
• Rekuso
• JDMYoshioka
• River
• Downpour

by Pangy, age 67

For this prediction I'm going analyze both teams and use my brain to make a prediction. But before I start I just want to say that I think Slin is guaranteed a spot in playoffs. Yay!!! For my analysis, I'm going to start with the medics. I looked through all the games for God Complex and found that jodd has had a total of 11 drops this season. At this time I don’t feel like looking through all of Goldman Sachs matches but we all know Slin is going to have more drops so it doesn't matter. 1 point to God Complex. Now for the pockets! I’m not sure how Blueberry plays but after looking through his stats it seems he’s a consistent pocket. But I don't think he’s as good as goldfish, a man who makes plays and gives orders. 1 point to Goldman Sachs. Time for the demomen. I really like Yoshi so I’m just going to give this point over to God Complex. I'm actually just going to stop this analysis right now because I’m getting really disappointed in my transitions. God Complex beat Slin before on last weeks map, viaduct. They had broking which could be a good or bad thing, I dont know. I predict a 5-4 to Mister Slin unless he drops. I just really like Slin :).

Players to Watch: Rekuso, Downpour, Goldfish, Jav