Borneo has come and passed, and hopefully the upcoming weeks won't be as lopsided anymore. Viaduct has arrived, and with it the joy of Snipers and Demomen everywhere. Viaduct has been played for the longest of times, and enjoys a consistent spot in both the regular season and in playoffs. This week, we should see fairly interesting games, as the map and strategy are well known, but there is enough room for variation and experimentation that not all matches will look like clones of one another.

Week 3 Results

As stated last week, this was probably the weakest matchup of the season. Even the one highlight match, '92 Dream Team vs Just Kidding!, was thrown off significantly by Duwatna joining jk!'s roster to play on Monday for them. While '92 put up a valiant fight despite the 2-0 loss, it gave them a bit more legitimacy as a team competing for playoffs.

On the bright side, Hateful Eight + Decimate has recovered from their Week 1 loss, after spending a couple of matches climbing over mtn. (I am not typing out their full name.) and •aMw•. Now they're back in the upper matchups of Platinum, giving them the chance to directly compete with the teams who will be gunning to take the same seeds that H8 will want.

The next few weeks will be crucial for some of the lower teams that will want to grab one of the playoff spots. While mTs, H8, knd., bote and jk! all are fairly secure in their likely playoffs spot, that leaves three spots to the rest of the eight teams in Platinum, four of which are all 'likely' candidates for the spot - Tree Forest 2, Chill Penguins, '92 Dream Team, and A Million Ways.

Week 4 Matchups

Kids Next Door vs bote

This is the final matchup of undefeated teams. Both are 3-0 as of now, and that isn't just luck of the draw. knd. have faced mTs, and bote have faced Just Kidding and the now dead DRS. Kids Next Door have proved themselves on Viaduct before against Ginyu Force last season, and being a new team, bote has question marks over their skill at KOTH maps. On paper, the matchup seems fairly even, Skag vs Enderp, Freestate vs Ibby, brick vs Kresnik et cetra.

While bote does have advantages of their own, such as Corsa and a couple of 6s players who might feel at home on Viaduct (Hi Muma!), it's hard to see knd. not take this, although bote will not be a pushover. 4-2 in favor of Kids Next Door.

Just Kidding! vs Hateful Eight + Decimate

While, statistically, this should be a bit more lopsided than the previous match, it's the first match of Hateful Eight since Week 1 that will be against a team in direct competition with them. Just Kidding! is probably the lowest of that group, though, and as such h8 should expect a match where it's a bit less up in the air like a match against KND or MTS would be. Still, phAZE, b4nny, and blaze are all excellent performers on Viaduct, and the key to a jk! victory will be to shut those three down effectively. While the score might look lopsided, the match should be closer than the numbers entail. 4-1 in favor of Hateful Eight + Decimate.

The rest of the matches are less glamorous than the ones listed above, but will have some implications when it comes to matchups and the next couple of weeks. Menace To Society should pick up a win against Tree Forest, giving them a match against what will likely be bote next week. The winner of Chill Penguins vs Bring Your Esports will find themselves playing jk!. A loss for BYE would spell serious problems for a chance at sneaking into playoffs. A loss for Chill Penguins would come as a shock for a fair few players, both on their team and not, and cause some possible shakeups in lower Plat depending on how the actual match played out. A Million Ways and '92 Dream Team should pick up victories against Wu Tang Killa Bees and mtn., giving them the score to begin playing against the other teams that will be competing for those final three spots.

Upcoming Weeks

Upper Plat is fairly solid already at this point, with a generally solid expectation of the top 5 seeds when playoffs roll around. The rest of Platinum is still shaky, as some predictions are based on little evidence. For all anyone knows, •aMw• could have huge problems in the remainder of the season and not make playoffs, despite the win against DRS giving them the tentative 'poking top Plat' spot. '92 Dream Team has still yet to face a team that will give them a match where information can be gleaned. Tree Forest and Chill Penguins are holding on to their playoff seeds (4 and 7, respectively), but neither of them have won against teams who would be likely gunning for those spots.

Over the next two weeks, on Steel and Sunshine, we should hopefully see mid and lower Platinum even out. Once the question marks are cleared out, it'll be a lot easier to predict who'll land where at the end of the playoffs.