Sorry for the lack of power rankings this week! Next week we will continue to boost your fragile egos by giving you an arbitrary ranking and short videos of you clicking on someone in a video game that’s been out for 8 years. Several STVs were broken, which didn't let me watch some of the closer matches last week, but the results were actually pretty predictable.

But lets talk about the big picture as a whole. This season started off looking like it would have the lowest skill ceiling from just about any season in recent memory for Intermediate. While I still think this is true, what it has produced is a tumultuous group of teams that are constantly at odds with eachother, and incredibly competitive. Cafe Monster and Meat Market continue to stay at the top of the division, with the no-scrim team Small and Soft and Mad Lux – Gold nipping at their heals. Outside of these four teams, the bottom four of IM is still a giant question mark. Champagne and Cocaine and Hate Being Sober have put up some very close games all season, but have yet to really play anyone in the top 4 yet. Corsa has emerged as a stand out player for Hate Being Sober, putting up some crazy amounts of frags and insane damage. The rest of his team is somewhat shadowed by his incredible performance, but the heavy classes have also been a very consistent presence in every one of their games so far this season.

Champagne and Cocaine is a team that’s had their fair share of ups and downs throughout their first season outside of Open, with a bunch of roster shakeups in the past few weeks. They have seen 4 different roamers so far this season, and have just picked up Waldo after losing Huck. Sezco joins up to replace Ninjax, who had to take the rest of the season off for school and real life stuff. Despite all these changes which might have caused some difficulty for other teams, C&C continues to have close games with pretty much all the teams in top 8. Muma and SleepingLife have both been standout players on this team, alongside the legendary DOLPHIN RIDER. I see them as the core of the team, which explains a lot to why they've stayed consistent throughout the season Right now, they and Hate Being Sober are both iconic middle of the pack teams and will probably stay there for the rest of the regular season. Come playoffs, we'll see how it all plays out, because either of these teams could turn an impending close loss into a win.

As for the last two spots in the top 8 come the regular season, I have a few reservations. At this point, I would be pretty surprised if sparkle bunniis lose another match the rest of the season with the way they've been playing lately. While their record may actually let them seed higher as other teams play the top 4 teams in the division and soak up some losses, the rest of their season looks like it should be alright, with the exception of the match against Hate Being Sober. They will still have to play a few more teams that will cause some issues for them, but ultimately this team will be making playoffs in my opinion.

The other 3 teams I see in the bubble right now have some very cloudy futures. MAD LUXURIOUS – BLUE are up to 4 losses this season, and are looking at a challenging gullywash week after a disappointing viaduct week. Both Mad Lux teams will be facing eachother this week, and to my mind this presents an opportunity to actually secure a playoff position for them. With just one win this week, this would mean they could go into sunshine week 7-5 instead of 6-6, which would actually guarantee a spot in the top 8 by the end of the season. Typically, 8-8 should be the cut off with a division of only 16 teams, give or take rounds for or against. Even so, Mad Lux Blue is probably in the best position right now as far as securing one of those last two spots. I THOUGHT SHE WAS 18 is in a less admirable position, albeit with the same record as Mad Lux Blue currently. I would give them the edge over pretty much any team in the bottom half of IM, although whether they can do better than taking a couple rounds off of the top 8 teams remains to be seen, as they have not won a match against other teams in the top 8 except for last week against bearded clams.

I've lost a lot of faith in the clams, and it looks like the team has just been mixing up players left and right all season long. Fragg returned last week to play in the game against Pizzagon eSports but its unknown if he is going to come back to play for the team permanently. For all intents and purposes, I don't see this team making playoffs against sparkle bunniis, MAD LUX BLUE, or Phlp's and crew. The end of the season is going to be about seeing some preview matches with teams that have all but made playoffs, and seeing how these 4 teams interact with each other to fight for the last 2 spots in IM playoffs.

To all the teams that feel slighted that they weren't really talked about, EVL is doing a cast this week that will showcase a match that will surely be a pleasure to watch, even if the teams aren't really some of the better ones in the division. Check it out! And remember: